MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama High School Athletic Association recently realigned its football playoff format, and this year’s high school football playoff teams will face unfamiliar foes and could potentially have to travel great distances in the early playoff rounds because of it.

Teams in each classification’s Region 1 will face Region 4, Region 2 will face Region 3, Region 5 matches up against Reg 8 and Region 7 takes on Region 6.

Class 6A, Region 2 teams will match up with teams from the wiregrass region like Auburn, Enterprise, Opelika, Central Phenix City and Dothan. While Baldwin’s 6A teams potentially have a long drive for the first round of the playoffs, Baldwin’s Class 5A, Region 1 teams would have to travel all the way to the Birmingham metro area. Gulf Shores, Spanish Fort, St. Paul’s and the Region 1 teams match up with Region 4 teams like Hueytown, McAdory, John Carroll and Fairfield in the early rounds.

In Class 3A, Region 1 the Bayside Academy Admirals would have to travel to the Tuscaloosa-West Alabama area to face teams like Gordo, Northside and Aliceville.

The brackets are also aligned so that teams from the same region will not have the possibility of facing each other until the quarterfinal round.