Answering prep playoff questions

Maurice Patton
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NASHVILLE – Recent discussion about a possible new classification plan for Tennessee’s Division I high school football programs has sparked plenty of questions.

The proposal by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association would keep six Division I champions but put the 32 schools with the largest enrollments in one class, with all of those teams making the playoffs, then divide the remaining 273 schools into five classes of approximately 55 schools each.

The current system, which went into effect in 2009, crowns six champions by playing in three regular-season classes with each of those split in half for the postseason.

What’s wrong with the current system?

Now headed into its sixth year, the current plan has created scheduling issues because of its reliance on overall wins as a key component in who qualifies for the playoffs and confusion over other tiebreaking criteria. District champions and runners-up automatically qualify for the playoffs, with the remaining teams in the bracket selected on the basis of that criteria.

In 2012, an error involving tiebreaker criteria was made when a North Carolina team played 11 games. Once the error was detected, Cleveland was removed from the Class 5A bracket and Sullivan South was forced to travel more than five hours to play Columbia in the opening round.

More often, teams are bypassing non-district matchups with closer opponents with an eye on securing enough victories to assure themselves of a playoff berth.

Most recently, “enrollment disparity” has become a concern, as the range between the smallest and largest schools in classes has widened — especially in Class AAA, where the difference is 1,314 students.

So why was the current system put in place?

The previous football classification system resulted in five champions. It was used from 1993-2008. Each of the five classes consisted of eight regions, with the top four finishers in each region making the playoffs. Region champions faced the fourth-place team in their neighboring region, and so on.

However, with all other sports being played under the same three-class system that has been in place since the 1980s, there were concerns about rivalries not being kept intact. Also, Tennessee’s geography resulted in some pretty unwieldy regions, and the regular-season travel was increasingly becoming an issue of finances for schools, forcing a re-evaluation of that plan despite it being much easier for coaches and fans to grasp.

Why is six champions so important?

With Division II playing in two classes, six Division I title games results in the eight-game schedule for the BlueCross Bowl. Reducing that number would force that schedule — and those contracts — to be reworked. Past that, selling schools and fans on the idea of competing for fewer championships is an uphill battle.

What’s the timetable for a change?

Because football game contracts are typically for two years, to allow for a home-and-home series, the earliest any new plan would go into effect would be for the 2015 season.

The TSSAA is in the middle of a four-year classification cycle that began last fall, so changes typically would not take place before 2017. However, executive director Bernard Childress wanted to bring the proposed plan before the Board of Control this summer in hopes of getting it approved for 2015 because the current plan has been under fire virtually since its inception. The TSSAA staff recommended a return to five football classes prior to the current classification cycle (2013-17) to the Board of Control, but that was voted down.

How would the proposed plan look?

The largest 32 schools would be divided into four regions. The remaining five classes would each be broken into eight regions, with the top four teams in each region qualifying for the playoffs.

A total of 192 teams would make the playoffs under the proposed plan, compared to 176 under the current system and 160 under the old five-class format.

The proposal would eliminate all first-round playoff byes, which currently exist in the Class 1A and 2A brackets.

Regarding the top class, what’s significant about 32?

Childress said that number was a result of a “trial and error” brainstorming phase, although it does result in a top class that resembles a move Alabama has made for the upcoming school year. In Alabama, the 32 largest schools will play in Class 7A for all sports, not just football.

Here, the idea derived from trying to place the largest schools in a class and the smallest schools in one, then splitting the remaining schools equally to try to address that enrollment disparity concern.

The idea, according to Childress, is that 32 teams provide a complete championship bracket.

When will a decision be reached?

The Board of Control is expected to vote on the new proposal at its Aug. 11 meeting. At that time, the plan will be put in place for the 2015 and 2016 seasons or the current plan will remain in place for the rest of the classification period.

What happens if all private schools are removed from Division I?

Any such action along those lines, which was tabled at the Legislative Council meeting in March, would not go into effect before 2017. If that were to take place, though, the removal of 22 schools from Division I would prompt classifications in all sports to be re-evaluated and likely revamped.

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