2020 Football tournament rules

[BackinBlack86]

I will highlight the 2020 covid changes

https://www.doe.k12.de.us/cms/lib/DE01922744/Centricity/Domain/498/Fall%20Tournament%20Manual%202020.11.12.20.pdf

Item 4. Tournament Field

A. The 2020 DIAA Football State Championships will consist of a Division I tournament and a Division II tournament.

1. The Division I tournament field will be comprised of the Blue Hen Flight A Champion, the Henlopen North Champion, and two (2 ) at-large teams or more if needed to fill the bracket.
2. The Division II tournament field will be comprised of the Blue Hen Flight B Champion, Henlopen South Champion, and two (2 ) at-large teams or more if needed to fill the bracket.
3. Division Champions need to have a win-loss percentage of above .500 to be considered an automatic bid to the tournament Division. At-large teams with the next highest index will be used to complete the bracket if needed.
4. The school classifications can be found in General Item #6.

B Eligible Teams:

1. All teams must meet the criteria established by DIAA Regulation 1006.2.4 to be eligible for Tournament consideration.
2. A team must play a minimum of five (5 ) games at the varsity level in order to be considered for the tournament. Forfeits will count toward satisfying this requirement. Only those opponents who have played a minimum of a five game varsity schedule will be included in a team’s record. Forfeits will count toward satisfying this requirement. Games cancelations due to COVID-19 will be considered No Contest.
3. Any school which does not wish to be considered for the tournament must notify the Football Committee Chair by December 5th, 2020 so as not to be considered for seeding. Once the committee seeds the tournament, any team that withdraws will be subject to DIAA disciplinary action and that tournament berth will not be filled.
4. For the DIAA state football tournament, the regular season is defined as a school’s first seven (7) regular season varsity football games and they must be completed by Saturday, December 5, 2020. This includes in state and out-of-state school teams.
5. Due to COVID - 19 procedures, the committee recognizes a need to be flexible with schedules for the 2020 football season. Any team that has a schedule change due to COVID-19 game cancellations must petition the Football Committee to recognize the circumstances beyond their control. The DIAA Director and football committee reserve the right to validate the reason for the schedule change

C. Conference Champions: Each conference is responsible for selecting its playoff representative and for making such scheduling adjustments as are necessary so that its champion is available for the playoffs. In the event that a conference champion is not eligible to participate in the tournament or a conference chooses not to send its champion, the committee will use the at-large point index system to choose another team. The conference must notify the Football Committee Chair by December 5, 2020 if their champion will not participate.

D. The teams in each division with the highest point indices, as calculated in 5.B, who are not the conference champions will be the at-large representatives.

 

[BackinBlack86]

Item 5. Tournament Seeding

A. COVID-19 a. The football committee recognizes the need to adapt to changing conditions this fall. We support DIAA recommendations to play high school sports for the opportunity for our student-athletes to compete. We reserve the right to meet and revise the seeding procedure if conditions in Delaware make seeding a tournament unfair and not representative of the best teams in each division

B. Team Report
1. The last competition date for football is Saturday, December 5, 2020. It is the school’s responsibility to verify that all results listed on their team’s website4sports page are accurate and complete by midnight on the last date of competition [ Saturday, December 5, 2020 or the team may not be considered for the tournament .

B. Out of State Opponents:
1. A member of the Committee will be responsible for contacting the out-of-state opponents of each school in contention for a tournament berth and obtaining their state Benchmark date enrollment. Schools that play out-of-state opponents need to send that school’s contact information to the Football Chairperson, Jim Comegys, by October 31, 2020 (james.comegys@colonial.k12.de.us)

2. For out-of-state opponents, the first 7 regular season games that they play in the 2020 season will constitute their 7 game schedule for the purposes of their final record. This may include playoff or tournament games.

3. Any out-of-state opponent whose building houses grades 9-12 (boys and girls) and whose enrollment on September 30, 2018 is equal to or exceeds the 1045 enrollment number (boys and girls in grades 9-12) will be classified as Division I. All other out-of-state opponents whose building houses grades 9-12 will be classified as Division II. This is in effect for school years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. 4. A single gender, out-of-state opponent will be classified by doubling their enrollment as of September 30, 2018. If the figure when doubled is equal to or greater than 1045 that school is classified as Division I. Schools with a doubled enrollment count less than 1045 will be classified as Division II. 5. Regardless of when a contract is/was signed the September 30, 2020 enrollment count will be used to determine classification for all schools, in state or out of state.

B. Index Calculation 1. A school’s point index is determined by adding together the total number of points accumulated and then dividing by the number of games played. 2. Points are awarded for wins, ties and losses as follows:

Game Result Division I Opponent: 6 win 3 tie 1 loss Division II Opponent 4 win 2 tie 0 loss

3. One point is awarded for each opponent that won five (5) games during their regular season regardless of which team won.
4. An additional point is awarded for each opponent that won six (6) or seven (7) games during their regular season regardless of which team won.

C. Tie-Breaking Procedures: If two or more teams are tied for any seed, the following tie-breaking criteria will be used in the order listed. Once a team is removed from the tie, the tie-breaker criteria will be reapplied sequentially to the teams that are still tied.

1. Head to Head Competition
2. The team whose opponents have the most victories in regular season play will qualify for the playoffs.
3. The team whose opponents have the fewest defeats in regular season play will qualify for the playoffs.
4. The team who had the fewest points allowed
5. If a tie still exists, the committee will choose the at-large team(s) by vote.

D. Seeding: Qualifying teams will be seeded according to their calculated index and placed into a bracket accordingly.

1. Division One and Two: Teams are seeded in places 1 to 4.. The team seeded 1 will play the team seeded 4, and the team seeded 2 will play the team seeded 3.
2. If a team withdraws from the tournament after the field is selected, that team will not be replaced and its scheduled opponent will receive a forfeit win into the next round of play. Such a withdrawal/forfeit may subject the school to disciplinary action by the DIAA board of directors.

 

[Titanium Shadow]

Thanks BiB

 

[BackinBlack86]

Looking at how its playing out it is becoming obvious the difference in D1 and D2 points is proving to much of a penalty or bonus for teams with only 5 to 7 games being played.. Autobids may be an issue too..

It definitely should have been same points for D1 or D2 and no autobid for this year.. We will have to take a look at that in the end and see if it would have made a difference..

 

[ReturnOfTheGate]

D2 it's absolutely going to make a difference. Tower Hill the top seed with that horrendous schedule while it's likely whoever finishes 6-1 between DMA/Archmere/St. Mark's is likely sitting home. Delmar and Woodbridge is absolutely going to be a sticky situation to say the least.

 

[Titanium Shadow]

If Delmar and Woodbridge win out, which is very likely, they would both end up 4 and 0 in the Henny South. If CR beats 2 of Dover, Cape, Smyrna, which likely, Delmar would have a 4.17 index to Woodbridge's 4.0 index and win the Henny South.

 

[Titanium Shadow]

In fact, if CR only wins one of Dover, Cape, Smyrna, which is very likely, Delmar and Woodbridge would both have a 4.0 index and Delmar would have the second tie breaker "The team whose opponents have the most victories in regular season play will qualify for the playoffs.".

 

[BackinBlack86]

If Delmar and Woodbridge win out, which is very likely, they would both end up 4 and 0 in the Henny South. If CR beats 2 of Dover, Cape, Smyrna, which likely, Delmar would have a 4.17 index to Woodbridge's 4.0 index and win the Henny South.

They don't use points or points index for conference champion..Only in conference games counts for conference champion..and the conferences choose their own methods of tie break.. might go to points given up to common conference opponents .. or just committee vote a champion..like was said could be some drama lol

 

[BackinBlack86]

In fact, if CR only wins one of Dover, Cape, Smyrna, which is very likely, Delmar and Woodbridge would both have a 4.0 index and Delmar would have the second tie breaker "The team whose opponents have the most victories in regular season play will qualify for the playoffs.".

Again the DIAA systems for DIAA tournament have nothing to do with determining conference champions. The conferences decide that with their own criteria and only conference games count for it.. They "can" simply name a representative.. usually the tie breaks are similar but only vs in conference teams..

Delmar playing CR or Milford will have no advantage or disadvantage for them as far as conference champion goes..

from the rules I posted

C. Conference Champions: Each conference is responsible for selecting its playoff representative and for making such scheduling adjustments as are necessary so that its champion is available for the playoffs. In the event that a conference champion is not eligible to participate in the tournament or a conference chooses not to send its champion, the committee will use the at-large point index system to choose another team. The conference must notify the Football Committee Chair by December 5, 2020 if their champion will not participate.