Here is the information that will get you into the playoffs.
4. Teams would qualify for the playoffs in the following manner:
a. One half of the teams in each group (6A, 5A) in each district are
automatic qualifiers (Example: 4 teams - 2 automatic qualifiers; 6 teams -3
automatic qualifiers; 3 teams 1 automatic qualifier; 1 team 0 automatic qualifiers)
b. Teams finishing 1st or 2nd in the district are automatic qualifiers
c. Wild cards based on TSSAA tiebreakers
5. In 6A, there is the rare possibility that you have 25 automatic qualifiers.
Districts 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 16 where there is 1 qualifier and another 6A
team could finish 2nd. If this occurred in all 8 districts, you would have 33
qualifiers. In the unlikely event that this would happen, you would apply the
tiebreaker criteria to those 8 teams to determine the 7 qualifiers to complete the
32-team bracket.
6. The 32 teams are then placed geographically in 4 quadrants with 8
teams in each quadrant in 6A, 5A, 4A, and 3A. In 2A and 1A there are 6 in each
quadrant with the top 2 seeds drawing a bye in the first round.
7. The eight teams (6 in 2A and 1A) are placed in the bracket so that no
teams from the same district play each other in the first round except when there
are 5 or more teams from the same district. Placements are then done with
priorities given to automatic qualifiers based on their district finish followed by
Wild Cards. There may be times where teams have to be placed other than their
order of district finish to avoid teams from the same district meeting in the first
round.
8. The team with the higher seed will host throughout the first three rounds.
In the semifinals, the top team in the bracket will host in odd years and the team
in the bottom bracket will host in even years. (Exceptions: If the two teams are
from the same district, the higher finishing team in district standings shall host.)
H. Directed state office to bring back plan on how the tournament format would
look if you use the same plan for football for other sports (basketball, baseball,
softball, and volleyball).