Georgia Playoff System

[ChattanoogaCannon]

How many of you are familiar with the Georgia playoff system? I think it is very interesting and should be looked at for Tennessee. Their system allowed for 3 teams from one county - Whitfield - to make a final four. There are 6 classifications due to number of schools. Each classification has 8 regions, with an A and B division, somewhat geo-located, and somewhat equivalent to TN districts. Only top 4 from each region make playoffs and it is a knock-out tournament. This allows for strong regions to not be penalized, and weak regions make early exits. I am not as familiar with the state boys teams, but on the girls side, TN west teams in A/AA have exactly zero chance of winning a state title, yet they get two spots. In a GA style tourney, each region gets equal entry with 4 spots, but because of brackets, only the best make the final four, even if those best happen to be from the same county. This can't happen in Tennessee.

[bennettm]

I coached the last four years in Georgia and was a big fan of the playoff system there. Just as you said it weeded the weaker teams out early and typically avoided late round blowouts. But having said that I am assuming you are refering to the Whitfield county schools. Dalton absolutley blew out everyone aside from Johnson (Gainesville). If Notre Dame played Dalton I'd love to know how they became so dominant all of a sudden over those strong teams in Southeast and Northwest Whitfield.

 

I'd love to see more teams move on from strong regions and get a chance to play teams from other regions. I hate to see strong teams get knocked out early due to matching up against a White House or CAK.