DISTRICT 3-AA FOOTBALL

Beginning of a New Era

With the decision of the TSSAA, Gibbs has been placed in District 3-AA for all sports. The Eagles will join Carter, Austin-East, Gatlinburg-Pittman, Fulton, Pigeon Forge, and Union County in the new all sports region. With the change, comes some stability because unlike previous years in which there different opponents for football and the rest of the sports schedule, Gibbs will now play all the district schools in all sports. Unlike previous years though, the playoff system is quite confusing and completely different than what we have become accustom too. Below is the TSSAA explanation of the playoff system.

In regards to football:

1. All schools play everyone in their district (AAA, AA, A)

2. Each class is divided in half by enrollment. AAA is divided into 6A/5A; AA into 4A/3A; A into 2A/1A. This will place approximately 55-65 schools in each football classification. If the number of football schools in Class A is less than 70, then the Board would determine whether Class A would be divided for playoffs or remain as one class. Using present enrollments, we would have 83 football-playing schools in Class A.

3. In 6A, 5A, 4A, and 3A, 32 teams would qualify for the playoffs. In 2A and 1A 24 teams would qualify for the playoffs. This difference is due to the fact that there would be 41-42 schools in 2A and 1A each, with 58-62 schools in the other 4 classifications.

4. Teams would qualify for the playoffs in the following manner:

a. ½ of the teams in each group (6A, 5A,…) 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) b. Teams finishing 1st or 2nd in the district are automatic qualifiers c. Wild cards – Based on TSSAA tiebreakers

5. In 6A, there is the rare possibility that you have 25 automatic qualifiers.

Districts 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 16 where there is 1 qualifier and another 6A team could finish 2nd. If this occurred in all 8 districts, you would have 33 qualifiers. In the unlikely event that this would happen, you would apply the tiebreaker criteria to those 8 teams to determine the 7 qualifiers to complete the 32-team bracket.

6. The 32 teams are then placed geographically in 4 quadrants with 8 teams in each quadrant in 6A, 5A, 4A, and 3A. In 2A and 1A there are 6 in each quadrant with the top 2 seeds drawing a bye in the first round.

7. The eight teams (6 in 2A and 1A) 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.

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.)

For more information

1. 2009-2013 Classification (A, AA, AAA)

2. 2009-2013 Classification Video

3. 2009-2013 Class AA Map

4. 2009-2013 Districts

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