This is the week we find out just how chaotic the high school football playoffs in Kentucky will be. The Jefferson County Public Schools canceled this past weekend’s action, and there will be no games for JCPS schools this weekend either, which happens to be the final weekend of the abbreviated regular season. The decision to cancel both weeks of action came as Jefferson County was in the “red” category on the state COVID outbreak map.
What we await now is a decision later this week about what Jefferson County will do about athletics next week. If the pattern follows, that announcement should come late Thursday night, or Friday morning. A decision to cancel athletics for another week means significant upheaval for the high school football playoffs, especially in the state’s larger classes.
For example, in Class 6A District 3, Butler, Manual, and Pleasure Ridge Park are all JCPS schools, leaving only St. Xavier. In Class 6A District 4, Fern Creek, Male and Southern are all JCPS schools, leaving only Bullitt East in the mix.
In Class 6A District 5, Ballard and Eastern are public schools, leaving only Trinity in the three team district.
With Class 6A having only 32 schools, normally every team across the state makes the playoffs.
In Class 5A District 3, Doss, Iroquois, Fairdale, and Western are JCPS schools, leaving only Bullitt Central in the district. In Class 5A District 4, Atherton, Jeffersontown, and Seneca are JCPS schools, leaving North Bullitt and South Oldham.
As you move down to Class 4A, in District 3, Moore and Valley are Jefferson County schools. In Class 4A District 4, Central and Waggener are impacted by any Jefferson County decision.
With the smaller football schools from the Jefferson County area being private schools, Class 3A, Class 2A, and Class A, are essentially spared any impact from a Jefferson County decision not to play. However, the impacts would be noteworthy on the state’s three largest classes.
Should the KHSAA decided to change the layout of the playoffs in the three largest classes, at least the Jefferson County decision would likely come a full week ahead of the 1st round games being played.
