If the Playoffs Started Today 1A/2A

encflatlander · Wednesday at 9:32 AM

Hey Everyone! I had some down time and decided to do the 1A and the 2A Playoff Brackets if the season ended today. All of this is based on RPI. I plan on updating this once a week if I have the time. If there is a team that has to be "put in the hat" I will flip them back and forth each week. If you see any errors don't hesitate to point them out. Also, if you hear of any more teams folding their season please put it in this thread so I can stay up to date. Thanks and Enjoy!

1A
East
1- Northside- Pinetown
BYE

8- Southeast Collegiate Prep
9- Washington County

5- Rocky Mount Prep
12- Weldon STEM

4- Columbia
BYE

3- North Edgecombe
BYE

6- North East Carolina Prep
11- Bear Grass Charter

10- Jones
7- KIPP Pride

2- Hobgood Charter
BYE

West
1- Chatham Central
BYE

8- Sallie B. Howard
9- Bonnie Cone Leadership

5- Rosman
12- The College Prep & Leadership

4- South Davidson
BYE

3- Wilson Prep
BYE

6- Robbinsville
11- North Stokes

10- Andrews
7- Winston Salem Prep

2- East Columbus
BYE

2A
East
1- Tarboro
BYE

17- East Carteret
16- West Columbus

8- Bertie
BYE

9- Gates
BYE

5- Southside
BYE

21- ALA- Johnston
12- Union

4- Edenton Holmes
BYE

13- Perquimans
20- Lejeune

3- Warren County
BYE

19- Camden
14- Hobbton

6- North Duplin
BYE

11- Rosewood
22- Triangle Math and Science

7- Lakewood
BYE

10- East Bladen
BYE

2- Manteo
BYE

15- Northwest Halifax Collegiate
18- Pamlico

West
1- Starmount
BYE

16- Bishop McGuiness(Team in the Hat)
17- Langtree Charter

8- Cherryville
BYE

9- East Wilkes
BYE

5- Cherokee
BYE

21- Hayesville
12- Community School of Davidson

4- Christ The King
BYE

13- Elkin
20- South Stanly

3- Alleghany
BYE

19- Swain Co.
14- Albemarle

6- North Rowan
BYE

11- Mitchell
22- Highland Tech

7- Mountain Island Charter
BYE

23- Bradford Prep
10- Murphy

2- Corvian Community
BYE

15- Avery Co.
18- South Stokes

vikandpirate4christ · Wednesday at 10:58 AM

awesome, thanks for sharing! Glad that you are going to do this each week. Manteo vs Edenton later in the year will be a good one to keep an eye on. If things stay similar to this, Northside should walk to the title game in December.

Wow71 · Wednesday at 12:04 PM

West will be tough if they have all those teams in the bracket. Why would the West get Wilson Prep, E Columbus and SB Howard?

ncfootball_17 · Wednesday at 12:14 PM

Wow71 said:
West will be tough if they have all those teams in the bracket. Why would the West get Wilson Prep, E Columbus and SB Howard?

Top 48 teams (or less if not enough teams/too many opt outs) make the playoffs and then split between east and west. There is no predetermined side anymore.

While I like that there isn't a predetermined side to make sure that the top teams get in, there needs to be some logic that doesn't force these teams to drive 6+ hours for a game. Maybe have two predetermined lines that say if you fall west of "X" you are west and if you fall east of "Y" you go east and if you are between X and Y, you can go either way. However, this seems to be more of an issue with 1A, so maybe they need to drop the number of teams that make football playoffs for 1A, like they do for 8A.

Wow71 · Wednesday at 12:16 PM

This takes out a West team as TJCA has cancelled the season.

Owen Stampede · Wednesday at 2:46 PM

Can you do 3a and 4a?

80prepster · Wednesday at 4:53 PM

ncfootball_17 said:
Top 48 teams (or less if not enough teams/too many opt outs) make the playoffs and then split between east and west. There is no predetermined side anymore.

While I like that there isn't a predetermined side to make sure that the top teams get in, there needs to be some logic that doesn't force these teams to drive 6+ hours for a game. Maybe have two predetermined lines that say if you fall west of "X" you are west and if you fall east of "Y" you go east and if you are between X and Y, you can go either way. However, this seems to be more of an issue with 1A, so maybe they need to drop the number of teams that make football playoffs for 1A, like they do for 8A.

The pairings from east to west have been crazy and ridiculous in expense for schools over the years. I remember about 2008, South Columbus was I think put in the west bracket, and because they were the higher seeded team, Starmount had to drive all the way to Tabor City to play in the playoffs. That’s a distance over 230 miles shortest route, approximately 4 hours travel time, and practically within 20-25 miles from the nearest beach. That’s insanity the NCHSAA would do that! The only consolation was that the Rams beat the Stallions on their home turf, 17-14.

beamer24 · Wednesday at 9:28 PM

80prepster said:
The pairings from east to west have been crazy and ridiculous in expense for schools over the years. I remember about 2008, South Columbus was I think put in the west bracket, and because they were the higher seeded team, Starmount had to drive all the way to Tabor City to play in the playoffs. That’s a distance over 230 miles shortest route, approximately 4 hours travel time, and practically within 20-25 miles from the nearest beach. That’s insanity the NCHSAA would do that! The only consolation was that the Rams beat the Stallions on their home turf, 17-14.

Whiteville had to go to the mtns 1 year.

radioguy16 · 2026-09-24T07:00:15-0500

Roughly 10ish years ago North Wilkes had to go to Whiteville lol

Also I remember a few years ago that East Columbus had to come to Alleghany and then had they won the game they would have had to go right back to Murphy. INSANITY

Wow71 · 2026-09-24T07:30:34-0500

ncfootball_17 said:
Top 48 teams (or less if not enough teams/too many opt outs) make the playoffs and then split between east and west. There is no predetermined side anymore.

While I like that there isn't a predetermined side to make sure that the top teams get in, there needs to be some logic that doesn't force these teams to drive 6+ hours for a game. Maybe have two predetermined lines that say if you fall west of "X" you are west and if you fall east of "Y" you go east and if you are between X and Y, you can go either way. However, this seems to be more of an issue with 1A, so maybe they need to drop the number of teams that make football playoffs for 1A, like they do for 8A.

1A will only have around 23-24 teams in the playoffs. Most of the high seeds 1-4 will be a first round bye and they only play four rounds instead of five. Anyone know of any 1A teams playing a JV season? In the Greater Triad 1A/2A S Davidson is the only school with a JV team of about 18 kids. Bishop and S Stokes have teams but are 2A. TJCA just cancelled their season and they were a pretty good playoff team last year in 1A. I know the SMC and WHC may have JV but they do it differently from what I hear.

OAR · 2026-09-24T07:36:40-0500

Wow71 said:
Anyone know of any 1A teams playing a JV season? In the Greater Triad 1A/2A S Davidson is the only school with a JV team of about 18 kids. Bishop and S Stokes have teams but are 2A. TJCA just cancelled their season and they were a pretty good playoff team last year in 1A. I know the SMC and WHC may have JV but they do it differently from what I hear.

SMC and a lot of WHC technically have junior High ball for 7-9 graders. Even with that there have been numbers issues at Swain and Andrews this year.

encflatlander · 2026-09-24T08:14:12-0500

Owen Stampede said:
Can you do 3a and 4a?

Working on it now!

encflatlander · 2026-09-24T08:17:13-0500

Wow71 said:
1A will only have around 23-24 teams in the playoffs. Most of the high seeds 1-4 will be a first round bye and they only play four rounds instead of five. Anyone know of any 1A teams playing a JV season? In the Greater Triad 1A/2A S Davidson is the only school with a JV team of about 18 kids. Bishop and S Stokes have teams but are 2A. TJCA just cancelled their season and they were a pretty good playoff team last year in 1A. I know the SMC and WHC may have JV but they do it differently from what I hear.

Northside has a JV. Beat Rose's freshman team 22-14 last night. Has not played a single 1A school all year.

recycled2 · 2026-09-24T09:27:41-0500

OAR said:
SMC and a lot of WHC technically have junior High ball for 7-9 graders. Even with that there have been numbers issues at Swain and Andrews this year.

Andrews does not have a JV team . The rest of the conference has fielded a 7-9 team.

vikandpirate4christ · 2026-09-24T10:05:55-0500

encflatlander said:
Northside has a JV. Beat Rose's freshman team 22-14 last night. Has not played a single 1A school all year.

Coach at northside has built a really nice program! I said in another thread, that I don't really care for Tarboro playing 1a schools, but if they were to play one, I wouldn't mind them playing northside.

ncfootball_17 · 2026-09-24T10:08:33-0500

Wow71 said:
1A will only have around 23-24 teams in the playoffs. Most of the high seeds 1-4 will be a first round bye and they only play four rounds instead of five. Anyone know of any 1A teams playing a JV season? In the Greater Triad 1A/2A S Davidson is the only school with a JV team of about 18 kids. Bishop and S Stokes have teams but are 2A. TJCA just cancelled their season and they were a pretty good playoff team last year in 1A. I know the SMC and WHC may have JV but they do it differently from what I hear.

I looked up last year and it looks like they had the extra week between the regional finals and the state championship games. When was that decided though because unless I missed something the handbook states that 1A will have (up to) 48 teams placed on a 64-team bracket.

Last year in 1A there were 22 teams that made the playoffs. If you wanted to make it, you were in for 1A. The top 5 teams had byes the first round on each side.

With money being a huge concern, and gas prices going up, I would think that the NCHSAA would still want to put some type of limit on travel, if possible. Based on the NCHSAA handbook, If Robbinsville has to travel to one of these eastern teams (or vise versa) then someone is going to be responsible for the reimbursement of over $800. They will lose money on that game. There's no need for teams to travel 300+ miles just so the east and west can have 11 teams each. It would make more sense to do 10 teams on one side and 12 teams on the other.

Just to clarify, there are a total of 6 playoff "rounds". You have the first four "rounds", regional, then championship game. I think that is way too many with 8 classifications. The state should drop the number to 32 teams and only have five rounds total.

Owen Stampede · 2026-09-24T13:12:06-0500

Madison Owen Polk and Hendersonville field regular JV teams. Avery Mitchell and mountain heritage field junior high teams

TheJims · 2026-09-24T14:46:14-0500

radioguy16 said:
Roughly 10ish years ago North Wilkes had to go to Whiteville lol

Also I remember a few years ago that East Columbus had to come to Alleghany and then had they won the game they would have had to go right back to Murphy. INSANITY

North Duplin went on the road and upset Cherokee in 06 then had to go to Elkin the following week.

If the Playoffs Started Today 1A/2A

Redshirt

All-Conference

Senior

Senior

Senior

All-Conference

Freshman

All-American

Junior

Senior

Redshirt

Redshirt

Redshirt

Sophomore

All-Conference

Senior

All-Conference

Junior