Your state's high school football playoff system

Nebraska (https://nsaa-static.s3.amazonaws.com/textfile/fbl/fbman.pdf)
Seven total divisions determined by three-class boys enrollment -- four for 11-man (A, B, C1, C2), two for 8-man (D1, D2), one for 6-man (D6). Nine-game regular season in which teams play everyone in their district once. Schools can opt up or down one class, but the latter are ineligible for the playoffs.

Class A playoffs have 12 district winners or runners-up plus four wild cards (teams with the highest point average, with each game's points determined by win/loss and opponent's record); Class B four district winners and 12 wild cards; Class C1 eight district winners and eight wild cards; Class C2 seven district winners and nine wild cards; Class D1 10 district winners and 22 wild cards; Class D2 nine district winners and 23 wild cards; and D6 just the 16 teams with the highest point average.

Schools host every round through the semifinals, with 11- and 8-man finals at Memorial Stadium and 6-man out west at Nebraska-Kearney. Higher seed hosts in Class A; in every other class, higher point average hosts with ties going to the higher seed (exception being if one team was away and the other home in the previous round; in that case, the team that was away hosts the next round).

Pros: Having 8- and 6-man divisions allows small schools to compete without having to overextend themselves by playing 11-a-side, which I've seen in other states. Wild-card points system removes some of the incentive for soft scheduling.

Cons: Seven divisions might seem a bit much for a state of 1.9 million people, but that's entirely subjective. Lack of geographic (i.e. East-West) division in the top two classes -- doesn't hurt much in Class A as the major population centers west of Lincoln are still a reasonable drive away, North Platte aside, but in Class B teams often have to travel six or seven hours to or from the Panhandle for playoff games.

 

30 years later, I am still cranky about Missouri’s system then.

The first seven games didn’t matter. The last three games did - essentially being the round robin where one team emerged for the playoffs.

My school:
1988. 8-2. Was 8-1 going into the last game. Lost 14-13 on a missed extra point. The team that won went 7-3 and won the state title.
1989. 7-3. Didn’t make it.
1990. 5-5. Started 2-5 and won the last three to make the playoffs. Beat a 9-0 team in the finale in OT. Great win but felt bad for the other school. Got blown out in the first playoff game.
1991. 8-2. Yup. Lost the 9th game, 7-6. Missed extra point. Won the last game by 40 to finish 8-2. No playoffs.

 

Florida has switched to power rankings.

• In the smallest 4 classes, the top 6 teams from each of 4 regions qualify based on the power ranking.
• In the largest 4 classes, each district champ qualifies (4 districts to a region), as do 4 wild-card teams based on the power ranking.

When I was in high school, Florida only took district champions to the playoffs, and other teams might get bowl invitations. We had to play a nationally ranked Palatka team every year in our district.

 

I consider Texas to be the gold standard for prep football. Everything is decided on the field — no power points, or strength of schedule, or any of that bullshit. For a ginormous state, they balance well the demands of fair competition and prolonged travel (a fact of life out west).

Texas is set up with classifications from 1A through 6A, with 6A being the largest schools (above +- 2,200 enrollment 9-12) and 1A being the 6-man schools (104.5 and below). In football, each class (except 6A) is split into 2 divisions of 16 districts each, numbered going clockwise from El Paso (1) to the RGV (16). Each district holds from 6 to 8 teams, but lately odd-numbered districts have been in vogue, which drives me fucking nuts.

There is an 11-week regular season over which teams can schedule 10 games, followed by six weeks of playoffs (again, Texas is a big state). The top four in every district qualify for the playoffs. Districts decide their own tiebreaker procedures before every season (usually point differential head-to-head added up among 3 or more teams, but the maximum normally differs between districts).

The districts are grouped into four regions, from I to IV. Teams begin with the "bi-district round" — 1 champion vs. 2 fourth place, 3 runner-up vs. 4 third place, etc. Winners advance to the "area round," then come the region semifinals and region finals. A region championship in Texas is the equivalent of a state championship in any state smaller in population than Arizona — that is, 35 other states. The four region champs move on to the state semifinals and it's always Region I vs. II, Region III vs. IV. The UIL state championship week is Thursday-Saturday before Christmas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, where it'll be for the foreseeable future. (The year they moved it to Houston — 2015 — was an attendance disaster.)

All classes compete for big-school and small-school state championships, but right now 6A is the last one doing it the old way — 32 districts in one division, with the split happening in the postseason. (There is some weird Patty Hearst hostage dynamic going on here because 6A is the least balanced of all the classes by far from top enrollment to bottom. The superintendents of 6A have voted before over whether to split — and it's failed every time.)

The calendar drives the schedule, with practice beginning the first Monday in August and the state championships ending the last Saturday before Christmas. The trend is headed toward "everyone gets a playoff," and the UIL acknowledges this. But the only way to do that in Texas is either to go to 9 games or remove the extra week of the regular season. Neither will fly.

 

Λ If you think football season is interminable in Texas, check out baseball and softball. Practice begins in January, state championships the middle of June. One glacial playoff round per week. Our paper holds its end-of-year awards banquet at the end of June. That leaves 5 to 6 weeks of vacation window before two-a-days begin, split between 2 people at my shop. Only one of the reasons why I'm glad to get the hell out of sports.

 

Ohio divides the school's into seven divisions.

Playoff spots are determined by points. You get X amount for beating a team in each division. Then you get second-level points for the teams they beat. Add 'em up to determine playoff participants. Eight teams from each region make it. Four regions per division.

Ten-game regular season. Five more wins gets you the state championship.

Works pretty well.

Football: Computer Ranking Examples

 

New Jersey used to have more "state" football champions than Texas did. After a complete revamp there will only be... 13?!? in a state that's maybe four hours from one end to the other.

 

If it's any consolation, they had to live in Palatka. I got hired to do play-by-play for the Bradford County Tornadoes for WPXE my senior year at UF, and realized how little I wanted to spend time in Starke. (Side note: Sons of prison guards make great linemen.)

 

I loved Florida's system when I worked here in the 80s
Your conference is your district
Win your conference, you are district champion and go to the regionals
Michigan's is awful

 

It's just terminology. A conference in Arkansas is the same as a district in Texas. Basketball people in Arkansas always talk about winning their conference and also their district tournament, which is composed of the exact same teams.

 

I was about to post something about anyplace in Florida being better than Palatka, but that stretch of U.S. 27 and U.S. 98 south of Lakeland and Winter Haven (really, anything 30 miles left or right of those roads) is in the running for that title.