LHSAA: No budging; split football playoffs to continue

BATON ROUGE – Public school principals in the five classes of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association that field football teams voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to continue to hold separate championship playoffs, a vote non-public school principals considered a blindside.

Prior to the class meetings, hopes ran high that at least two, and perhaps three, classes would vote to resume common playoffs as it had been for most of the state playoffs since 1929, when the LHSAA allowed non-public schools to join the association.

Nothing could have been further from the truth as moderators of each class called the role of principals.

Class 5A principals voted 33-24 in favor of a continued split. The Class 4A vote was 25-16, 3A voted 36-12, 2A was 34-7 and the 1A count was a closer 24-8 with 13 non-public school principals absent.