March 21, 22, 23  | 2025
Champaign-Urbana | Bloomington
Boys & Girls | Grades 4-8

The 8th Annual Illinois Middle School Basketball Championship is a qualifier-based tournament with two divisions (Club and School/Feeder) and features top competition from all corners of Illinois.

Game sites include the University of Illinois campus with 10 courts under one roof!

**Important Venues Information for 7th and 8th boys**

7th and 8th boys will play in the Bloomington area and all Semifinals and Championship games will be played on the main floor of the Shirk Center. This 2,400 arena is home of the Illinois Wesleyan University men's and women's teams and NCAA Division III basketball tournament games.  

NCAA rule prohibits 7th and 8th grade boys from performing on the campus of a D-1 university such as the UI's "The ARC", one of our tournament locations.  The NCAA considers these students as PSA, or "Prospective Student Athletes".

Click here to view our Venues page and read the full NCAA code.

The 2024 State Tournament featured teams from throughout Illinois offering fresh competition for all squads.  Players hailed from 332 zip codes and 260 hometowns across the state. Check out the map above with all of the hometowns represented at State! #SeeYouAtStateIL 

All team rosters are verified by the State Eligibility Committee prior to tournament play.  Last season, we reviewed 17,250 Proof of Eligibility documents!

GRANDFATHER EXCEPTION:  Any player who participated in a prior State tournament is automatically approved for 2023 play and does not need to re-submit Proof of Eligibility (POE) documents.  However, ALL players, returning or not, are required to have a new Parent/Guardian Waiver submitted for 2023.

State Reps attend many of our Qualifier Tournaments to award top teams with their Gold Ticket invitation to State.