To be eligible for the Pennsylvania Middle School Basketball Championship, all teams must first qualify at a weekend tournament, through their qualifier league, or in some cases via an At Large Bid.  View List of Qualifier Tourneys and Leagues.

All teams must also meet the Eligibility Rules below and provide required player documentation before championship play.  GRANDFATHERED PLAYERS:  Any player who participated in a prior State championship tournament 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 2026.

Team Eligibility Rules

1. Team Representative.  Each team must appoint a team representative, for example a coach or team manager. The team representative is responsible for submitting all player eligibility information (listed below) and tracking the team's approval status via the team's online Event Connect Registration account.

2. Grade Level.  If a team is comprised of students in multiple grade levels, that team must play at State in the grade of the player in the highest grade level.  For example, if a team is comprised of nine 6th graders and one 7th grader, then the team must play at the 7th grade level. The State Tourney is a grade based tourney not age based. 

3. School/Township requirement.    
Teams must be comprised of players who meet one of the following:

(a) Same High School boundary team:  A team of players who all live within the same public high school boundary.  To meet this test, the Team Representative must provide report cards, progress reports or online student information that show the players name, grade, current school year, and school district. If the school district has multiple high schools than the document must show home address(i.e. via parents utility or cable bill).  Parents may take a picture or make a copy of a report card/progress report and black out any of the grade performance information for privacy reasons. 

(b) Same Elementary or Middle School team:  A team of players who attend the same elementary or middle school. To meet this test, the Team Representative must provide report cards, progress reports or online student information that show the players name, grade, current school year and school name

(c) Same Township team: A team of players in a densely populated area that is looked at based on the geographic radius of its players’ home addresses.  These teams are viewed as representing a small township, borough or neighborhood. To meet this test, the Team Representative must provide report cards, progress reports or online student information that show the players name, grade, current school year, and home address. If the document does not show home address than an additional document can be used to show home address(i.e. via parents utility or cable bill).  

Player exceptions may be granted by the State Eligibility Committee on a case by case basis.  In some cases teams must submit a Request for Player Exception form to the State Committee with pertinent details and receive approval for the exception before that player is eligible to compete at State.

This event is independently operated, and the Committee uses its discretion to make eligibility rulings on players and rosters in alignment with the spirit of the tournament and to maintain competitive balance. By choosing to participate, you acknowledge and accept the Committee’s authority to make final eligibility decisions, including any approved exceptions.

4. Multi-team play.   A player may play for more than one team given that (a) the player is listed on both rosters and meets all eligibility rules, and (b) the teams are in different grades. A player cannot play for two teams in the same sub-division of the same grade, i.e. School Gold division and School Silver division.  Also a player who plays the majority of the regular season on a program's A/Gold Team is not permitted to play on that program's B/Silver team at the State Tournament. As noted in paragraph 2, a player may play up a grade but not down a grade. At the discretion of the Committee, certain exceptions to the multi team rules may be made. EX: A Gold team is short players due to injuries and must bring a Silver team player up(from the same program) to fill out the roster and be able to compete. 

5. Proof of Eligibility.  Immediately after registering and adding all players and parents info(name and phone #) to the Event Connect Roster the team representative can begin uploading proof of eligibility documents for non-grandfathered players. The documents can also be uploaded via the waiver that the parents fill out.  

POE Report Card Example (Click)
POE Desktop Student Profile Example (Click)
SPOE Mobile Student Profile Example (Click)

6. Individual Waiver Forms.  Each player(including grandfathered players) must have a parent or legal guardian complete an online Release of Liability Form.  The parent should receive an email from messages@eventconnect.io to fill out the waiver after the team representative adds their child to the roster. If the parent does not receive the waiver via email they can reach out to support@statebasketballchampionship.com to get the waiver link. 

Out of State teams teams are eligible to compete if 1) the state they hail from does not have a State Basketball Championship Tournament 2) they qualify at a Pennsylvania qualifier event and 3) they meet the school/township eligibility rules

The above eligibility rules apply to the Pennsylvania Middle School Basketball Championship only.