DEERWOOD – The MSHSL Board of Directors held its August meeting at Ruttger’s Conference Center here Tuesday, and football grabbed the headline.
During a meeting that contained plenty of boilerplate board material, the members voted unanimously to approve a playoff format for Class 6A football. The new division will begin play in 2012.
The 32 Class 6A teams will be split into four sections, with eight teams in each section. (Sections are listed below.) For the first round of playoffs, each section will seed its teams 1 through 8. After the first round of games have been played, the four winning teams from each section will be matched with the top four from a different section by random draw; higher seeds will play lower seeds, with higher seeds being the home team. Those section-to-section pairings will rotate every two years.
After two rounds of games, eight teams will advance to the state quarterfinals and be seeded under the current format, with coaches voting to seed the top four teams and a blind draw deciding their opponents from the remaining four.
The 6A state quarterfinals will be played under the same timetable as quarterfinals in other classes. The 6A state semifinals will be played at the Metrodome on the Thursday evening prior to the traditional Friday-Saturday semifinals. The 6A championship game will be played on Friday night of Prep Bowl weekend.
The section lineups look like this …
SECTION 3
Burnsville High School
Eagan High School
Eastview High School
Lakeville North High School
Lakeville South High School
Park High School
Prior Lake High School
Rosemount High School
SECTION 4
Cretin-Derham Hall High School
Forest Lake High School
Mounds View High School
North High School
Roseville Area High School
Stillwater Area High School
White Bear Lake Area High School
Woodbury High School
SECTION 5
Anoka
Blaine High School
Brainerd High School
Centennial High School
Champlin Park High School
Coon Rapids High School
Maple Grove High School
Osseo
SECTION 6
Eden Prairie High School
Edina High School
Hopkins High School
Minneapolis South
Minnetonka High School
Robbinsdale Armstrong High School
Shakopee High School
Wayzata High School
– John Millea, MSHSL Media Specialist