TSSAA scores with changes

As high school football teams across Tennessee work toward resolving on-the-field questions before the season kicks off, most coaches are cautiously optimistic that the newly tweaked playoff format will do away with the confusion of last year’s system.

In March the TSSAA’s Board of Control made several changes to its new playoff format, putting more emphasis on total victories in choosing playoff qualifiers.

Uncertainty surrounding last year’s format quickly turned to anger from coaches and fans across the state when the brackets were announced, then recalled hours later because of numerous mistakes. The corrected brackets were not posted until more than six hours later, causing confusion for coaches who needed to begin preparations for their first-round foes.

“There were a lot of teams who weren’t sure they were even in the playoffs,” Marion County coach Troy Boeck said. “Then most of us got misinformed on who we were supposed to play and were even confused about which team would host. It was very frustrating. The TSSAA had to do something.”

After discussing several options, the board adopted a plan that had been developed by a committee of 12 coaches from across the state, four board members and the state association’s staff.

Tyner, which had won five of its last six games to finish second in a district of mostly 4A playoff schools, was paired last year in Class 3A against top-ranked, six-time defending state champion Alcoa in the first round. Under the new rules the Rams would likely host a first-round game.

Similarly in Class 1A, Copper Basin, which won six games, traveled to an opponent that had won just three.

“We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out before we can really say it works,” Lookout Valley coach Tony Webb said. “We won seven games last year but had to travel to Gordonsville, which had fewer wins than us. We would have hosted a first-round game under this system. It looks like it will work better and be more fair for the teams with good overall records and who play tough competition.”

The changes were designed to simplify the process of determining the teams and matchups for each classification’s playoff bracket. Under the new format, the top two teams in every district, regardless of classification, automatically qualify for the playoffs. All other playoff teams will be chosen as wild cards based on a five-part criteria, beginning with overall wins. The other four tiebreakers, which put a priority on strength of schedule, are the number of opponents with a winning record, number of wins against teams with a winning record, wins by all opponents and fewest total defeats by all opponents.

Although this new system should cut down on the number of teams that qualify for the playoffs with losing records, it also could reward teams for padding their schedule with weaker nondistrict opponents. Also, unlike last year, teams from within the same district may play each other in the first round. The playoff brackets again will use geography to cut down on travel costs for teams.

“The new system really is much simpler to explain and to understand,” said TSSAA assistant director Matthew Gillespie. “The great thing is now we plan to be able to post playoff scenarios starting in week five so teams will see if they’re in or out and who they would be matched up with. And we’ll update it after each week right up until the actual selection process.

“By doing that it will also allow us to catch any potential errors early enough that we should have a working bracket ready for release much sooner after the final regular-season games.”