How's your high school football season going?

First year for playoffs in Massachusetts. Most of the state is 8-team brackets, and the records depend on the team's you're grouped with. We had a 1-5 team that had a chance to get in if it won its last reg. season game because there were two other 1-win teams and a winless in its grouping. Other groups you needed to be 5-2.

 

In Mississippi, they make sure everybody shares in the pie. The first-round hosts are determined by seeding. Fair enough.
The second- and third-round hosts are determined by who has hosted the fewest playoff games. If it's the same, it goes by whichever district number is higher or lower (it alternates each year). So you could conceivably have a fourth-place team that gets to host two playoff games, and a first-place juggernaut that has to make two long road trips.

I kind of like the Louisiana system. They take 32 teams in each class. The district champions get automatic berths (there's 8-10 districts in each class), and everybody else is determined and seeded by a power point system. You usually end up with some 3-7 teams rounding out Nos. 28-32, but it does reward you for playing and beating good teams.
The higher seeded teams also get to host. Makes for some long road trips. We once had a team from south of Lake Charles coming up to play one in Northeast Louisiana for a first-round game.

 

Don't even get me started on Tennessee. Suffice it to say, this year a 2A team in my coverage area was in a four-team district along with three 1A teams. It finished second and made the 2A playoffs. At least it finished 5-5.

 

I've got a Bozeman High team going for its second shot at a perfect 13-0 record (and state title) in 4 years. I'm starting to get the "Which team was better" questions/debate pushes. Might do a column on it if things all work out to perfection (all right, that pun puts me in SportsJournalists.com jail). Also might have an 8-man team go perfect and win a state title. Both are 3 weeks away.

 

It takes silver bullets and a wooden stake to end Tennessee's playoffs.

 

Oh, and I concur with everyone. Twitter is a G-dsend when it comes to finding out games ending so we can put in timely calls to coaches on frenzied Friday nights. A lot of coaches in our coverage area also send us emails via MaxPreps with stats/scoring summaries within a half hour of their game ending. Helps with recaps, etc.

 

Our coverage area is in the CIF's Central Section, which eliminated all those cases of 8-3 teams staying home and 3-7 teams playing on by letting any school that wanted to go into the playoffs. Most school districts have their own rule that schools must have at least a .500 overall or league record before going on, fortunately.

 

Wednesday night high school football? What the hell's up with that?

 

Kansas districts take the top two teams. In 11-man, that can cause problems because districts are a whopping four teams. In eight-man, districts are 5-8 teams, so rarely do bad teams make the playoffs in eight-man. But in 6A (biggest class), four teams with winning records failed to make the playoffs because of difficult districts, including a 6-3 team. Meanwhile, a 1-8 team made it to the playoffs thanks to a weak district and a three-way for second place (with two other 1-8 teams).

 

trying to squeeze in four playoff games in three weeks. The Show-Me Bowl is always Thanksgiving weekend and when the regular season ends Oct. 25 and you have 48 teams in class 5 and 64 in class 1-4, you have to get six rounds of playoffs in somehow. First round was last Thursday and Friday, second round is Wednesday, third round next Monday, fourth round next Friday.

 

The Ohio High School Athletic Association added a division this year, giving it seven — all 11-man.

Due to logistics, Division I (big schools) is divided into two regions (north and south), with the top 16 teams in each region advancing to the playoffs. Divisions II through VII are each divided into four regions (northwest, northeast, southeast and southwest), with the top four teams in each region advancing to the playoffs.

Playoff berths are determined by earning computer points: 1) First-level points for beating an opponent, and 2) Second-level points for the teams you beat beating other teams.

The points earned for beating an opponent are weighted — the higher the division of your opponent, the more points you get if you win.

The first- and second-level points are then averaged using a computer program formula and teams are ranked in each region. Here's a link describing the process: http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/ft/boys/rankcalc.htm

Higher seeds host in the first round, with all games after that at neutral sites. It's a five-game postseason.

Teams with losing records can make the playoffs (two did so this year) and there have been times when teams went 10-0 and missed the playoffs (did not happen this year). The system rewards teams for winning and playing a tough schedule, so a 10-0 record is neither an automatic berth nor a guaranteed home game in the playoffs.

Ohio's playoffs began in 1972 with just the top team in each region qualifying, but that increased to the top two in 1980, top four in 1985 and top eight in 1999. Meanwhile, football divisions went from four divisions in 1972 to five in 1980, six in 1994 and seven in 2013.

 

In Mississippi, it's actually more advantageous to finish second in your region than to win it, because more often than not the second-place team ends up hosting the first-place team if they should meet in the state semifinals. I've railed against this system for years, to no avail.

BTW, the private school assosiation this year went to a 1-16 seeding system for Class AA and Class A very much like what you describe in Louisiana.