Kentucky’s high school football playoffs return to traditional format
Opponents of how Kentucky’s high school football playoffs have been structured the last three years might have finally put the nail in the coffin of “intra-district” playoffs.
Responding to its most recent survey of its football-playing schools, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s Board of Control on Wednesday ended the postseason experiment a year earlier than previously planned.
The school survey showed overwhelming support for ending intra-district play immediately. With 207 of the 222 football-playing schools responding, 142 (63.96%) voted for the immediate elimination of intra-district play in the postseason, 15 (6.76%) voted to keep it for one more year, and 50 (22.52%) voted to keep it forever.
“I don’t recall getting that kind of return (207 of 222 schools) on any kind of survey, so, it’s obviously kind of a passion-point issue with our schools,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said during the board’s morning work session.
In the full meeting, the board voted to go along with the survey’s results without discussion.
Since 2019, the state’s six football classes have competed in “intra-district” playoffs that pitted district foes against each other over the first two weeks of the postseason for the right to advance. As part of that, district champions have been crowned after the second round of the playoffs rather than in the regular season.
That format was a departure from tradition, which previously saw regular season district champions and other teams matched up against foes from neighboring or “sister” districts in the playoffs. Intra-district play had only been used once before in a two-year trial more than a decade ago.
Proponents argued intra-district play saved on travel costs and intensified district rivalries. Opponents argued that having to play district foes again in the playoffs, sometimes just a week or two after their regular-season matchup, either put their teams at a competitive disadvantage against a heated rival or repeated regular-season mismatches in the early rounds that few could get excited about.
“A lot of the issues out there around the state were with playing the same teams over and over that you just played in district play the latter part of your season,” said Pulaski County Coach John Hines, who is also president of the Kentucky Football Coaches Association. “There’s a dullness that is there and a dullness hurts your crowd, especially if there’s bad weather. There’s a spice added to it when you’re playing someone that maybe you’ve never played before or you haven’t played in many, many years.”
The KFCA fought against the playoff change when it was first announced and has battled for its elimination ever since. Last spring, the KFCA successfully lobbied the KHSAA board to revisit the decision and the KHSAA responded by doing a similar survey with similar results. However, last May, the board opted against implementing the change immediately and instead put it off until the next class realignment in 2023. That decision didn’t sit well with the KFCA and it again asked the KHSAA to revisit it last month.
“We appreciate the KHSAA board of control listening to the coaches and the (representatives) out there because it was an overwhelming majority,” Hines said. “We’re thankful that they have listened to us a little bit and we’re ready to move forward.”
