Dan Balash

Dunlap is open as well, as Jill Shea is also retiring.

This, thankfully, is no longer happening. According to the BOA logistics pages, Indy is the 16th-17th, St. Louis is the 23rd-24th.

Providence Catholic: tentative date of October 3rd The schedule, as it currently stands, is as follows: 9/12: Stagg, Lake Park, Washington, O'Fallon 9/19: Pontiac, Limestone, CMBF, Plainfield South, Edwardsville 9/26: VJA, NIU, Morton 10/3: DGS, Mt. Zion, Providence Catholic, IVC 10/10: Metamora, Normal, Naperville Central 10/11: Marengo 10/17: ISU, WIU 10/24: 10/31: Oblong, Pinckneyville 11/7: 11/12-11/14: Grand Nationals The BOA 2026 schedule will be released next Wednesday; that should solidify more of the schedule.

IVC and Mahomet-Seymour have posted their openings for 2026-2027. It also looks to me that Casey-Westfield has an opening as well.

Sure, we've got Marian and Morton who can place in class nationally, win their class at regionals and Morton who can make finals, Lincoln-Way, who placed 6th and 14th at regionals this year, O'Fallon, who was 3rd in class at St. Louis, 5th in finals, and 22nd at Grand Nationals, Prospect in 27th place in St. Louis, and Normal winning their class and placing 9th at a weaker than usual Iowa regional. Outside of that, that does not constitute a "powerhouse" to me.

This is what I want. I want more nationally recognized judges being brought into the state. A band shouldn't see several of the same judges 3,4,5 times a season in Illinois.

Smart aleck. 🙂 2025-BOA-Grand-Nationals-Prelims-Recap.pdf 2025-BOA-Grand-Nationals-Semi-Finals-Recap.pdf 2025-BOA-Grand-Nationals-Finals-Recap.pdf

Updates from what I've heard; all are tentative. Plainfield South moving to 9/19 Marengo 10/11

It's also really difficult when you have Texas sending 6 bands, all of them making semifinals, 4 of them making finals (which is less than what a contingency of Texas bands making finals usually is), and then there's Avon, Carmel, Broken Arrow, and your bands such as Mason, Blue Springs, Bentonville etc. who have risen over the past 10-15 years to becoming perennial finalists. What do all of these states (save for Missouri) have in common? A state championship series with judging sheets that don't change week in and week out.

It's not possible to have a panel per class at prelims with 110 bands. That would be 4 panels (aka $$$$$$$), the panels would be routinely switching out, and judges aren't supposed to know what class each band is in. I still say the panel switch off each performance block was not a good change, but if you're trying to get 110 bands into a prelims format, this is the way to do it. I'm a fan of cutting Nationals off at 100(ish) bands, going back to a top 11 for Thursday prelims, top 11 Friday, next 8, class representatives from Thursday and Friday, and there's your semifinals.

Dan is in Paris. 😀

Congrats to Marian, Morton and O’Fallon on making semifinals!

I think we'll have 3 bands advancing to semifinals from Illinois: Marian, Morton and O'Fallon. O'Fallon is probably in a bubble of like 10 bands to make finals, Morton could win AA (I think the only other tough competition would be Jenison), and Marian is in the running for Class A, becoming (I believe) the 2nd band to win national Class championships in 3 separate classes.

Honestly, we're not going to get any fresh faces at ISU if both super regionals, ISU and WIU are the same day.

Ugh, this nonsense of two super regionals on the same day better not happen again.