The NCHSAA has released the playoff qualification and bracketing process that will be used for the spring 2021 football season.
1) Automatic Bids: Conferences will be awarded a number of
automatic qualifiers based on the number of teams within the conference that
participated during the season. Conferences with 1-6 member schools fielding
teams get 1 berth, 7-8 receive 2, and 9+ receive 3. These automatic berths are
determined by the conference based on winning percentage within league play and
any ties broken using the NCHSAA’s approved tie-breaking procedure.
2) Wildcards will be selected in the East Region and West
Region based on a team’s conference winning percentage to populate 16 teams,
including automatic berths, in each region and classification.
3) Once the 16 teams are determined in each region, each
region will be subdivided with the largest schools in each classification
assigned to the AA bracket and smallest to the A bracket. Then the NCHSAA Staff
will utilize the following draw procedure to set the final bracket:
a) Draws for the line placement of berths will occur in random order.
b) All #1 berths will be drawn first, followed by #2 berths, followed by any #3 berths and finally any wildcard berths.
c) Whenever possible, competition between conference opponents in the first round will be avoided. This may require the removal of a line placement draw possibility for a given team.
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