Steelers will again televise 4 WPIAL football finals at Acrisure Stadium

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 | 9:42 PM

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Television plans for the upcoming WPIAL football finals remain the same as last year, said the WPIAL administrator who oversees league championships.

The four games played at Acrisure Stadium will again be televised through a partnership with the Pittsburgh Steelers, while the two games played elsewhere will not. The WPIAL had that same arrangement in 2024 and ’23.

“There’s been no change,” WPIAL chief operating officer Vince Sortino said Tuesday.

Last year, the Steelers partnered with KDKA+ to broadcast the four games at Acrisure Stadium. TV broadcast details for this year were not yet announced. Additionally, streaming video of all six games is available online through the NFHS Network with a subscription.

The WPIAL Class 6A and 4A finals are Nov. 15 at Pine-Richland. The Class 5A, 3A, 2A and A finals are Nov. 22 at Acrisure Stadium.

Sortino said all media contracts are made in advance with Teall Properties Group, a strategic marketing company that oversees WPIAL sponsorships.

“No TV station reached out to me” wanting to broadcast the 6A and 4A finals, he said.

Sortino said the WPIAL is open to having all football finals on broadcast TV in future seasons. But rather than a year-to-year arrangement, Sortino said the WPIAL would prefer to secure a longer-term TV deal for the championships.

He said the WPIAL is talking with the Steelers about locking in the finals at Acrisure Stadium for “the foreseeable future,” an arrangement that could include TV rights.

“You couldn’t get a better partnership,” Sortino said of the Steelers. “They’re very excited for us to come down there.”

Sortino said early-round playoff games will not be televised this year. There were some televised last season, but Sortino said that was the result of a WPIAL error.

“Last year, inadvertently, a television broadcast rights fee was put on our website that we had never had,” Sortino said. “When that was put up there, a station applied for that at the last minute. Through our discussion with TPG — because they’re the ones that do that, not us — we said let them do the games since they applied and (the rights fee) was on our website. After that was done, we took it down.”

The rights fee document posted online for the 2025-26 school year says TV broadcasters should: “Contact the WPIAL office for more information.” Sortino said the WPIAL would be open to a multi-year agreement in advance, allowing TPG to better market sponsorship.

The NFHS Network, which pays the WPIAL for exclusive video streaming rights, would seemingly benefit from not having playoff games on TV. But Sortino said that never was a request by the NFHS Network.

“We have a great relationship with NFHS,” Sortino said. “They’ve never reached out to us to say don’t.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.