Louisiana high school football playoffs: Brackets, schedules for all nine classifications

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association football playoffs open Friday in all nine classifications. Many top seeds have first-round byes for the tournaments, which concludes Dec. 26-28 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome with championship games called the LHSAA Prep Classic.

Among those earning first-round byes are four of the top five teams in the current Louisiana MaxPreps computer rankings: No. 1 Brother Martin (Division I), No. 2 St. Thomas More (Division II), No. 4 Archbishop Rummel (Division I) and Catholic-B.R. (Division I).

Third-ranked Acadiana (Lafayette) is the defending champion and top seed of 5A. The Rams hosts Covington on Friday night.

Other defending champions are Edna Karr (4A), St. James (3A), Ferriday (2A), Oak Grove (1A), Rummel (DI), St. Thomas More (Division II), Lafayette Christian Academy (Division III) and Ouachita Christian (Division IV).

Newman (New Orleans), led by 2019 National Freshman of the Year Arch Manning, the nephew of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning, is the top seed in Division III and has a first-round bye. The Greenies seek the program's first state championship.

John Curtis Christian (River Ridge) is the seventh seed in Division I and needs to win four straight not only to claim its 28th state championship, but to give legendary coach J.T. Curtis his 600th career win. The Patriots (4-4) host 10th seed Shaw (2-5) in a first-round game on Friday.

Read on for a look at brackets, this week's matchups and check back beginning Friday for scores.