The last 90 hours have been nothing short of a whirlwind around high school football.
Now, three days before the scheduled opening round of the playoffs, the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission has announced the start of the postseason is postponed in each of the four classifications due to ongoing litigation.
“We are extremely disappointed to not be having the playoffs this weekend,” WVSSAC Executive Director David Price said. “We understand the frustration from all of the parties involved, and we want nothing more than to put the focus back on the student-athletes and their pursuit of a championship. However, we must abide by the decisions of the courts and their timeline.”
An injunction granted Saturday in Wood County set the playoff ratings system to what it looked like before August reclassifications, causing four projected playoff teams to be replaced by four teams that otherwise would not have played beyond the regular season.
The four schools bumped from postseason as a result of the tweak were Hampshire, Point Pleasant, Westside and Tolsia. They were replaced by Capital, St. Albans, Lincoln and St. Marys.
Late Monday, Mason County Circuit Judge Anita Ashley issued a ruling ordering play-in games this Friday in the Class AAA playoffs that were to match Point Pleasant against St. Albans and Hampshire against Capital for the right to be among the top 16.
Additionally, a lawsuit seeking injunctive relief for Westside was filed Monday in Wyoming County.
Because the playoff field also changed in Class AA and Class A, it seemed unlikely play-ins would occur only in Class AAA.
As a result of different injunctions granting different rulings, the matter is now likely to be determined by West Virginia’s Supreme Court of Appeals in the coming days.
The postseason will begin after litigation has been resolved.
“We wouldn’t determine it, because if we did, we would be in contempt of court from one judge or the other, and we can’t do that,” said Wayne Ryan, Associate Executive Director of the WVSSAC during a Monday appearance on Citynet Statewide Sportsline. “At that high point, it has to go to a higher court. We would need a higher court to step in and make the decision which rating system we use and as soon as they’d make the ruling, we’d go to work and have our state playoffs.”
Bridgeport recently wrapped up an unbeaten regular season and is the No. 3 seed in Class AAA regardless of what playoff rating system rules out. However, the Indians’ first-round opponent would differ between Robert C. Byrd and Lewis County based on that rating system.
“Everybody kind of saw this coming. You heard about it and knew about it,” Bridgeport head coach Tyler Phares said on his weekly radio show. “We explained to the kids that it might happen. We’re not going to sit around and whine and cry about anything. We’ll find a way to get better, and whenever it’s time to play, we’re going to play. We got to work on things today we usually don’t have time to work on. We’re going to use this week to become a better football team and hopefully next week, we’re playing football again. That’s the big goal. If we’re not playing football next week, I might change my tune a little bit, but I fully expect us to be playing football next week.”
The playoff field did not change in Class AAAA as all 16 teams qualify for the postseason, though seeding for 11 of those teams was altered by the tweak to the playoff ratings.
Thirty-two first-round matchups had been scheduled for Friday or Saturday of this week — the first of a four-week long postseason.
State title games were to be contested December 6-7 in Charleston and will now be moved back at least one week.
“You’re looking at probably everything being backed up one week,” Ryan said. “We can’t be sure what’s going to happen. We’ll know more by midweek where we stand.”