What’s going on with high school football? Pandemic-altered playoffs start this week.

Despite the pandemic, Kentucky high school football’s postseason appears to be set to kick off this week with a few exceptions, some new wrinkles and a number of contenders in each of the six classes.

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the brackets. As of Monday afternoon, 15 teams had opted to end their seasons due to coronavirus concerns or quarantines, but none are among those with serious title hopes, so far.

While Fayette County on Sunday shuttered its other athletic programs until after Thanksgiving, football will be allowed to continue.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has given no indication that it will further postpone or alter its playoff schedule beyond measures it has already taken, but when it decided last week to delay the start of the postseason, its statement included the warning that “substantial changes could be made as needed in future days and weeks.” The KHSAA Board of Control meets Wednesday.

The teams opting out, so far, include Bracken County, Bellevue, Caverna and Fairview in Class A. Washington County, Covington Holy Cross and Ballard Memorial are out in 2A. Garrard County and Mason County dropped out in 3A. Both Bourbon, Anderson and Marion counties shuttered in Class 4A. And Southern, Campbell County and Marshall County opted not to continue in Class 6A.

The moves have shuffled the brackets as teams were reseeded for the district rounds.

COVID-19 cancellations meant some regular season district games could not be played. To resolve the seeding issue resulting from not settling matters on the field, teams with higher rankings on the KHSAA’s Rating Percentage Index (RPI) got credit for “winning” the games that weren’t played (but not on their official season records).

So, Scott County got the top seed in Class 5A’s 6th District over Frederick Douglass because the Cardinals and Broncos could not get their regular-season game in. Scott County is Class 5A’s No. 2 team, while Douglass is No. 9. Woodford County got the No. 2 seed over West Jessamine in Class 5A’s 7th District despite having one less actual district win, since their regular-season game could not be played and Woodford got the edge on the Colts in the RPI comparison.

Last year’s newly formatted playoffs with district titles in the second round and re-seeded brackets at the regional and semifinal rounds produced just the kind of state championship matchups the Kentucky High School Athletic Association wanted.

Class A and 3A featured all-eastern Kentucky finals with Pikeville vs. Paintsville and Belfry vs. Bell County. Class 2A produced one of the most exciting state championship games ever when Somerset rallied to top Mayfield in the final minute. Class 4A and 5A’s title games were settled between each class’s consensus No. 1 and 2 teams. And Class 6A had Trinity and Male, a matchup we could see again in 2020.

Here’s a look at the playoff format this year.

District playoffs

This is the second year of the district playoff system where all the teams in the same district must battle it out to advance in the postseason just as they do in other sports. That hasn’t always been the case in football.

It means that some of the best teams in the state will be headed home as early as this week and certainly by Round 2, the district championships. For instance:

• No. 3 Pikeville takes on No. 5 Sayre in Class A on Friday.

• No. 1 Lexington Christian has No. 5 Somerset and No. 7 Danville in its district in Class 2A. The Admirals and Briar Jumpers square off this week.

• No. 2 Ashland Blazer and No. 3 Russell are pointed at each other in Class 3A’s second round if they advance this week.

• No. 1 Boyle County and No. 5 Lexington Catholic will be each other’s first game in Class 4A because the other teams in their district dropped out.

• In addition to Scott County and Douglass possibly having to face each other by the second round in Class 5A, No. 4 Southwestern and No. 6 Pulaski County are pointed to each other in the 8th District.

• In Class 6A, No. 4 Henderson County will have to go through No. 7 McCracken County to try to get to the regional round.

Regionals and the RPI

There are five rounds of playoffs, and trophies are awarded after the Rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5, the district championships, regional championships, semifinals and state finals.

It’s the regional round where the KHSAA’s RPI kicks in and reseeds each bracket so the state finals in each class will have a better chance to host the top overall seeds. The top-ranked team among Districts 1, 2, 3, or 4 would play the lowest RPI-rated team from one of those districts. The same goes for the other side of the state in Districts 5, 6, 7 and 8.

So, where do the teams rank? Here are the top 10s according to RPI in each class.

Class A

Class 2A

Class 3A

Class 4A

Class 5A

Class 6A

The semifinals

Time to reseed again. Here, the top-ranked team remaining will face the lowest-ranked team remaining in each class, regardless of how far the lower seed would have to travel.

The finals

Officially, it’s the UK Orthopaedics/KHSAA Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl and the games are tentatively scheduled for Kroger Field beginning Dec. 18.

Because of the growing severity of the coronavirus pandemic, the KHSAA has moved two state championships, volleyball and cross country out of counties deemed to have a “critical” or “red” status on the state’s COVID-19 incidence rate map. However, it held its field hockey finals in a red county, Jefferson, last week.

The KHSAA has not commented on other potential sites for the football state championships.

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 10:16 AM.

Jared Peck

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-488-2883

Jared Peck, the Herald-Leader’s Digital Sports Writer, covers high school athletics and has been with the company as a writer and editor for more than 20 years. Support my work with a digital subscription