The TSSAA unveiled its new playoff format Saturday, and 21 Chattanooga-area teams earned the right to begin competing for a state championship.
The state's governing body for high school athletics voted last summer to change the way it would determine playoff teams, switching from a format it had used the previous 16 years.
Under the new format, there are 24-team brackets in classes 1A and 2A, with the top-seeded teams in each receiving a bye week. South Pittsburg in 1A and Boyd-Buchanan in 2A each earned a bye and will have this Friday off.
Both of those perennial powerhouse programs are expected to contend for state championships in their respective classes. Also in 2A, Signal Mountain, in its first varsity season, earned the right to host a first-round game against Silverdale Baptist.
The state championship games will be played Dec. 3-5 at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tenn.
Stephen has covered high school sports in the tri-state area since the early 1990s, starting at the News-Free Press as a 19-year-old reporter. He has been with the Times Free Press since its inception and has been an assistant sports editor for more than seven years. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP’s newsroom, winning numerous state and regional awards for his writing on high school athletics. He has two children, Riley ...
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