The Best Seat in the House

The final Friday of the football season is a light night, with half of the area teams on open dates, so we’re already looking ahead to the playoffs.

And so is the KHSAA. Because the high school football district races are over and most of the playoff pairings are set, the KHSAA has been filling in its playoff brackets.

Only a few blank spaces remain where three-way ties must still be decided, but for the most part the brackets are full. They’ll be updated once the tiebreakers are decided and once the first-round game times are set, ready to get those office pools organized Monday morning.

See the brackets here, in your choice of HTML or PDF formats.

The even-odd/high-low rotation used for third- and fourth-round games is always a little tough to interpret, so we’ll help you read the tea leaves for the local teams. If higher seeds prevail, Lincoln County would have a maximum of three home games in Class 5-A, Danville would have up to two in 2-A and Boyle would have one in 4-A. (Garrard County and Mercer County will open the playoffs on the road.)

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Now for the last set of picks in the regular-season. Last week was my first sub-.500 week this fall, so I’m looking to redeem myself and regroup for the postseason with these:

• Trimble County over Casey County.
• Lincoln County over Hopkinsville.
• Paul Dunbar at Boyle County.

Last week: 2-3. For the season: 38-14 (.731).

With the exception of football, cross country is the last of the fall sports still going. Regional meets are Saturday, and while there probably won’t be any local team champions, a number of athletes from seven area schools will likely qualify for the state meet.

All of this year’s regional meets are out of town. Here’s the schedule:

• Class A, Region 4 (Burgin, Danville): 10 a.m. at Easy Walker Park, Mount Sterling.
• Class AA, Region 4 (Boyle County, Casey County, Mercer County): 10:30 a.m. at Asbury College, Wilmore.
• Class AAA, Region 6 (Lincoln County): 10 a.m. Saturday at North Laurel.

The state meet is Nov. 10 at its usual venue, the Kentucky Horse Park just north of Lexington — though it may not be there much longer thanks to the World Equestrian Games. The first Class A race is at 9:30 a.m., Class AA begins at 11:30 a.m. and Class AAA begins at 1:30 p.m.