Italics indicate notes added for explanation, and are
not part of the TSSAA's statement.
3. In 4A, 32 teams would qualify for the playoffs.
4. Teams would qualify for the playoffs in the following manner:
a. half of the teams in each group (4A) in each district are automatic qualifiers
(Example: 4 teams 2 automatic qualifiers; 6 teams 3 automatic qualifiers; 3 teams 1
automatic qualifier; 1 team 0 automatic qualifiers) Note: Greeneville's new conference will have three 4A
teams - Greeneville, Grainger County, and Claiborne. Thus, only one of those teams
will be an automatic qualifer each year. The 4A team with the best overall
conference record (against all opponents, not just other 4A opponents) would be the
automatic qualifer. An additional 4A team could automatically qualify by fitting the
following rule 4b. There are 53 teams in 4A beginning next year. 23 of
those could be automatic qualifiers, even if none of them finished first or second in the
conference (see rule b. below). To see how many automatic qualifiers could come from
each district under this rule, see the chart at the bottom of the page.
b. Teams finishing 1st or 2nd in the district are automatic qualifiers
c. Wild cards Based on TSSAA tiebreakers After all automatic qualifiers are
determined, the remaining slots will be filled by Wild Card teams, which will be selected
based on their overall record, and by applying current tiebreaker rules.
6. The 32 teams are then placed geographically in 4 quadrants with 8 teams in each
quadrant.
7. The eight teams are placed in the bracket so that no teams from the same district play
each other in the first round except when there are 5 or more teams from the same
district. Placements are then done with priorities given to automatic qualifiers based on
their district finish followed by Wild Cards. There may be times where teams have to be
placed other than their order of district finish to avoid teams from the same district
meeting in the first round. This is basically what happened with Cumberland Gap
and West Greene in the 2A playoffs in 2008. While Cumberland Gap beat West Greene in
the regular season and finished ahead of them in the confernce standings, CG was shifted
to another region for first round playoff action. West Greene, qualifying as a Wild
Card, was able to play Happy Valley while Cumberland Gap faced Alcoa.
8. The team with the higher seed will host throughout the first three rounds. In the
semifinals, the top team in the bracket will host in odd years and the team in the bottom
bracket will host in even years. (Exceptions: If the two teams are from the same district,
the higher finishing team in district standings shall host.) This differs from
the current system in that home field can be earned through three rounds of play, rather
than two. Under the system in place in 2008 and before, the third and fourth round
site was determined by top/bottom of the bracket placement. Under that system, teams
were only seeded 1-4 in their own conference, rather than 1-8 in a "super
region." |
