How the football playoffs work

Thanks to the Gaston Gazette's Phil Gardner for posting this on varsitync.com. This is a great breakdown of how the playoff process works for high school football in N.C.

THE PLAYOFF PROCESS
The following procedures were adapted from the N.C. High School Athletic Association handbook:

QUALIFICATION
All classifications will field 64 teams.
Each school will report a 10-game record and may drop any non-conference game if it played 11 games.

To qualify:
1. In a split conference, a team must finish first or second in its division.
2. A team must have four wins overall if it does not finish first or second in a split conference.
3. If not enough teams qualify using the criteria in No. 1 and No. 2, the teams with the highest conference winning percentage would qualify next.
4. If too many teams qualify using the criteria in No. 1 and No. 2, the NCHSAA will use the number of conference wins to determine qualifiers.
(The 1A classification will qualify 64 teams with the best overall record.)

SUBDIVIDING
Once the 64 teams for each classification are determined, they will be divided into the large 32 and small 32 based on this year’s enrollment. Class 1A becomes 1AA and 1A, 2A becomes 2AA and 2A, etc.

Each group of 32 will then be divided into the 16 easternmost and 16 westernmost teams.

SEEDING
1. All conference No. 1 seeds will be seeded first by overall records. If teams in different classifications are tied for their respective conference championship, they will both be seeded as No. 1 seeds. If a team finishes first its division of a split conference, it is seeded as a No. 1.
2. All No. 2 seeds are seeded by overall records.
3. All No. 3 seeds are seeded by overall records.
4. All other qualifying teams are seeded based on overall record, regardless of conference finish.