WIAA Eight-Player Football Championship

media release: The fourth annual Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association 8-Player Football State Championship Final will be held Saturday, Nov. 12, at Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School at 1 p.m.

The WIAA uses GoFan Ticketing for all digital and cashless tickets. Admission is $11 plus online fees for adults and students. All tickets must be redeemed on a mobile device. To purchase tickets, visit the WIAA website at:  https://gofan.co/app/school/WIAAWI.

The 8-player football championship game will be streamed live on the WIAA.TV portal of the NFHS Network on a consumer subscription basis. To purchase a subscription to the live programming, log-on to www.wiaa.tv and click on the “Subscribe” link at the top of the page. Archived streams of the games will be available on demand on the NFHS Network 72 hours after the tournament with a subscription.

Defending champion Newman Catholic returns to the title game for the third consecutive season, not including 2020 when a championship game was not conducted because of COVID accommodations. In 2019, the Fighting Cardinals finished runner-up. They have qualified for the 8-player playoffs for the fourth time overall. Prior to sponsoring 8-player football, they made five 11-player playoff appearances and compiled a 2-5 record. Their furthest advance in the 11-player playoffs was to Level 3 in 2010. The Fighting Cardinals are the champions of the Central Conference this fall. They blanked Siren 35-0 in their Level 3 match-up to advance to the championship game.

Belmont advances to the championship game for the first time. The Braves have qualified for the playoffs three times. They advanced to Level 3 in 2019 and to Level 2 in 2021 before being eliminated from title contention. Belmont is the champion in the West Division of the Ridge & Valley 8-Player Football Conference this season. The Braves advanced to the title game following a 44-18 win over Wabeno/Laona in their Level 3 game. Belmont qualified 10 times when it sponsored 11-player football. Their most notable experience was a runner-up finish in Division 7 in 2003.