KICKOFF COUNTDOWN: AISA makes revisions to playoff brackets
Chambers Academy won the Class AAA championship in 2025 and will be favorites to win again this season. (File Photo)
By TIM GAYLE
The Alabama Independent School Association unveiled a new playoff script for the 2026 season, one that has been met with mixed opinions from its coaches.
In past years, AISA schools have been divided based on enrollment, but this year’s model will seed all 20 teams, 10 in each region, with the top eight earning playoff berths. The top four will play in the Class AAA playoffs, with the next four making the Class AA playoffs.
“I kind of like it,” said Hooper Academy coach Dusty Baker. “A school like us, we were going to be in the highest classification and we’re just not big enough to be in the highest classification and compete with those guys on a regular basis.
“With us only having 20 teams in 11-man football, it kind of made sense to go to 10 two-team divisions and have an East and a West instead of AA and AAA. Now we’re going to take the top four teams and play at a higher (AAA) level for a state championship and the next four are going to play for a second (AA) level. Now, eight of the teams in your region will make the playoffs. It gives us a good chance to make the playoffs. It gives every school an opportunity to make the playoffs and continue their postseason that normally wouldn’t get that opportunity under the old system.”
The new classification format applies only to football programs. Coaches of programs that were clearly in the bottom half of the organization in enrollment numbers aren’t particularly fond of the new system, although the difference in enrollment numbers that were compiled in February and those in August from CHOOSE Act participants played a role in the new format.
“We don’t really know how enrollment is going to be affected,” AISA executive director Michael McLendon said. “Because of the potential for changing enrollment based on the CHOOSE Act, it’s difficult to strictly classify by numbers.”
McLendon said the new system was modeled after one used in 2025 by Mississippi’s Mid-South Association of Independent Schools.
“The conversation drifted between one classification of 11-man football or two classifications of 11-man football,” McLendon said. “This was sort of a compromise between the two, where you have one classification for travel and regional alignment but you still give smaller schools an opportunity to compete for championships.”
The 20 teams are divided by Region 1 (East) and Region 2 (West), with the top four finishers in Region 1 playing the top four in Region 2 as part of the Class AAA playoffs in November. Since the fourth-seeded team would travel to the top-seeded team of the opposing region, there would be an obvious tendency for teams to desire a drop to the fifth seed, where they would maintain home-field advantage throughout the Class AA playoffs.
“That’s the part I don’t understand,” Edgewood Academy coach Gregg Baker said. “I don’t think there’s going to be anybody that throws a game, but do you want to be moved up to play AAA or do you want to play for the AA championship?”
It also creates a scenario where the fifth- and sixth-seeded teams may be struggling to put together a winning season but are now AA championship contenders provided they can avoid moving up to the fourth seed and being included in the AAA playoffs.
“I’ve talked with coaches about it,” Dusty Baker said. “I’m of the opinion I want to play in the top bracket. If I’m that team that’s sitting at four, I want to go win that game and I want to play with the big guys and see what we can do. That’s just the mentality I have as a competitor. I hope that’s the mentality of all the coaches. Winning that (AAA) state championship is going to mean a whole lot more than winning the second (AA) state championship. Either way, we’re going to compete and we’re going to try to win at whatever we’re doing.”