New Class 2A football format could change prep landscapes

[Antwan]

That is true for the most part, but that is much easier to do in some regions than it is in others. Some regions have less teams in them than others, unless that is going to change soon? Region 2 for instance, the 4th and 5th place teams lastyear, could've finished as high as 2nd or 3rd in some regions. The good thing with this concept is that lastyears 5th place team would probably had made the play-offs, but it also could've been knocked out by a weaker team with a better record. It is ashame that they can't even up the regions first before they change other things, thats where some teams get penalized! I know this could never happen because of distance, but their is a big difference in competition between regions.

 

 

Also there are teams that have started 0-4 or worse that have won state or went very far in the play-offs, so don't say teams that worry about being in 4th place in their region can't win state, it can happen!

 

 

There will still be 32 teams that make the playoffs. The chances of a good team being left out are lesser than some 1-9 and 2-8 teams that get in. Yes...there is a possibllity of a team like LA that gets left out. There has only been one or two 4th place teams win the title out of how many years? That includes all classes. I think under this format...the chance of a 4th place team winning again is increased.

[TheLivingLegend]

This new format will provide some tense moments. It will be entertaining to see how this works out this season.

[ksgovols]

So are there officially 9 regions in 2A or do the new schools, regardless of their location, just represent an additional region for playoff purposes?

 

 

 

There are 9 regions in 2A for the entire season. In areas that already had 8 teams per region, 2 were added when 4A Hickman County split into 2-2A teams, Hickman and East Hickman and JCS moved from 1A to 2A in the region just to the west. I think there's still a 5 team region in the Chattanooga area, but the areas affected would have had to expand to 9 and 10 team regions.

 

I like it too. Having no guarantees except for region champions makes everyone have to justify their body of work over the season. Nothing wrong with that. Mixing up the playoff format so that the same regions aren't always playing against each other year in and year out makes it more interesting too. As far as record versus strength of scheduling is concerned, I think most folks can look and see how one affects the other. Harpeth dropped one 3A opponent and one 1A to pick up 2A opponents. I think that's good scheduling on their part. They'll at least get an apples to apples comparision against other 2A schools that they might be competing against for a playoff spot.

[Solomon]

Don't know if I like it yet or not.

 

I do think my first tie-breaker would have been something other than overall record. Maybe record against playoff teams, 2A and higher class teams, etc.

 

If they are going to go this accross to board, I hope they go to 10 regions per class and divide east and west 5 and 5.

 

Or do the smarter thing and go to 4 classes, not 5.

[Bighurt]

I think picking the 5 wildcard teams will create some controversy. I think the real controversy is going to be over dividing the teams into 4 eight-team quadrants and then seeding teams within these quadrants. If one region has the best 2 teams in 2A (say Alcoa and Loudon for example), do they put these teams in different quadrants or even in different sides of the bracket? This could lead to travel and scheduling issues.

 

It should make for a lot of discussion on these boards at the very least.

[FBGIRL]

What are the tie breaking procedures?

[reaction]

What are the tie breaking procedures?

 

Think it goes by teams record, then strength of schedule.

[Antwan]

What are the tie breaking procedures?

 

 

This is from the tssaa site.

 

"In Class 2A, all teams are required to play all other teams in their region. Teams with the best region record shall be declared the region winner, runner-up, and third place and shall advance to the first round of the football playoff series. Twenty-seven of the 32 teams for the playoff series will be selected from nine regions. The remaining five slots will be filled with wild card selections. These five teams will be selected by the guidelines that are in the football regulationsAll of the Class 2A schools that did not qualify for the football playoffs as one of the top three teams from their region will be sorted by overall won-loss records. The top five teams in overall won-loss records will make the playoffs as wild cards. In the event of a tie in overall records for the 32nd position, then factors such as head-to-head, opponents with victories over teams winning 50% of their games, etc., will determine the five playoff teams.Once the 32 teams have been selected for the playoffs, the 32 schools will be geographically grouped into four eight-team quadrants. This grouping will be done without regard to region alignments.Once the four quad brackets are created, the eight teams within each bracket will be seeded from 1 to 8. All #1 region finishers will be listed and seeded using the standard TSSAA football regulation, i.e., head-to-head (if applicable), overall records, etc. Once the #1 seeds are placed in the bracket, then the same procedure will be done for #2, #3 and wild card. Once the teams are seeded in the bracket, the home team will always be the higher seeded team. If two teams are the same seed, such as two #1s, two #2s, etc., then the top team in the bracket in odd years will be the home team and the bottom team in the bracket will be the home team in the even years.C. If at any point when the following tie-breaking procedures are applied, one team has beaten all the other teams that are tied for a play-off position, that team shall be rated above the others.D. In the event of a tie for the region winner, runner-up, third-place, or fourth-place team, if either team(s) has defeated the other(s) in regular-season play, the team(s) shall be rated above the other(s) in the standings. (After the region winner has been determined, the tie-breaker procedure shall begin all over again starting at the top to work out the runner-up position. The procedure shall be repeated to determine the third- and fourth-place teams.)E. The following tie-breaking procedures shall be applied and all regular-season games, both region and non-region, shall count (After each of the following steps have been applied, item C above shall be applied.):1. The team with the greatest number of victories.2. The team who has the greatest number of victories over teams winning 50 percent or more of their games.3. The team whose opponents have earned the most victories.4. The team whose opponents have received fewer defeats.5. The team who has the greatest number of victories over teams in its own class.6. Ten yardline overtime procedure at neutral site Monday night at 7:30 P.M"

[Antwan]

I think picking the 5 wildcard teams will create some controversy. I think the real controversy is going to be over dividing the teams into 4 eight-team quadrants and then seeding teams within these quadrants. If one region has the best 2 teams in 2A (say Alcoa and Loudon for example), do they put these teams in different quadrants or even in different sides of the bracket? This could lead to travel and scheduling issues.

 

It should make for a lot of discussion on these boards at the very least.

 

 

I have yet to get an answer on how the quadrants will be determined. I think that has to be answered first. I would think teams of the same region would be in the

same quadrant...unless they are a wild card. You would think the wild cards would be placed to the closest quadrant as possible. The middle of the state wild cards could

go either way. I would think northeast wild cards would be in the northeast or southeast quadrant. The same would apply for northwest or southwest. I would think an effort would be made to limit travel.

[FBGIRL]

s

I have yet to get an answer on how the quadrants will be determined. I think that has to be answered first. I would think teams of the same region would be in the

same quadrant...unless they are a wild card. You would think the wild cards would be placed to the closest quadrant as possible. The middle of the state wild cards could

go either way. I would think northeast wild cards would be in the northeast or southeast quadrant. The same would apply for northwest or southwest. I would think an effort would be made to limit travel.

 

Logically, I would assume that the wild card teams would be put in a position to travel. But legistically, I feel like teams from regions 4-6 will be moved to either side to reduce the travel, which would not be fair to any top 3 teams. Of course, no one knows which regions the last 5 teams will come from until the end of the season.

 

I could not locate any info on TSSAA site regarding playoff bracket configurations.

[Antwan]

s

Logically, I would assume that the wild card teams would be put in a position to travel. But legistically, I feel like teams from regions 4-6 will be moved to either side to reduce the travel, which would not be fair to any top 3 teams. Of course, no one knows which regions the last 5 teams will come from until the end of the season.

 

I could not locate any info on TSSAA site regarding playoff bracket configurations.

 

 

You also have to consider that the seeding will be 1-8...not 1-4. There could be several of the 5 wild cards in one quadrant because of geography. Once the 32 teams are selected...they will be divided into 4 quadrants...I assume by their location. The way I would do it would to be to draw vertical and horizontal lines through the geographical center of the state which is Murfreesboro. Those would be my quadrants. I am sure there would not be 8 teams in each quadrant. To solve that...you put teams that fall in overloaded quadrants in the quandrant closest to them to even things out.

[FBGIRL]

You also have to consider that the seeding will be 1-8...not 1-4. There could be several of the 5 wild cards in one quadrant because of geography. Once the 32 teams are selected...they will be divided into 4 quadrants...I assume by their location. The way I would do it would to be to draw vertical and horizontal lines through the geographical center of the state which is Murfreesboro. Those would be my quadrants. I am sure there would not be 8 teams in each quadrant. To solve that...you put teams that fall in overloaded quadrants in the quandrant closest to them to even things out.

 

Do you mean that a wild card team could be seeded higher than say a 1 or 2 team? Nof fair.