IHSAA Completes Television Deal of its Sports Tournaments

(Boone, IA) — The Iowa High School Athletic Association on Wednesday announced the final plan to televise its athletic state tournaments for the 2025-26 season.  After previously announcing that Iowa PBS would cover the finals for football, basketball and wrestling, the IHSAA is partnering with TV stations across the state and area states both free and cable to televise the remainder of its sports championships. In the fall, this includes football semifinals  In the winter, it will be the wrestling duals, swimming finals, the wrestling semifinals and basketball quarterfinals and semifinals.  Spring sports included are the state track and field meet and soccer.  Finally, in the summer, all rounds of the baseball state tournament at both sites.

Atlantic is part of the Omaha television market and WOWT Channel 6 — the NBC affiliate — will be part of the network.  WHO TV out of Des Moines will also be part of the network along with the Marquee Sports Network and Channel MC22 on Mediacom.

“We’re thrilled to have tournament partners who will help us reach Iowa high school sports fans wherever they are and however they watch,” IHSAA executive director Tom Keating said, “Our debut broadcasts this fall will be a major step forward for easy and accessible coverage of IHSAA championships.”

The IHSAA did have a deal in the past with the IHSSN (Iowa High School Sports Network) but that deal expired after the baseball state tournament this summer.  The IHSAA had actually taken the IHSSN to court over its decision to charge a fee for the streaming of the broadcasts at multiple state tournaments.  The IHSSN appears to have gone out of business — the website has been taken offline.

These tournament partners will provide multiple options – over the air (OTA), over the top (OTT), and cable – for interested viewers. Through IHSAA-contracted video productions, the selected networks, channels, and apps of each tournament partner will feature events across seven sports and nine sites in the 2025-26 athletic year.

Tournament partners include:

• Gray Media
  • KCRG, Cedar Rapids
  • KTIV, Sioux City
  • KTTC, Rochester (MN)
  • KWQC, Davenport
  • KYOU, Ottumwa
  • WGEM, Quincy (IL)
  • WOWT, Omaha (NE)
  • North Star Sports (MN)
• Marquee Sports Network
• Mediacom
  • MC22
• Nexstar
  • WHO, Des Moines

Events on OTA partners (Gray, Nexstar) will primarily feature on Dash/Dot channels. IHSAA will announce local listings and additional viewing options as available.

For the complete How to Watch IHSAA events page, Click HERE