LHSAA Playoff Brackets: Storylines, Prospects | D-I Non-Select - Prep Redzone (2024)

Louisiana’s high school football playoffs kick off this weekend.

The LHSAA’s second postseason under a tweaked format features eight brackets — four “nonselect” and four “select” —full of impressive teams and prospects and intriguing matchups and storylines.

We’ll give a quick preview of each, including the top five seeds, two lower seeds to watch for a potential run, up to eight top-ranked prospects, up to five sleeper prospects, an intriguing first-round matchup, a most intriguing potential second-round matchup and an overarching storyline entering the tournament.

Check out the Division-I Non-Select capsule below.

Top 5 seeds: No. 1 Ruston, No. 2 Neville, No. 3 Destrehan, No. 4 Airline, No. 5 St. Amant

Lower seeds to watch: No. 25 Northshore, No. 28 Ouachita Parish

2022 champion: Destrehan

2022 runner-up: Ruston

Intriguing first-round matchup: No. 15 East St. John vs. No. 18 Central (Baton Rouge)

Most intriguing possible second-round matchup: No. 8 West Monroe vs. No. 9 Walker

Overall Storyline:The top of the bracket is full of familiar faces who once again largely appear to be the most legitimate contenders to bring home trophies. Top-seeded Ruston is full of leaders back from last year’s runner-up team and determined the complete the mission this time around. Defending champion Destrehan is the loaded once again as the No. 3 seed in this year’s bracket. And No. 2 Neville and No. 6 Zachary have been among Louisiana’s most prominent and successful programs during the past decade. But don’t overlook some ascending teams in higher seeds than usual, such as No. 4 Airline or No. 5 St. Amant; traditional powers in lower seeds after some ups and downs, such as No. 8 West Monroe or No. 16 Westgate; or even (a long list of) some other talented, but lower-seeded underdog teams more than capable of creating chaos, such as No. 18 Central (Baton Rouge) or No. 21 Mandeville.