OSAA 6A football playoff format: 2 16-team brackets, but only 1 state champion
By René Ferrán | Photo by Taylor Balkom
The OSAA Executive Board finalized the Class 6A football playoff format at its annual Summer Workshop last week at Eagle Crest Resort in Redmond.
OSAA Executive Director Peter Weber said Wednesday that the Board discussed the logistics of the two-tiered, 32-team playoffs and how it will play out in its inaugural season in its new format.
The OSAA decided to follow a similar setup to how the lacrosse state tournaments run each spring. The 16-team upper bracket will be the official 6A state championship playoffs, while the remaining 16 playoff teams will contest the Columbia Cup.
“They will be recognized for winning the Columbia Cup and be the Cup champion, but they will not be recognized as a state champion,” Weber explained.
The automatic qualifiers from the six 6A special districts this fall are:
- PIL (District 1): 4
- Metro (District 2): 3
- Pacific (District 3): 3
- Mt. Hood (District 4): 4
- Three Rivers (District 5): 3
- Central Valley/Southwest (District 6): 5
That leaves 10 at-large spots to be filled by the OSAA rankings.
Any league champions ranked outside the top 16 in the OSAA rankings will be moved to the state championship bracket, bumping the lowest seed possible to the Columbia Cup. Automatic qualifiers ranked outside the top 32 will bump the lowest-ranked teams out of the Columbia Cup field.
If this format had been used last season, Pacific champion Sherwood (No. 21) and PIL co-champion Grant (No. 23; owned tiebreaker over Roosevelt) would have made the state championship field, knocking out David Douglas (No. 15) and McNary (No. 16).
Franklin (No. 39, fourth in PIL) would have played in the Columbia Cup, eliminating Oregon City (No. 32) from the postseason.
