5A and 6A Bracketology – Week 5

As we hit the midway point of the AHSAA football season this week and teams head to play non-region games, it seemed like a good time to start giving an indicator of where teams were lining up in the playoffs. Let me preface these brackets by saying that there is still a lot of football to be played.

Some of these standings may not make much sense. For instance, Bessemer City is the #1 seed in 6A Region 5 and Hoover is the #2 seed – 99% of people will say that is wrong. As of right now, the tiebreaker gives it to Bessemer City on who they have played so far in the region. That won’t matter much because Hoover and Bessemer City play each other next week when they get back into region play. So if you ever see a team that you know should probably be a one seed, it’s solely because they are losing tiebreakers right now with no head to head game to break the tie first.

These standings are on the official AHSAA tiebreakers which are, in order:

1) Head to head competition. Basically, if there is a tie between two teams, who won the meeting between them. This gets skipped at this point because most of the top ranked teams in a given region haven’t played yet.

2) If more than two teams tie, whoever won the games between them moves on. So if A, B, and C are tied right now, if A beat both B and C, then they are ahead of them, and then B and C will go to head to head to determine who is next in line.

2a) If more than two teams are tied, then you go down the list and see who they have beaten. For instance, if A, B, and C are tied at 1-2, who is that one win against? The team with the highest ranked win gets the highest spot. So if one of those wins was an upset over the top ranked team (at the present time), then they move on. Do the same from the first place team on down.

3) If two or more teams are still tied, take their record against similar non-region opponents. This is impossible with only one non-region game so far for each. But for instance, if Team A beats non-region Team 1 and Team B lost to non-region Team 1, then Team A wins the tiebreak.

3a) If two or more teams are still tied, then just take their non-region record and see whose is better. At this point that is only one game, but it will be three at the end.

There are more rules, but to be honest, at this point, most of them can’t be used. We’ll get deeper into that later in the season. Also, most of the time, these rules don’t have to come into play. But sometimes teams will get all tangled up and it will be a mess to see who goes to the playoffs and in what spot. If you’re really curious about the official wording and rules when it comes to tiebreakers in the AHSAA, you can see their tiebreak section here.

Also, I should note that in a couple of instances, there were no clear tiebreakers in place. So instead of just flipping a coin in my office to determine it (which is the final tiebreaker, FYI), I went on how the teams were “trending”, meaning how well have they played, how good was their competition despite records, etc. to see how the team was projecting for the future when they actually meet up with these other teams.

So without further ado, here are the brackets for 5A and 6A. Once the season progresses and I have more time to sit down and work on these with a MUCH clearer picture, I will get 1A-4A up as well.

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6A Bracket

  First round Second round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
                                               
R1-1  Murphy    
R2-4  Dothan    
          
          
R3-2  Smiths Station  
R4-3  Thompson    
          
          
R2-1  Fairhope    
R1-4  Theodore    
        
          
R4-2  Prattville  
R3-3  Carver-Montgomery    
          
          
R3-1  Opelika    
R4-4  Pelham    
        
          
R1-2  Murphy  
R2-3  Foley    
        
          
R4-1  Spain Park    
R3-4  Auburn    
        
          
R2-2  Daphne  
R1-3  Blount    
      
      
R5-1  Bessemer City    
R6-4  Hewitt-Trussville    
          
          
R7-2  Oxford  
R8-3  Buckhorn    
          
          
R6-1  Vestavia Hills    
R5-4  Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa    
        
          
R8-2  Florence  
R7-3  Pell City    
        
          
R7-1  Clay-Chalkville    
R8-4  Decatur    
        
          
R5-2  Hoover  
R6-3  Gardendale    
        
          
R8-1  Bob Jones    
R7-4  Huntsville    
        
          
R6-2  Shades Valley  
R5-3  Tuscaloosa County    

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5A Bracket

  First round Second round Quarterfinals Semifinals Finals
                                               
R1-1  Vigor    
R2-4  Russell County    
          
          
R3-2  Saraland  
R4-3  Chilton County    
          
          
R2-1  Eufaula    
R1-4  LeFlore    
        
          
R4-2  Briarwood  
R3-3  Demopolis    
          
          
R3-1  Jackson    
R4-4  Chilton County    
        
          
R1-2  Spanish Fort  
R2-3  Valley    
        
          
R4-1  Homewood    
R3-4  Greenville    
        
          
R2-2  Ben. Russell  
R1-3  St. Paul’s    
      
      
R5-1  McAdory    
R6-4  Moody    
          
          
R7-2  Etowah  
R8-3  Hartselle    
          
          
R6-1  Center Point    
R5-4  Brookwood    
        
          
R8-2  Cullman  
R7-3  Scottsboro    
        
          
R7-1  Southside-Gadsden    
R8-4  Russellville    
        
          
R5-2  Pleasant Grove  
R6-3  Mortimer Jordan    
        
          
R8-1  Muscle Shoals    
R7-4  Fort Payne    
        
          
R6-2  Pinson Valley  
R5-3  Parker    
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