The number of players selected to All-State teams has grown exponentially in some sports over the years. While football has always had Indiana All-State teams, the Associated Press began selecting Indiana All-State Basketball players in 1971. The Indiana High School Baseball Coaches began selecting an All-State team in 1974. Soccer was not an IHSAA sanctioned sport until 1994, but the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association began selecting teams before that.

Prior to 2000, each sport saw its respective All-State selections grow modestly as more and more interest in such lists developed. By 1990, however the growth seemed to plateau. At the turn of the century, the advent of the internet and smart phones seemed to increase the interest to draw viewers to sites that listed such selections.  Basketball and football quickly saw epic growth in the number of players who could legitimately claim to be "All-State" in their respective sports.

And that is just the players who were chosen First or Second team "All-State". In football, for example, following the 2020 season no fewer than FOUR-HUNDRED-FIFTY-EIGHT players could claim to have been selected "First Team" All-State by the IHFBCA! There are only 22 players on the field of a football game at any given moment so roughly 20 fields of "All-State" players could all claim "First Team" status.