The Oakland Raiders' owner, Al Davis, made three little words famous back in the days when the Raiders were actually competing for, and winning, championships.

"Just win baby," has become the ultimate, make-no-excuses rallying cry for teams across all sports over the past several decades.

And for high school football teams in Tennessee, those three words are especially true with the new playoff system implemented by the TSSAA.
After all, a loss in Week 1 could be the difference between a playoff appearance and staying at home in November.

With the exception of their being six classes in Division I, I like the playoff format change. Sweetwater fans are probably slightly more in tune with how the format works since Class AA was the proverbial guinea pig for the last two seasons.

And as confusing as that system could be at times, it looks like simple math when compared to a system harder to understand than astrophysics that will be in place for the next four years.
When talking to people about the new system, my head starts swimming with thoughts of different classes, automatic qualifiers, wild cards, and quadrants.

In the old days, and by old I mean last year, of Tennessee high school football, one could count the number of teams in a region, add up how many games it would take to be assured of a fourth place finish, and aim for that many wins.
Sometimes that number was as low as one.

But that system is out the window. Each time a team takes the field, a win is crucial to its playoff hopes.
There's no perfect system for determining who goes to the playoffs and who doesn't. But I'm in favor of this system after watching the way it worked in Class AA the last two seasons.

The playoff field in Class AA was probably the strongest from top to bottom in the state.
And while the system may be confusing, at least the focus is on winning.