Caverna and Morgan County have withdrawn according to the KHSAA.

Beechwood and KCD move on to Round 2.

South Warren doesn’t have a first round opponent due to 6A District 1 only having 3 teams. So they move to Round 2 also.

I don’t blame teams for WD at playoff time. It’s a business decision. However it is just another thing, specific to football, that could be better and I am sure the kHSAA will never deal with it. Just eliminate the first round of the playoffs. Allow to teams to schedule 11 regular season games, instead of 10 (which also could be a game scheduled that is more competitive for everyone). “Development’ and game time reps would still be there for teams with the addition of the extra game. By eliminating round one, roughly 15 teams per class would miss the playoffs and playoffs would only be four rounds, instead of five, to finish the season the first week of December.

1 hour ago, FootballGuy2121 said:

Caverna and Morgan County have withdrawn according to the KHSAA.

Here is a link to a running list. My guess is there will be a few more.

https://khsaa.org/2026-teams-withdrawing-from-football-playoffs/

28 minutes ago, FatNate said:

I don’t blame teams for WD at playoff time. It’s a business decision. However it is just another thing, specific to football, that could be better and I am sure the kHSAA will never deal with it. Just eliminate the first round of the playoffs. Allow to teams to schedule 11 regular season games, instead of 10 (which also could be a game scheduled that is more competitive for everyone). “Development’ and game time reps would still be there for teams with the addition of the extra game. By eliminating round one, roughly 15 teams per class would miss the playoffs and playoffs would only be four rounds, instead of five, to finish the season the first week of December.

I don't think that's necessary. They KHSAA has done this to themselves, albeit with good intentions. When they went to six classes in 2007, they made Class 1A smaller - just 32 teams - in order to keep the gap between largest and smallest as tight as possible. However, several very small schools in Class 1A struggle to field teams due to low enrollment numbers, while the larger Class 1A schools are typically capable of competing against schools much larger. Add in the distance involved, especially in the western part of Class 1A, and you end up with lots of playoff dropouts.

While I'm no fan of the RPI, there is an argument to be made for a playoff system that takes the top 16, 24, or even 32 teams using the RPI (or some other math formula) and not district standings, of which many are unbalanced due to geography. As I've said before, the current setup requires some schools to beat multiple teams to qualify for the postseason while others just have to field a team. If you used a RPI-type points system, every team would have at least theoretically "qualified," thus stopping the charade of entering and then pulling out of the playoffs.

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by gchs_uk9

The following things have to happen for Kentucky to have anything other than a complete joke of a week of round one playoff football...

1. Get rid of six classes. Go to five (at a minimum). If I could sum up the first round of the playoffs in one word, that word would be waste:

   • Waste of time and effort- Players and coaches know what is coming this week, on both sides. Maybe 4-5 games will be three scores or less

   • Waste of money- Home teams are lucky to break even on a gate and concessions (and they are supposed to share the gate if they make anything of profit) and away teams are traveling hours where they have to pay for transportation, meals, etc.

2. Eliminate a week of the playoffs ON TOP of reducing the amount of classes. If you stay in district play I know this leads to a lot of schools thinking they are getting the shaft. They aren't. I will be shocked if a three seed were to win two games in the playoffs anywhere in the state, and it might take and act of god for one to still be playing come semi-final weekend. The talent is to top heavy in a way to spread out system. This also would could get the season over with on Thanksgiving Weekend and eliminate any overlap of football and basketball games.

3. Refine the RPI to make it look similar to surrounding states, and you could even do this by eliminating districts. Teams can schedule accordingly and go from there. This actually might help, because a lot of teams in non-district games just go duck hunting hoping to pad wins.

This current model is broken and in need of repair, and the cancellations will continue until you have to actually earn your way into the playoffs.

1 hour ago, Purple88 said:

South Warren doesn’t have a first round opponent due to 6A District 1 only having 3 teams. So they move to Round 2 also.

Separate issue but teams in 4, 5, and even 6 team districts are unfairly punished because of RPI while a team like SW gets to mostly pick their schedule and get an extra week off to get healthy/ready for round two.

I will add, if you drop out of the playoffs you should be automatically disqualified from the postseason the next year and maybe for the term of a given district alignment.

Our current system is triple broken.

I will restate this in this thread.

I have no problem with teams dropping out. I prefer all teams having the opportunity and dropping out to the alternative of excluding teams who want to be in the playoffs.

How about going back to 4 maybe 5 classes and the top two teams from the district get to the playoffs. There are too many running clock games right now in the first round sometimes 2nd round. Also makes winning the dist or coming in 2nd and making the playoffs mean something. Maybe also in the playoffs have the first round hosted by the district #1 team. Then in the rest of the payoffs match teams by RPI.

37 minutes ago, happ said:

How about going back to 4 maybe 5 classes and the top two teams from the district get to the playoffs.

We have this conversation every year so I'm not picking on you, just answering the question before it gets beaten into the ground: from 1987-1990 is the only time in the history of KHSAA playoff football in which the top two teams from each district made the playoffs. Prior to 1987 it was only the district champion or sub-district champion; after 1990 it was four teams per district.