Class 5A football in Colorado will have major postseason changes beginning in the 2016 season, including a shift from a 32-team to a 16-team playoff and an adjustment of conference alignment calculated by an RPI-based waterfall system.
The current 5A playoff field has included 32 teams since 2006, with qualifiers determined by a wild-card points system.
The Colorado High School Activities Association football committee , which were by an ad-hoc committee composed of a representative from each 5A conference.
The regular season in 5A will also now be 10 games instead of nine.
The football postseason change brings the 5A playoff landscape in line with five other football classifications — 4A through 8-man. Six-man will continue to use an eight-team playoff field.
The changes will also evenly balance the 5A conferences and completely remake current conferences, which are largely based on geography.
The central part of the postseason change is an altered version of the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) system, which will be used to determine playoff qualifiers. RPI ranks teams based on its winning percentage and strength of schedule — determined by winning percentages.
“The wild-card system served its purpose at the time,” said Harry Waterman, CHSAA commissioner of football. “The RPI has been much more accurate with our high school results since we’ve tested it.”
RPI is used by the NCAA to help determine postseason seedings, including those for the men’s basketball tournament.
All seven conference champions will get automatic bids to the playoffs. Then, the top nine teams left, based on RPI, will also advance.
“That’s how to get the right teams in the playoffs,” Valor Christian football coach Rod Sherman said of RPI. “It’s a really great proposal, with really good timing.”
But with a 16-team playoff format in 5A, coaches and officials said they believed conferences had to be more balanced. That’s where the waterfall alignment system comes in.
Starting with the 2014-15 season’s data, waterfall alignment will be ranked in 2016 on a two-year RPI average. The top seven teams in the rankings will be placed into seven separate conferences.
After the top seven are placed, conferences are filled with teams based on a snaked order of their RPI ranking. For example, the No. 8 team based on RPI would be with No. 7. No. 9 would be with No. 6, and the No. 10 team would be with No. 5 — all the way to the 42nd, and last, ranked school.
CHSAA’s goal is to have only 42 football teams in 5A by 2016 (there are 49 in that classification currently). Then, the 42 would be divided evenly among the seven conferences — six teams per conference. Assuming the system stays in place past 2018, conferences would change every two years.
“For some schools with a long history in the same conference, I can see the format change being challenging,” Sherman said. “But the rivalries can still be protected in nonconference games. It will be like a CU vs. CSU, or Texas vs. Texas A&M kind of thing, where they are crosstown rivalries, not in the same conference, but they can still play each other.”
But these changes likely won’t just be limited to football.
“Expect other sports to head in the direction of more balanced classes,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann said.
Morgan Dzakowic: 303-954-1275, mdzakowic@denverpost.com or
Colorado Class 5A Football Conference Realignment
A look at how conferences would be re-aligned in Class 5A football based on a team’s two-year RPI ranking average.
| Conference 1 | Conference 2 | Conference 3 | Conference 4 | Conference 5 | Conference 6 | Conference 7 |
| No. 1 | No. 2 | No. 3 | No. 4 | No. 5 | No. 6 | No. 7 |
| No. 14 | No. 13 | No. 12 | No. 11 | No. 10 | No. 9 | No. 8 |
| No. 15 | No. 16 | No. 17 | No. 18 | No. 19 | No. 20 | No. 21 |
| No. 28 | No. 27 | No. 26 | No. 25 | No. 24 | No. 23 | No. 22 |
| No. 29 | No. 30 | No. 31 | No. 32 | No. 33 | No. 34 | No. 35 |
| No. 42 | No. 41 | No. 40 | No. 39 | No. 38 | No. 37 | No. 36 |
