Its female counterpart, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, (IGHSAU) is an associate member.

Iowa is the only state that maintains separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' athletics.

Sports overseen by the IHSAA are baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and wrestling.

Iowa was the first State Association in the nation to hold a baseball championship meet in the summer.

[3] *IHSAA Board policy allows schools to participate in a higher classification than their enrollment places them in a sport with four classes.

The current official distance for cross country meets is 5000m (approximately 3.1 miles).

8-Player started having postseason in 2000, the previous two years were regular season due to low number of teams.

There was also an indoor State Track Meet from 1926 to 1973, and the IHSAA is in the process of collecting and publishing these champions.

The Iowa High School Athletic Association holds two separate team wrestling championships: the Traditional tournament, which also crowns individual champions, and a Dual Team tournament.

In September 2024, the Iowa High School Sports Network (IHSSN) released its broadcast map with its network on the following stations: Des Moines (Central Iowa) KDSM Fox 17.1; Omaha & Council Bluffs (Southwest Iowa) NPTM 42.2 (KPTM is both Fox 42.1 and The CW 42.3 in the Omaha broadcasting area); Sioux City (Northwest Iowa) NPTH 44.2 (KMEG 14 is both Fox 44.1 and CBS 44.3 in the Souixland broadcasting area.

[36][37][38][39][40] Prior to 2016, championship events in football, basketball and wrestling were carried across the state of Iowa on a network made up of local television stations.

Beginning with the 2016 football championships, IHSAA reached a deal with NBCUniversal-owned Comcast SportsNet Chicago to become the exclusive provider of these sports, making them available across CSN's footprint consisting of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana via television, online and the NBC Sports mobile app.