By Josh Peterson

Sports Editor Manchester TImes

                When the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association inherited its new districts and complex playoff system in November, it made for hotly debated discussions.  But those conversations, for now anyway, have somewhat cooled down and turned more to curiosity than anything. Who will get in the playoffs? How does it work?  For Coffee County, the assignment is relatively simple – finish first in District 6-AAA and the Raiders are in the dance. Finish second … then the details require a code descriptor.  Under the previous system, the top four teams in each region qualified for the TSSAA playoffs, regardless of the number of teams in each region. That meant 32 teams qualified for the playoffs in each of the five Division I classes.  The new system has virtually no comparison to the old. For simplicity purposes, let’s focus on Coffee County’s district – here is how it works. The five teams in District 6-AAA split when the playoffs arrive – Coffee County, Cookeville and Warren County are 6A, while White County and Cumberland County are 5A.  Automatic playoff qualifiers are supposed to include the top two teams in all 16 districts. However, if 6A teams happen to place in the top two in all nine of the AAA districts that have three or fewer 6A teams, there will be too many qualifiers – that changes the terminology from playoff qualifier to playoff eligible.  If that happens, playoff eligible teams will be thrust into a 17 step tiebreaker. In head-to-head competition, the team with the greatest number of victories and the team with the greatest number of wins against .500 or better teams are the top three tiebreakers used.   So feasibly, Coffee County could finish second overall among all five teams in 6-AAA and be in the playoffs.  But if another 6A team within the district finishes ahead of the Raiders – Cookeville or Warren County – and two 6A teams place in the top two of every other AAA district with three or fewer 6A teams, CHS could be left out. Another way a team can automatically qualify is to finish in the top half of its playoff class within the district. Meaning if there are four 6A teams, the top two will qualify, regardless of record or district finish. That means if Coffee County finishes third in District 6-AAA, but the top two teams are Cumberland County and White County (5A teams), the Raiders would qualify, regardless of their record. But with the recent track record of White and Cumberland County, that is an unlikely scenario. With just three 6A teams, only one can qualify taking the upper half course.

                Basically it comes down to this – the playoff process will be similar to selecting teams to the NCAA basketball tournament. And TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress has said as much. Coaches and players may actually walk off the field after Week 10 and not know whether they will be playing the next week or not.  So if you still don’t understand how it works, see you on selection Sunday.