The Illinois High School Association announced Saturday night that the Class 7A and 8A championship games originally scheduled for Saturday and postponed have been moved to Wednesday at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

The Class 7A final between Brother Rice and St. Rita will be played at 3 p.m., followed by the Class 8A final between Oswego and Mount Carmel that will start at approximately 6 p.m.

This was an extension of the games that were moved off Saturday’s four-game schedule and postponed because of the winter storm that hit much of Illinois.

The Class 5A and 6A championship games were also postponed. It was announced Friday evening that those games would be played Tuesday at Illinois State University in Normal, with Wheaton St. Francis facing Providence at 3 p.m., followed by East St. Louis playing Fenwick at 6 p.m.

“We are incredibly thankful to NIU, the Huskie Athletic Department and the DeKalb community for welcoming back the IHSA Football State Finals on short notice,” IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said in a press release. “We had a wonderful state final experience in DeKalb over the course of a decade and have a relationship of hosting IHSA State Series events on campus that dates back even further. NIU’s partnership with the IHSA and support of high school student-athletes in Illinois has proven to be second to none.”

Illinois State had a scheduling conflict that wouldn’t allow for the Class 7A/8A games to be played at the site Wednesday.

“Illinois State was committed to hosting all eight state championship games if possible, but could not host the 7A and 8A title games until Thursday due to a scheduling conflict on Wednesday,” Anderson said in a release. “We did not want to further impact the schedules and routines of our competing teams, so NIU’s willingness to step up, especially given the geography of the competing teams, made this an easy decision.”

NIU hosted all eight IHSA state football title games in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. The IHSA had been hosting the games at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, but a bi-annual scheduling conflict arose and NIU stepped in to host. After the contracts in Champaign and DeKalb ended in 2022, the IHSA Board made the decision to return the title games to ISU, thanks in part to its central location, which had hosted the title games from 1974 to 1998.

“I appreciate the many constituents from across our campus who have stepped up to help the IHSA make this happen on short notice,” NIU Vice President/Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier said in a release. “We look forward to welcoming the state championships to DeKalb, NIU and Huskie Stadium on Wednesday and providing a first-class experience for all of those involved.”