TSSAA’s football season is down to its final week, and while three of Madison County’s seven teams have been eliminated from playoff contention, the other four have plenty to play for this week.
Three of the four have secured spots in their respective playoffs, while the fourth is probably in the playoffs.
South Side fell out of contention last week with its loss, and Jackson Central-Merry and Liberty were already out of contention entering Week 10.
Here’s how the other four teams look going into Week 11:
Division II-A West
Thursday night is a big night for local sports as it will probably be the night of the biggest game in the regular season in Madison County.
That’s when Trinity Christian (7-2 overall, 5-0 in Division II-A West) hosts Jackson Christian (9-0, 5-0).
Both teams are guaranteed not only being in the playoffs next week but also hosting their first game in the postseason.
So this is the championship game for the region.
The region champion actually gets a bye in the first round of the playoffs and will host a second-round game (or the state quarterfinals). The third-place teams from the Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee regions will play each other next week to determine who travels to Jackson in that game.
The region runner-up, or the team that loses between Jackson Christian and TCA, will host the No. 4 team from East Tennessee next week in the first round.
Division II-AA West
University School of Jackson (6-3, 3-1) is in a good news, better news situation.
The Bruins know they’re in the playoffs, and they know they’re in the region’s top three teams. That means they know they host a first-round game next week. That’s the good news.
What’s the better news? USJ needs some help, but it still has a shot at winning the region championship.
The Bruins travel to Lausanne this week, who beat Northpoint Christian last week to break a tie for first.
If USJ were to win at Lausanne and Northpoint were to lose its game to Evangelical Christian School, the Bruins would become the region champions. If USJ were to lose or Northpoint were to win, any scenario including either of those occurrences ends with USJ in third place.
If USJ and Northpoint were to win, that would force a three-way tie for first.
The first tiebreaker in that situation is overall record, which Lausanne would have the advantage there, giving them the championship. Then to break the tie between USJ and Northpoint, Northpoint gets the advantage because that would fall back to the head-to-head result between the two teams.
Region 6-4A
After last week’s results, we know Hardin County is the region champion and South Gibson is the region runner-up.
If Chester County (2-7, 1-3) had beaten Lexington (4-5, 2-2), that would’ve solidified the Eagles and North Side (4-5, 2-2) as being playoff teams.
But Lexington kept its hopes alive with the win. It also kept North Side’s chances of missing the playoffs alive, so here’s how things break down among the Indians, Tigers and Eagles.
North Side and Chester County play each other, and Lexington plays Hardin County.
If Lexington loses to Hardin County and North Side wins, North Side finishes third and Lexington fourth. If Lexington loses and Chester County wins, the three teams are in a three-way tie. The first tie-breaker then is overall record, which would knock Chester County out. North Side would then finish third and Lexington fourth.
If Lexington were to win against Hardin County and North Side wins, North Side finishes third and Lexington fourth because the Indians have the head-to-head tiebreaker. If Lexington and Chester County were to win, Lexington would finish third and Chester County would finish fourth because the Eagles would pull even with North Side at 2-3 in region play and own the tiebreaker over the Indians.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
