KHSAA revises football state finals schedule

The KHSAA on Saturday night announced revisions to its schedule for the six football state championship games.

Due to Southern Mississippi’s 39-24 win over Louisiana Tech on Friday and Western Kentucky’s 60-6 win over Marshall on Saturday, WKU will host Louisiana Tech in the Conference-USA football championship game at 12 p.m. EST next Saturday. That means the schedule for the high school football finals, held at WKU, had to be adjusted for a second straight season.

The Class A title game between Hazard and Beechwood, originally scheduled for 2 p.m. EST Friday, has been moved to 8 p.m. EST.

Class 3A’s finals between Belfry and Central were originally scheduled for 6 p.m. EST Friday but will now begin a full day later at 6 p.m. Saturday. The Class 6A finals, featuring a Lafayette-Trinity rematch, have been moved from 6 p.m. EST to 9 p.m.

Sunday was affected most by the shakeup. The Class 2A finals between Danville and Louisville Christian have been moved from 2 p.m. EST to 1:30 p.m. The Class 4A championship between Johnson Central and Franklin-Simpson, was originally scheduled for Friday but now will start at 4:45 p.m. EST. Class 5A’s matchup between Bowling Green and Pulaski County has changed from 6 p.m. EST to 8 p.m.

Last year, the Class A championship was played on Thursday night but that caused was problematic for both programs involed last season due to loss of school time and travel.

In order to help keep games on schedule, the KHSAA has eliminated media timeouts.

“It’s unfortunate for us that we were unable to stay with our originally planned schedule, that had been worked out months ago in collaboration with WKU staff,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said in a news release, “but we congratulate coach Jeff Brohm, a KHSAA Hall of Fame member, on the successful season and will work collaboratively with WKU to provide an optimal experience for the student-athletes, coaches, officials and all involved.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2016 at 11:06 PM with the headline "KHSAA revises football state finals schedule."