How the VHSL

Playoffs Work

Each region consists of three or four districts. Each region

has its teams divided into two divisions. The divisions are determined by

enrollment. If a school is in the top half of their region in enrollment then

they play in the higher division; if they are in the lower half in enrollment

then they play in the lower division. (AAA divisions are 6 and 5, AA are 4 and

3, and in A they are 2 and 1).

Each district gets to send its district champion to the

playoffs automatically. If there is a tie for the district title all the

teams that tied share the district title, but only one gets the automatic bid

to the playoffs. The automatic bid is determined by which school in the tie

has the highest VHSL rating. If there is still a tie then the winner of the

head-to-head game between the teams gets the automatic bid. If that doesn't

settle it (if there was a three-way tie, for instance), then find the average

rating of the teams they beat. The team for which this is the highest gets

the bid. Finally, if it is still tied, then we draw lots.

A team's VHSL rating is determined by awarding a team points

for every public school they play. The chart below shows how it works.

Plus you receive 2 points for every game won by a team you beat

(over a public school). You receive 1 point for every game won by a team to

whom you lost.

So if you beat a 6-4 division 4 team you will receive 28

points. (16 for being div 4 and 12 for their 6 wins). If you lose to a 3-7

division 6 team you will receive 13 points(10 for being div 6 and 3 for their

wins).

Games against private schools are not taken into account. You

take your total VHSL points at the end of the year and divide by the number of

games to get your final VHSL rating.

That determines who gets the automatic bids to the playoffs.

How do the playoffs work? Each region has two sets of playoffs, one for the

higher division teams and one for the lower division teams. 4 teams get

invited to each of these playoffs. We end up with 16 teams from each

division state-wide.

Each district's champ as determined above automatically goes

in. The other spots are "wild card" spots given to the remaining teams with

the highest VHSL rating (tie breaker procedure is the same as for determining

a district champ). Note it is possible for one division to end up with all the

district champs and have no wild cards while the other division gets only wild

cards. It depends on the division of the district champs.

This year seeding is very simple (this is a change from two

years ago—don't write). The #1 seed is the team with the highest VHSL rating.

The #2 seed has the next highest. The #3 seed is the team with third highest,

and the number 4 seed is the playoff qualifier with the lowest rating. #4

plays at #1 in the first round and #3 plays at #2. The winners of these games

play for the regional title at the higher seed's home field (unless the region

has a neutral site).

The regional champs square off in the state semi-finals as

follows this year.

The State Semi-Finals are as follows:

Division 6: Northern Champ @ Central Champ and Eastern Champ @

Northwest Champ

Division 5: Central Champ @ Northern Champ and Northwest Champ

@ Eastern Champ

Division 4: Region II Champ @ Region I Champ and Region Iv

Champ @ Region III Champ

Division 3: Region I Champ @ Region II Champ and Region III

Champ @ Region IV Champ

Division 2: Region B Champ @ Region A Champ and Region C Champ

@ Region D Champ

Division 1: Region A Champ @ Region B Champ and Region D Champ

@ Region C Champ

The winners advance to the state finals.

Division 5 and 6 championship

games will be played at University of Richmond Stadium.

Division 3 and 4 championship

games will be played at Williams Stadium at Liberty University in Lynchburg

games will be

played at Bridgeforth Stadium at James Madison University in Harrisonburg

Two notes:

Even though teams from

different divisions can be in a district together and compete for the same

district title, teams from different divisions will NEVER meet in the

playoffs.

The Gilliam Ratings in

no way have any effect on who gets in the playoffs. I am currently creating

a new method that is statistically very valid. I would like to see it

considered, but the math is too advanced for the casual fan to understand so

it will probably never be considered.