This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Class 6A Football Playoff Format Approved By MSHSL

Teams will rotate section match-ups in the second round, then advance to the state quarterfinals.

The Minnesota State High School League Board of Directors this week passed a new playoff format that will be put in place for Minnesota high school football’s new Class 6A in 2012.

The board unanimously approved a format that will allow teams from different sections to play one another before reaching the state tournament.

The football team will compete in section 3AAAAAA, made up of the 32 high schools with the greatest enrollments, once the new class is implemented in another year.

Find out what's happening in Apple Valley-Rosemountwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Six other South Suburban Conference teams are among the ranks that will join Class 6A. The current football Class 5A contains the state’s 57 highest-enrollment schools, and would become 48 teams in 2012.

Class 6A will have four sections of eight teams each to make up its postseason, with teams being seeded 1 through 8 for first-round matchups.

Find out what's happening in Apple Valley-Rosemountwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After the first round is played, the four winning teams from each section will compete against the top four teams from a different section in the second round. Those matchups will be selected by a random draw. The higher seeds will play the lower seeds, and the higher seeds will be the home team.

Section-to-section pairings will rotate every two years, according to the MSHSL website.

After the first two rounds, the remaining eight teams will advance to the state quarterfinals. At that point, coaches will vote for the top four seeds, and the remaining four teams will be placed by a random draw.

The Class 6A semifinals will take place at the Metrodome on the Thursday night of the semifinal weekend, a day before the Thursday-Friday setup for the traditional semifinals for nine-man and classes 1A-5A. The Class 6A championship will take place on Friday night of the Prep Bowl weekend.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?