The N.C. High School Athletic Association released preliminary brackets for the 2024 football playoffs at approximately 4:00 p.m.

A total of 64 teams make the state playoffs in football, which means there are six rounds in the playoffs.

The first round of the playoffs is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15. Each of the first five rounds are played at the higher seed.

The football state championship games will be played on Dec. 20-21 at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh and Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill. The schedule and location assignments for the state championships will be released by the NCHSAA at a later date.

The process to determine the playoff brackets began early in the afternoon on Sunday when the NCHSAA released the final version of the RPI rankings. The RPI rankings are used to determine at-large qualifiers for the playoffs and to seed the brackets once the qualifiers are determined.

Initially, the NCHSAA released preliminary brackets at approximately 4:00 p.m. Schools had about an hour to report an errors or issues.

HighSchoolOT will have full coverage of the football playoffs through the state championship games.

2024 NCHSAA Football Playoff Schedule

• Sunday, Nov. 10 — Official brackets released by NCHSAA
• Friday, Nov. 15 — First Round at higher seed
• Friday, Nov. 22 — Second Round at higher seed
• Friday, Nov. 29 — Third Round at higher seed
• Friday, Dec. 6 — Fourth Round at higher seed
• Friday, Dec. 13 — Regional Finals at higher seed
• Dec. 20-21 — State championships at UNC or NC State