ASAA announces prep football playoff format

The Alaska State Activities Association announced a game plan for the 2020 prep football postseason. But the Valley teams’ place in the playoffs is still uncertain.

“It’s not guaranteed the district will let us in,” Palmer High School activities director and ASAA board vice president Dale Ewart said. “We’re waiting on that decision.”

All local high school sports are currently restricted to only competition within the Mat-Su Borough School District due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the district’s mitigation strategy. Ewart said district officials wanted to have the opportunity to take a close look at ASAA’s plan, and the hope is for an official decision sometime early in the week.

ASAA has set a plan for multiple weeks of postseason action for all three football divisions in Alaska. All of it is contingent on individual districts’ decisions to allow participation and any changes the pandemic could bring. Ewart said ASAA and board members had to be “super creative” to create a playoff format for a season that has been restricted to mostly district play, rather than the conference play which typically determines state seeding.

At the Division I level, which includes programs from Anchorage, Juneau and the Valley, ASAA settled on eight qualifiers and a three-round playoff. Six spots were awarded to the Anchorage School District and one in the Mat-Su. Juneau would automatically qualify. The catch is Juneau has yet to play a game this season. Colony would earn the Valley’s lone automatic berth. If Juneau opted to not participate in the postseason, Wasilla would fill that spot. The Knights and the Warriors are the only Division I football teams in the Valley.

The seven DI teams in Anchorage have been split into north and south divisions, and the top three teams from each division advance to the playoffs. Colony will host the No. 3 seed from the south division in the first round, pending approval from the school district.

The higher seed during the first two rounds will be the host school. The site of the championship game has yet to be determined. The Division I playoffs start Oct. 16 and the championship game is Oct. 30.

At the Division II level, the plan is for a four-team playoff that would include one squad each from Fairbanks, Anchorage, the Valley and the Kenai Peninsula. Palmer and Eagle River earned automatic bids, as the only DII team in their respective district. Soldotna or Kenai will represent the Kenai Peninsula, and Lathrop, West Valley or North Pole will represent Fairbanks.

Division II program Kodiak has declined to participate in the prep football postseason.

In the first round, ASAA matched Eagle River with the representative from the Peninsula in one semifinal and Palmer and the representative from Fairbanks in the other. A committee, which would include a representative from each school district and ASAA, will determine the location for the semifinal and championship games. The seeding will be based on traditional criteria, but will also include COVID-19 alert levels in particular regions in the state.

The Division II playoffs begin Oct. 17.

Ewart said the Division III format was arguably the toughest to tackle. After about three failed proposals, Ewart said the board settled on a plan that would include automatic berths for both Redington and defending DIII champion Houston. The plan would also create the first three-week postseason for the Division III level. The top teams from the Interior’s Aurora Conference and the Peninsula Conference would receive a first-round bye. Houston would play the No. 2 seed from the Peninsula Conference and Redington would face the No. 2 seed from the Aurora in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, the top seed from the Aurora will play the winner of the Houston game, and the top seed from the Peninsula will play the winner of the Redington game. Just like Division II, a committee will also determine the locations for the Division III playoff games, which start Oct. 10 and continue through Oct. 24.

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.