Probable PIAA Playoff Brackets

[Coach]

PIAA Football Brackets - 1st Reading

The brackets that many high school football fans have been waiting for are here.  What are your thoughts on how these play out? 

[Lionjacket]

That's pretty crazy that the Distict 6 and 7 champs are state semi finalists, in A. Could be bringing a lot more state titles back to this area

[12HankQB]

Oh yea, this is great. D-6 automatically gets 1 game to get to the show. D-5 has to play D-10 and D-9 just to get to the semi's in AA and A. This caters to D-7 so bad.

[CRWizard]

d5 AA should not exist. Should be merged with D6.

[Crimson's Ghost]

Not really. D5A top seed has to win 2 games to win a district title, District 6 you need to win 3, WPIAL you need to win 4. 

Just a numbers thing, a district with 8 teams isn't going to get a bye. 

[12HankQB]

Having to win one game after districts to make it to the finals just seems absurd. I understand the district sizes plays a role. D-5 just got moved from playing D-7 right off the bat and then the winner of 9-10 to playing the winner of 9, winner of 10, then the winner of 7.

[12HankQB]

Berlin will be AA, which I feel better about than running a gauntlet in A

[footballguy99]

I wanted to really think about this before replying.

In class A, I felt it was a much tougher road for 5 and 10 then many would think, but now I'm not so sure about that.

The WPIAL almost always made it to the semis.  That makes sense.  D6 features some very small programs, and I'm sort of shocked that they get all the way to the semifinals, but that's the way it is.

The 5 champion will come from a field of 6 teams.  The 6 champion will come from a field of 18/19 teams.
The 5 champ and 10 champ meet after that.  This is equivalent to the D6 semis.  I can buy that.  A Farrell vs CT type of matchup is equivalent to many D6 semifinals.
Following that the 5-10 champ plays the 9 champ.  This is equivalent to the D6 finals.  I can buy that.

I think it much more difficult to beat/win over championship quality teams.  I don't think the 1-4 matchup in D6A will be as good/competitive as the 5-10 game between two champions.  I do think the 5/10 vs 9 game will be about as good as a D6 final.  

If BG was out of the mix in D6, this would be pretty wild I think.  It is all a numbers game though and this is based off the number of teams in each quarter of the bracket basically.  By having almost 20, D6 has slightly less than 1/4 of all class A teams in the state in that bracket. 

[footballguy99]

5AA is like A Hank.

5AA has a playoff with 8AA included.

The winner plays the 9 champ.

The winner of that then plays the 10 champ.

The state semifinal route is very similar to class A's "gauntlent" you referred to. 

[12HankQB]

I understand it's the same set up. I meant gauntlet of the Bishops, Clairton, Etc. From what I say previously, it looked much harder to make it through A than AA.