Friday playoff opponents, sites
Class 6ARiverdale (5-5) at Bradley Central (7-3), 7Class 5ACleveland (5-5) at Farragut (9-1), 7Campbell County (5-5) at Rhea County (7-3), 7Soddy-Daisy (7-3) at Oak Ridge (9-1), 7Clinton (4-6) at Ooltewah (8-2), 7Class 4AEast Hamilton (6-4) at Page (7-3), 8Class 3ASmith County (6-4) at East Ridge (10-0), 7Chattanooga Christian (7-3) at DeKalb County, 8Sequatchie County (7-3) at Notre Dame (7-3), 7Red Bank (3-7) at Upperman (8-2), 8Class 2AEagleville (5-5) at Boyd-Buchanan (10-0), 7Tyner (7-3) at Watertown (8-2), 8Westmoreland (5-5) at Marion County (9-1), 8Bledsoe County (5-5) at Forrest (9-1)Class 1AMt. Pleasant (6-4) at South Pittsburg (7-3), 8Grace Academy (5-5) at Fayetteville (8-2), 8Moore County (6-4) at Whitwell (5-5), 8Copper Basin (3-7) at Columbia Academy (9-1), 8Division II-AAPope John Paul (2-8) at McCallie (5-5), 7Baylor (8-2) receives bye, will play Nov. 13 at MUS (7-3)
Of the 21 Chattanooga-area teams entering the Tennessee high school football playoffs, only two are playing each other in the first round.
This year, though, they’re coming from different regions unlike last year when Notre Dame opened the playoffs against fellow district member Chattanooga Christian.
This year is a return to a previous playoff system in which a computer is used only to tabulate region and overall win-loss records, thus avoiding a convoluted system of so-called checks and balances generated through a computer program.
“In the old system you could play local teams or teams you’d already played in the first round all the time,” said Notre Dame coach Charles Fant, whose Fighting Irish will host Sequatchie County’s Indians this Friday night. “The hardest thing about last year was that it was literally in the hands of people we didn’t know. Whatever format they used we never knew.”
And then, he recalled, there was the year when the TSSAA released the brackets and they weren’t accessible on the TSSAA’s website.
“It was ridiculous. Their server couldn’t handle all the people trying to find out,” Fant recalled.
“This system is pretty much the same they use in Alabama,” said Sequatchie County coach Adam Caine, who coached in Alabama from 2012 to 2014. “The thing now in any playoff is that it’s so dramatic the momentum swings, one team jumping on top and the other fighting to get back in it because they don’t want their season to end.
“I’ve experienced a great deal of heartbreak in this game as a player and as a coach, and playoffs are a big reason.”
Most coaches feel the playoff system now in use limits some of the heartbreak, that they and their teams have more control over where they wind up.
“This system, to me, has a lot more structure, and we knew the region tiebreakers and what region we were paired with. We were able to figure out likely scenarios knowing it wasn’t a shot in the dark,” said Boyd-Buchanan coach Grant Reynolds, whose team will be at home to host Eagleville. “One year we lost to a Class 4A team and finished 9-1 and there were teams in our quadrant that played lesser competition and went 10-0. We wound up seeded third.”
Boyd-Buchanan, in a roundabout way, proved Reynolds’ point by knocking off two of those undefeated teams on the way to the state semifinals.
“I just think this is a more equitable system,” Reynolds said.
Area teams hosting Friday along with Notre Dame and Boyd-Buchanan are Bradley Central, Ooltewah, Rhea County, East Ridge, Marion County, South Pittsburg, Whitwell and McCallie.
Baylor will be a playoff participant but drew a first-round bye.
All games begin at 7 p.m. local time.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.