MHSAA football playoffs 2026: Selection Sunday is Oct. 25 at 5 p.m., new regional seeding, every round’s dates and the Ford Field finals schedule

Michigan high school football teams play their last regular-season games this weekend, and on Sunday night they find out who is still playing.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association will release full brackets for all eight 11-player divisions and both 8-player divisions during its “Sunday Selection Show” at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, streamed on the NFHS Network, the MHSAA said. Qualifiers and pairings go up on the MHSAA website when the show ends, and game dates and times are posted Monday, Oct. 26, at noon and 4:30 p.m.

What’s new: regional seeding. This is the first year of a new early-round format. Each 11-player division’s playoff field is first sorted into eight-team regionals. The eight teams in each regional are then seeded by playoff-point average, the MHSAA said. Seeds 1, 4, 5 and 8 form one district, and seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7 form the other. The two district champions meet in the regional final. That should keep a region’s top two teams apart until the regional final.

By our count from the MHSAA schedule, 128 district semifinal sites means 256 teams in the 11-player playoffs, or 32 per division.

11-player dates. District semifinals, Oct. 30–31, at 128 sites; district finals, Nov. 6–7, at 64 sites; and regional finals, Nov. 13–14, at 32 sites. The team with the higher regular-season playoff average hosts in each of those rounds. Semifinals are Nov. 21 at 16 neutral sites picked by the MHSAA.

Ford Field finals. Friday, Nov. 27: Division 8 at 9:30 a.m., Division 4 at 12:30 p.m., Division 6 at 4 p.m. and Division 2 at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28: Division 7 at 9:30 a.m., Division 3 at 12:30 p.m., Division 5 at 4 p.m. and Division 1 at 7 p.m. All eight finals stream on the NFHS Network.

8-player dates. Regional semifinals, Oct. 30–31; regional finals, Nov. 6–7; semifinals, Nov. 14; finals, Nov. 21.

Tickets and parking. Tickets are $8 for district games, $10 for regionals, $12 for semifinals and $20 for the finals. A finals ticket is good for all four games that day. Tickets for every round before the finals are sold online only, through GoFan; the link is on the MHSAA football page. Finals tickets are sold at the Ford Field gate or online through Ticketmaster. Parking in the Ford Field lots east and north of the stadium is $8 per car, and other nearby lots may charge more.

Streaming rules. Fans can post pregame, halftime and postgame video, but streaming live game action on social media is not allowed under MHSAA rules.

The MHSAA, based in East Lansing, says it takes no government funds or tax dollars and charges member schools no dues or tournament entry fees. Its tournaments draw more than 1.4 million spectators a year.

For more Detroit-area sports, see our Detroit page.

Sources:
Michigan High School Athletic Association, “2026 11-Player Football Playoffs” media information (round dates and sites, finals schedule, tickets, parking, Selection Show, website posting times, streaming rules), https://www.mhsaa.com/sites/default/files/Media/MediaTournamentInfo/RL26-11P-10-16.pdf
Michigan High School Athletic Association, “Football Playoff Regional Seeding Highlights Changes as MHSAA Fall Sports Begin,” Aug. 7, 2026 (seeding format, 8-player dates, funding), https://www.mhsaa.com/media/press-releases/football-playoff-regional-seeding-highlights-changes-mhsaa-fall-sports-begin
Michigan High School Athletic Association, Football page (ticket links), https://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football
Photo: HisConn, “SLHS and SLEHS faceoff 102822.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SLHS_and_SLEHS_faceoff_102822.jpg

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Tags: MHSAA Football Playoffs · High School Football · Selection Sunday · Ford Field · Detroit · Michigan Sports