Trying to understand the new playoff system...

[jabbo]

I don't know if another thread already has covered this [i can't search for stuff in this new format], but can someone 'splain to me how it's gonna work? I see that Oakland is in a district with 5 other 6A teams while Lincoln County is in one with one other 6A team and 4 other 5A teams...seems like the old Region 4 is getting shafted....

 

I've searched some on the internet - I haven't found anything that helps me out, other than the complicated tie breaker procedure...who gets to go to the playoffs???

 

Anybody???

[silverpie]

Here's how I think of it.

 

Finish first in your district (or region in the case of 1-A/4-A/6-A), you are a gold team.

Second place, you are a silver team.

If you don't make those standards, but you do finish in the top half of your district among teams in your subclass, you are a bronze team.

 

So in the Rutherford County district, the third-place team will be bronze, since there are only 6A teams there. In the Central Tennessee district, the higher of the two 6A teams and the two highest of the four 5A teams will be bronze, unless they are already gold or silver.

 

Gold teams always make the playoffs, and silver teams almost always (the one exception is if no 1A team gets a gold or silver rank, then 2A can end up just short of the number of slots). If there's enough room in the bracket for all the bronze teams, they go, and the tiebreakers are used to decide which non-metallic teams get any leftovers. If there is not enough room for all the bronze teams, the tiebreakers decide which ones make it.

 

Once the field is set in a class, the rest works like 2A did last year--draw the map lines to make four pods of eight (six in the two subclasses of A), seed the teams in each one, and go.

[66in74]

Here's how I think of it.

 

Finish first in your district (or region in the case of 1-A/4-A/6-A), you are a gold team.

Second place, you are a silver team.

If you don't make those standards, but you do finish in the top half of your district among teams in your subclass, you are a bronze team.

 

So in the Rutherford County district, the third-place team will be bronze, since there are only 6A teams there. In the Central Tennessee district, the higher of the two 6A teams and the two highest of the four 5A teams will be bronze, unless they are already gold or silver.

 

Gold teams always make the playoffs, and silver teams almost always (the one exception is if no 1A team gets a gold or silver rank, then 2A can end up just short of the number of slots). If there's enough room in the bracket for all the bronze teams, they go, and the tiebreakers are used to decide which non-metallic teams get any leftovers. If there is not enough room for all the bronze teams, the tiebreakers decide which ones make it.

 

Once the field is set in a class, the rest works like 2A did last year--draw the map lines to make four pods of eight (six in the two subclasses of A), seed the teams in each one, and go.

 

[66in74]

I don't know if another thread already has covered this [i can't search for stuff in this new format], but can someone 'splain to me how it's gonna work? I see that Oakland is in a district with 5 other 6A teams while Lincoln County is in one with one other 6A team and 4 other 5A teams...seems like the old Region 4 is getting shafted....

 

I've searched some on the internet - I haven't found anything that helps me out, other than the complicated tie breaker procedure...who gets to go to the playoffs???

 

Anybody???

 

I'll address your two examples.

In the case of Oakland, a district with six 6A teams, you have to finish 1 or 2 in district play to get in the playoffs.

 

In the case of Lincoln Co. district to get an auto birth the highest ranked 6A would get an auto birth.

This is because there are only 2 6A teams so only one spot for an automatic birth.

 

The other auto playoff births would come from the highest two 5A finishers.

 

My two cents worth is the whole new playoff system is a joke. Way too many.

Have 3 classes in public 1A, 2A, 3A. Finish in the top 3 of your district. Then have a District playoff. #1 gets a bye. #2 plays #3. Winner of that game along with #1 is in the State Playoffs.

 

Might bring back Bowl Games.

[jabbo]

I'll address your two examples.

In the case of Oakland, a district with six 6A teams, you have to finish 1 or 2 in district play to get in the playoffs.

 

In the case of Lincoln Co. district to get an auto birth the highest ranked 6A would get an auto birth.

This is because there are only 2 6A teams so only one spot for an automatic birth.

 

The other auto playoff births would come from the highest two 5A finishers.

 

My two cents worth is the whole new playoff system is a joke. Way too many.

Have 3 classes in public 1A, 2A, 3A. Finish in the top 3 of your district. Then have a District playoff. #1 gets a bye. #2 plays #3. Winner of that game along with #1 is in the State Playoffs.

 

Might bring back Bowl Games.

 

So...if Lincoln Co. finishes 10-0 and Franklin Co. finishes 9-1 then LC gets an automatic and FC gets tossed into some convoluted gumbo with other 6A teams to determine if FC gets to go?

 

And...if LC goes 1-9 by beating FC then LC still gets an automatic?

 

Are there ANY other states that do things this way?

[Solo-mon 2]

LC would get the berth if FC finished behind them in the district is the way I have been reading this, right? LC1-9 beating FC at 1-9 or 0-10, then LC gets berth, but LC 1-9 beats FC with FC having 5-5 record, FC is the higher district seed, so FC gets berth, right?

[jabbo]

LC would get the berth if FC finished behind them in the district is the way I have been reading this, right? LC1-9 beating FC at 1-9 or 0-10, then LC gets berth, but LC 1-9 beats FC with FC having 5-5 record, FC is the higher district seed, so FC gets berth, right?

 

So...LC 1-9 beats FC with FC having 2-8 record, FC gets berth?

 

The guy behind this madness.

[jabbo]

Ok folks...I finally found a link that does a decent job of explaining things, at least as well as TSSAA is able to explain them...check it out at

 

bit.ly/zplan

 

Yeah, it's a weird looking link, but it works.

 

According to the article, the top two teams regardless of classification have automatic berths, so in the earlier example of LC 10-0 and FC 9-1 with the others 8-2 or worse both LC and FC would have berths, but the 5A team in the district with the 8-2 record probably has one but may not...depending on how many other pseudo "automatic qualifiers" there are....

 

One item in the article was particularly disturbing (referring to questions after a presentation the TSSAA gave to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association convention):

 

"Note – they (the TSSAA) didn’t have answers for everything and some questions stumped them. That’s not good."

 

That's definitely not good.

 

So this is where we are due to an aversion to high gas prices, long trips to other schools, the potential for larger gate receipts from the visiting crowd, and angst over teams with losing records making it to the playoffs under the old system.

 

 

If I were a coach I suppose I'd put a banner on the locker room wall that said something like:

 

"Play your best in every game, and hope that you don't get shafted at the end of the season!"

[66in74]

Ok folks...I finally found a link that does a decent job of explaining things, at least as well as TSSAA is able to explain them...check it out at

 

bit.ly/zplan

 

Yeah, it's a weird looking link, but it works.

 

According to the article, the top two teams regardless of classification have automatic berths, so in the earlier example of LC 10-0 and FC 9-1 with the others 8-2 or worse both LC and FC would have berths, but the 5A team in the district with the 8-2 record probably has one but may not...depending on how many other pseudo "automatic qualifiers" there are....

 

One item in the article was particularly disturbing (referring to questions after a presentation the TSSAA gave to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association convention):

 

"Note – they (the TSSAA) didn’t have answers for everything and some questions stumped them. That’s not good."

 

That's definitely not good.

 

So this is where we are due to an aversion to high gas prices, long trips to other schools, the potential for larger gate receipts from the visiting crowd, and angst over teams with losing records making it to the playoffs under the old system.

 

 

If I were a coach I suppose I'd put a banner on the locker room wall that said something like:

 

"Play your best in every game, and hope that you don't get shafted at the end of the season!"

 

I haven't researched your link yet and I will, but that's not the way it was presented initially.

At the initial presentation, if there was only 2 teams of a particular playoff classification (6a, 5a, 4a, etc...) in a District; then only 1 (highest finisher) of those teams would have an auto playoff birth.

 

If there was only 1 team of particular playoff class in a District, then you would have to finish 1 or 2 to get an auto birth.

[southernpride]

Is points scored against common opponents part of the tiebreaker for wild cards?

[silverpie]

No. Margin of victory, points scored, and points conceded are never used as a tiebreak in TSSAA football.

[jabbo]

 

I haven't researched your link yet and I will, but that's not the way it was presented initially.

At the initial presentation, if there was only 2 teams of a particular playoff classification (6a, 5a, 4a, etc...) in a District; then only 1 (highest finisher) of those teams would have an auto playoff birth.

 

If there was only 1 team of particular playoff class in a District, then you would have to finish 1 or 2 to get an auto birth.

 

I suspect it gets presented somewhat differently every time...hence the rampant confusion. When folks give a presentation and then get stumped by questions from the audience, that's a good indication that the presenters don't fully understand what they're presenting.