Philadelphia Catholic League Playoffs Are Expanding
Tagged under: District 12, News, pfn
Anthony Franklin | May 17, 2026
The 2025 PCL football season saw two programs capture PIAA championships with LaSalle capturing the 6A title and Roman Catholic snagging the 5A title. Traditionally the CL Red has held a one game playoff between St. Joes Prep and LaSalle for the 6A title. With Roman having recent success they’ve been promoted to 6A for at least the next two seasons thus creating the need for an expansion from 2 to 4 teams in the playoffs. Father Judge who also previously competed in 5A has also been promoted to 6A due to enrollment numbers.
For the 2026 and 2027 seasons upon completion of the CL regular season the #1 seeded team in the division will host the#4 team while the #2 team hosts the #3 seeded team with the winner of the CL playoffs advancing to the District 12 title game against the Public League 6A champion. Judge and Roman moving up leaves a void in the CL 5A classification as there aren’t any 5A programs for the next two seasons.
Also worth noting Imhotep Charter which competes in the Philadelphia Public League will drop from 6A to 5A and because there is no PCL 5A program the Public League 5A champion will advance to the PIAA playoffs as the District 12 champion and representative.
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