Playoff picture becomes clearer

HUNTINGTON -- Last year was a lesson for all high school football playoff prognosticators that early pairing predictions are not final until the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission announces its official brackets.

Last year, three Class AAA teams finished in a tie for 16th in the ratings and the final playoff spot. On the final night of the regular season when all the games had been played it looked as though Hurricane was going to gain that final spot via a third tiebreaker. The Redskins had lost to Spring Valley, who had lost to Cabell Midland, and the three schools finished tied with the same rating. Cabell Midland and Hurricane had not played each other, but the SSAC still used the head-to-head tiebreaker to award the playoff spot to Cabell Midland.

ADVERTISEMENT

It even came as surprise to Cabell Midland. The Knights assumed a regular season loss to Parkersburg South had eliminated them from the postseason.

This year, there are no ties and Hurricane and Cabell Midland both clinched playoff berths last week, but keep in mind that no forecasts are final until the SSAC announces the pairings either Saturday evening or Sunday at www.wvssac.org. And there are still games to be played this afternoon and evening in all classes.

Following is an early forecast of what the brackets should look like pending a handful of games today.

In Class AAA, Hurricane (7-3) will be the 12th seed and play at Martinsburg, the No. 5 seed. Cabell Midland, who was idle this week, benefited from losses by Princeton and Parkersburg South to move up from 15th to 13th. The Knights will travel to Beckley Woodrow Wilson, the No. 4 seed. Defending champion Morgantown locked up the top seed last week and will play Fairmont Senior, who sneaked in with the 16th and final spot with a win against cross-town rival East Fairmont and losses by Princeton and Parkersburg South.

There is still one game today that could affect the ratings, Spring Valley's game with no. 8 John Marshall. The Monarchs could hold onto their spot and home field advantage in the first round, depending on a tiebreaker with South Charleston, or drop as far as 11th with a loss.

The Wayne Pioneers (10-0) locked up the top seed in Class AA with a victory against Logan on Friday. The Pioneers will have home field advantage throughout the playoffs beginning with Liberty-Raleigh.

Four 5-5 teams were able to skate into the AA playoffs, including Logan, Winfield, Grafton and either Berkeley Springs or Ravenswood.

Class AA Tolsia (7-3) managed to clinch one home playoff game with Friday's victory against Chapmanville. The Rebels avoided a possible second-round meeting against the rival Wayne Pioneers by moving up to the seventh seed instead of the eighth or ninth seeds, but Tolsia will play host to Independence in the first round. The game will be played at a site to be determined this weekend because Tolsia's field was not approved for the playoffs.

Weir (9-1) dropped into the fourth seed and on Wayne's side of the bracket which eliminated the possibility of a Wayne-Weir Super Six meeting in Herbert Hoover is the third seed and James Monroe is No. 2.

With several Class A games this afternoon, the small-schools bracket is still very unpredictable. But Buffalo and Hamlin are both in the playoffs and are in line for first round home games.