Playoff points don't tell the whole story
These playoff points have my irked a bit on this Tuesday. The fact that Lassen is No. 3 in Division I football just doesn’t seem right. And I thought Durham would be much better than tied for fifth in Division V volleyball.
The cure for my irking, however, does exist. That cure is time.
Time will eventually reveal which teams deserve which spots because we still have two more weeks of league play in each sport, three weeks in a rare volleyball case.
To read the points, click here.
It seems that the bulk of these mathematical formulas’ results depend on league standings and record within the division, and that means that four games within league can make it or break it for some teams. For example, Wheatland is ahead of Sutter in Division II football.
Sutter has played an elite team from Texas and Central Catholic of Modesto, which happened to play in one of last year’s CIF State Championship Bowls, and is 7-1 overall. Wheatland, although playing lesser teams, is atop the rankings with the same record.
But here’s where time comes in.
Sutter hasn’t played Wheatland yet. Each team is 3-0 in the Butte View League and once Wheatland loses, which I am not-so-boldly predicting, it could knock the Pirates down to third.
And in volleyball, some teams like Durham play tough preseason schedules and play teams from bigger schools. Whereas others prefer to pick on the little kids.
This all evens out in league play, where the teams that played chumps pay for their lack of competition earlier on. A loss in league hurts so much more than a preseason loss, especially if that loss is out of the division.
These playoff points are a good start because you all know how much I love them. But don’t anticipate the final playoff seeds to mirror the playoff points exactly.
After all, Wheatland has to play Sutter still. And Lassen will sink after a league loss, which I see coming sooner rather than later.