For weeks, message boards, post-game radio shows, and newspapers that cover high school football in Tennessee have been spent countless hours on the new playoff system,  debating who was in or out and how it was going to work.

My approach was a wait-and-see-what-happens approach before deciding one way or another if the system will work.
But last Tuesday, my attitude towards the wait-and-see approach had changed.
And the events of this past weekend cemented my conclusion about the new system – it's time to get rid of it.

For those that haven't heard, the TSSAA had a grand unveiling of the playoff brackets on statewide radio Saturday morning.
The only problem is, there were several problems with the brackets that were being announced.
These problems were known while the radio show was still going on but that didn't stop the unveiling process.

And only a couple of hours after the playoff matchups were announced, they were pulled off the TSSAA Web site to be fixed.
This left coaches, players, and fans wondering whom they were really supposed to play and essentially took away half a day's – if not more – preparation for playoff teams.
What can you really say about a system so complex that it can't even be implemented properly by the people that designed it?

The purpose of this new system was two-fold.
First, it was supposed to keep teams closer to home and save on travel expenses. The second reason was to make the playoff field stronger and hopefully cut down on the number of teams with losing record that entered the playoffs.

But I would argue that the Z-plan, as the new system is called, failed to do both.
Sweetwater traveled to Chattanooga, Sequoyah made a trip to Huntsville to fill a game, and Tellico Plains made a long drive to Harriman for a district game.
All of those trips, and there are more examples for each team, are more than 60 miles one-way.
The Z-plan might have cut travel for some teams, but not the way it was thought it would initially.
As for limiting teams with losing record in the playoffs, last year 10 teams, regardless of class, that finished below .500 in the regular season qualified.

This year, that number doubled to 20 teams. That includes White County and its sparkling 1-9 record among the qualifiers.
Five teams in Class 1A finished below .500 and a staggering seven teams (out of 32) are below .500 entering the 5A playoffs.
Not only has adding a playoff classification diluted high school football championships in this state, but bad teams are also qualifying at a higher clip.

All that adds to the frustration of seeing how the new system has come back to bite Tellico.
The Bears will face Oliver Springs in the first round of the playoffs Friday night.
It's a great story about teams that each finished last year with records of 1-9.
Now they're a combined 15-5.
But it's also a game that shouldn't be played, at least not yet.
Earlier this season, Tellico beat Rockwood 21-6 in a game that was more one-sided than the score indicates.
Both teams finished with district records of 3-2 so a tiebreaker would go to the Bears, right?
Wrong.

The tiebreaker (and higher seed) went to Rockwood after it beat Harriman and created a three-way tie.
Because the three teams all beat each other is some way, district records were thrown out and overall records decided who received automatic bids.
And because of that, the Bears were penalized for playing a superior opponent that just happens to be an old rival as well.
That led to a sixth-seed, wild card bid, and playing Oliver Springs.

Yes, I wrote the teams just have to win so there won't be any doubt about making the playoffs.
And for the Bears, there was no doubt. Of the wild card teams in 2A, they're the best based on the criteria.
The TSSAA hinted that they'll take a serious look at the system and if any changes, including going back to the old system, need to be made at their Nov. 19 Board of Control meeting.
The TSSAA was honorable enough to take responsibility for the mess it created this weekend and apologized.

Hopefully we'll see an apology, and steps towards going back to a proven system, in the coming weeks for the problems the Z-plan caused all season.