Three things to ponder with postseason fast approaching
This high school football season has been through just about everything imaginable — a heat wave, anthem protests and unhealthy air from wildfires. There have been postponements, cancellations and reshuffling of playoff dates.
The schedule will restart in earnest this weekend, barring any more unforeseen acts, and the finish line is in sight.
Here are three things to ponder down the stretch:
NCS Open
By our estimation, there are four teams with an inside track for the North Coast Section’s coveted four Open Division spots: De La Salle, Pittsburg, San Ramon Valley and Freedom. Clayton Valley Charter, the fifth team on our list, needs help.
The Ugly Eagles hoped they would have gotten some last weekend had Freedom and Antioch played a tight game. Clayton Valley routed Antioch last month. But Antioch canceled the Freedom game because of poor air quality from the North Bay wildfires.
The cancellation left Clayton Valley with one less shot — presumably — to show the selection committee that it belongs in the Open over Freedom, last season’s Open runner-up. Freedom has just one loss on the season, 47-33 to Pittsburg.
Wednesday afternoon, the NCS announced that it will hold a special executive committee meeting Friday to discuss cutting the 16-team playoff brackets in its other divisions to eight teams, clearing the way for canceled games to be played Nov. 9-11. The playoffs would start the following weekend.
Clayton Valley took matters into its own hands last weekend. Its coach, Tim Murphy, arranged a game against Division V Stellar Prep last Friday on four hours’ notice after both schools had games canceled because of the air quality. Clayton Valley won easily. After the game, Murphy told the Bay Area News Group’s Mike Lefkow that he first called Freedom and Pittsburg to see if either would play the Ugly Eagles on short notice.
Both declined. Pittsburg coach Victor Galli saw Murphy’s comment. He offered a candid response:
“He is on the outside looking in,” said Galli, whose team has had two games canceled this season, last weekend against Deer Valley because of the air quality and last month against James Logan because of the heat.
“It would have been no benefit to us to play him on a lastminute game with a gimmick offense and something that takes time to prepare for,” Galli added. “But when we have time to prepare for you, you don’t want none of us. Let it be known: Look at the schedule I scheduled. We aren’t trying to dodge Clayton Valley by any means.
“He’s desperate, and he’s trying to get in the dance. He’s trying to get in the big dance, and right now he doesn’t have a date. If wants some in a normal season, we’re good.”
The game that could turn the entire Open Division upside down: Antioch at Pittsburg on Nov. 4.
If Antioch enters that game with just the one (bad) loss to Clayton Valley and upsets Pittsburg, Clayton Valley could argue that it deserves the No. 2 seed despite two early losses to out-of-state opponents.
CCS Open Divisions
There is a lot to like about the Central Coast Section playoff format, which places 24 “A” league teams into three, eight-team Open Division brackets, separating them by enrollment. The three champions and two of the three finalists — selected by criteria in the section’s football bylaws — move on to the Northern California regionals.
But there is an element that could undergo tweaking: the point system used for seeding.
In the previous playoff format, games within and against teams from the section’s strongest league, the West Catholic, were worth more points than any other league. In the new format, that is no longer the case.
That decision opens the door for brackets to be unbalanced.
Last season, for instance, it was clear going into the playoffs that St. Francis and Serra were the top two teams in the Open Division II bracket. But because of the point system, they ended up in the same quadrant, and Archbishop Mitty from the WCAL — which lost decisively to St. Francis and Serra during the season — found itself on a side without its league heavyweights.
Serra beat St. Francis in the semifinals and Mitty in the final.
A similar scenario could happen this season. Things obviously might change, but right now Valley Christian, Serra and St. Francis look like the top three teams in the WCAL — and the CCS — and all seem headed for Open Division II because of their enrollment.
But it’s possible that a non-WCAL school could end up with the No. 1 seed, followed by the first- and second-place teams from the WCAL in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots.
The third-place team from the WCAL might then find itself with a No. 4 or 5 seed, making it easier for the third-place team to reach the final than teams that finish first or second in the league.
Given that regional berths are at stake by advancing to a final, seeding is obviously more crucial now than before and a point system that creates questionable seeding should be reviewed.
Oakland Athletic League
That big game last week between undefeated McClymonds and Fremont-Oakland was not played because of the wildfires. But as the CCS wisely did by moving its playoff schedule back a week, the Oakland Athletic League is planning to do the same.
Fremont and McClymonds are now expected to play Nov. 9.
McClymonds, which will play host to Skyline on Friday, has not lost an OAL game since 2009.
Reached by phone this week, McClymonds coach Michael Peters said he was glad his team did not play last week.
“It was upset weekend,” he said, referring to the numerous stunners in college football.