Along with the recent changes affecting lacrosse playoffs last season, 2022 will see additional changes meant to double the amount of teams that compete in the state series.
The big change last season was that the FHSAA voted to allow every team from a district to compete in that district’s playoffs. (Additional coverage from TLR is here) Unchanged however, was the rule that stated that only the district winner was to advance to regionals.
With the FHSAA recently voting in the off-season, changes to the number of teams advancing into regionals has now been approved. Along with district sending their champions, the remaining teams within a region will be ranked and the four next-highest ranked teams will also be invited.
From the FHSAA Lacrosse Sport Manual:
“The champion in each of the 4 district tournaments in each region complex and the next 4 highest-ranked teams in each of the 4 region complexes shall advance to one of the 4 regional tournaments in each classification to which they are assigned. One tournament will be conducted in each regional complex.”
For example, in the TLR coverage area, we have mostly Region 3 teams. Region 3 is comprised of districts 9, 10, 11, and 12. Once the district winners for those four districts are determined through district playoffs, the remaining teams from all four of those districts will be ranked by Power Rating, with the top four also moving on and into regionals.
The results will likely help in two major scenarios. First, in a district where there are two very highly ranked teams, both teams have the possibility of advancing into regionals regardless of who wins the district. Second, there is an outside chance that a tight district championship results in a loss for a team that is on the rise. That team can still get into regionals, but will be now be battling higher rated teams. They may have a longshot, but Cinderella Stories are always fan favorites.
