By: RHETT MANUEL
Sports Editor
The talk around the LHSAA for at least the past 10 years has revolved around the state’s playoff format for high school sports.
Select versus non-select. It’s a tired song and dance for just about every school that participates in athletics on any level.
After last year’s controversial defining of what constituted a select and non-select school, the member schools of the LHSAA put the idea of redefining those words at last week’s annual convention.
As it turned out, the big decision the member schools made was to make no decision right now. Member schools overwhelmingly voted to keep the current format in place until summer, when it will be revisited by state principals.
The vote to shelf the issue for now was largely due to the upcoming girls’ basketball playoffs. With two weeks to go until they start at the time of the meeting, there simply wasn’t enough time to come up with a workable solution.
In the system voted in last year, baseball, softball and basketball will all use a 10-bracket format (five select, five non-select). The previous system had a 12-bracket format. Football is the only sport that uses a eight-bracket format.
June 19, 2026
