Mead, Pine Creek, Valor Christian lead football’s playoff fields in 3A, 4A, 5A
AURORA — Football’s three remaining playoff brackets — Classes 3A, 4A and 5A — were unveiled on Sunday, and Mead, Pine Creek and Valor Christian are respective top seeds.
Find the full brackets for each class here:
Teams qualified for the playoff fields as either an automatic league champion, or via an at-large berth through the final RPI standings of the regular season.
Each state playoff bracket begins this coming weekend, with quarterfinals following the weekend after. Semifinals are set for Nov. 24-25, with the championship games to be played on Dec. 2. The 5A and 4A games will be held at Mile High Stadium, and the 3A title game will be played at a home site.
Mead, the No. 1 seed in 3A, finished the year 10-0, the program’s first unbeaten regular season since the program was restarted in 2010. The Mavericks, who reached the semifinals last season, will host No. 16 Harrison in the first round.
Three-time defending 3A champion Pueblo East, which finished the regular season 5-5 and was an automatic qualifier as a league champion, is seeded No. 12 and plays at No. 5 Erie.
In 4A, Pine Creek (9-1) is the No. 1 seed. The Eagles are defending champions of the classification and have actually won three of the past four 4A titles. They open their postseason by hosting No. 16 Golden.
Valor Christian (10-0), top-seeded in 5A, also finished its regular season unbeaten, the first time the Eagles have done that since 2011. Valor is a two-time defending champion, has won four of the past five 5A championships, and seven in eight years across three classes.
Valor Christian opens against No. 16 Chaparral.
