Expect fewer teams in the playoffs

Published 9:13 am Thursday, November 5, 2020

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High school teams will have condensed seasons in 2020-21. No team will play more than 14 games in the regular season. The good news is there will be state playoffs. The brackets will be smaller than normal, but at least the opportunity to chase a state championship will be there.

Playoff brackets that normally have 64 teams will have 32 this year. Football will have two 16-team brackets in each classification. There will be four playoff weeks in football and two in the other sports.

The football playoffs are set to begin April 16 and end May 8. Girls and boys basketball playoffs will run from Feb. 23 through March 6. The volleyball playoffs will start Jan. 12 and end Jan. 23. The boys soccer playoffs will be from March 16-27. The playoffs for girls soccer and softball will be May 3-15. The baseball playoffs will be June 15-26.

Conferences with six or fewer teams will be given one playoff berth. Conferences with seven or eight teams will be given two berths. Conferences with nine-plus teams will get three berths. If there are additional at-large spots, they will be based on conference winning percentage.

The casualties of the reconfigured seasons are dual team tennis and dual team wrestling championships. Those sports normally have both team and individual championships. This year there will be only individual state championships.

Cross country regionals will be held Jan. 16 with the state championships to follow. Swimming regionals will be held Feb. 4-6 and the state meet from Feb. 10-13.

Girls and boys golf regionals are scheduled for May 3-4 with the state championships May 10-11.

Boys tennis regionals will be May 7-8 with the state championships May 14-15. Girls tennis regionals will be June 18-19 with the state championships June 25-26.

Wrestling regionals will be June 18-19 with the state championships on June 26.

Get ready for overlaps. For instance, the basketball playoffs will conflict with the first two weeks of football season.