The 1994 Illinois High School Association (IHSA) State Championship Tournaments ended the eighth State Championship Series conducted in Scholastic Bowl by the IHSA. It was the third season in which there were separate State Championship Tournaments held for small schools (Class A) and large schools (Class AA).
Advancement
In each class, the state was divided into 16 areas, termed in Illinois as Sectionals. Each sectional hosted a tournament, the winner of which advanced to the State Championship Tournament. The determination of these geographic boundaries was arbitrarily decided by the IHSA Office.
Tournament Format
Each round was comprised of 30 toss-ups and accompanying bonus questions. The sectional tournaments and State Championship Tournament were all single elimination. Teams were randomly assigned to positions in the bracket without regard for record or performance.
The exception to the single elimination format occurred in the semifinals, where the two semifinal losers played a third place match. The top four teams earned trophies and medals for team members, coaches, principals, and activities directors. The trophies were of the design smaller than that of the athletic trophies given out by the IHSA.
CLASS A
The Class A State Championship Tournament was held at Carlinville High School. This would be the first of three years that the major small school power would host the Class A tournament, and would be the tournamennt's last home before reuniting with the Class AA tournament in Peoria in 1997.
Two Sectional Champions did not attend this tournament. Massac County High School and Gibault Catholic were thus given byes to the quarterfinals.
Octafinals
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
CLASS AA
The Class AA State Championship Tournament was held at Woodruff High School in Peoria. This was the first of two non-consecutive years that Woodruff would host the Class AA tournament, though starting in 1997, Peoria would become the permanent home of both the Class A and AA tournaments when they moved to the Peoria Civic Center.
For the first time since 1991, all of the Class AA Sectional Champions were in attendance.
Octafinals
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Third Place
Finals
Notes
- Despite the long drive to southern Illinois, this was The Latin School's first State Title, and the only one they would win with Rob Grierson as their coach.
- Latin's 442 points in the semifinal would mark the last time any Class A team would score 400 points in a State Tournament match until Peoria Christian scored exactly 400 points in a round 1 match in 2012.
- One year after losing to Quincy for their third state title, IMSA matched them with their third state title.
- Carbondale was the first Class AA team from southern Illinois (south of Springfield) to finish in the top 4 since Centraila won the 1991 state title. Despite guaranteed representation each year under the IHSA's mandatory geographic representation clause, Carbondale has been the only school from that region to place in the top 4 (doing so multiple times).
- Despite tremendous seasons ahead of them, this would be Fremd's last trip to the State Championship Tournament until their state title in 2006. This was also the last year under their coach, Lucy Mueller. Kevin Palmer would take over for the 1994-95 season.
- In the first two rounds of the Class AA tournament, there were a pair of matches featuring three coaches who would all be inducted into the inaugural IHSSBCA Coaches Hall of Fame in 2005. The first round saw Tom Durbin's MacArthur Generals defeat Susan Martin's Wheaton North Falcons. Durbin then moved on to lose to Beth Young's Quincy Blue Devils.