Seeding matters
- Thread starter ocdavis31
- Start date
I remember not recently, but not over 20 years ago either, when North Edgecombe went to the 1A championship as a 16. They lost, though. That was back when if a 16 seed beat a 1 seed, then that 16 seed got home field as long as they remained in the playoffs, no matter what their opponent's seed was.
2002 Cummings 2A May be in the running. Forfeited multiple games. Six I believe. I saw Cavalier Dave’s ring, it had 15-1 on the side.
Use Cummings as an example. The regular season ended officially being 4-17. They got a six seed by finishing second in the conference and played 11 seed North Rowan. Cummings rolled through the regional until a close game with Clinton. State champion 9-7. They were lucky (and the NCHSAA, also) that several of those were conference losses that may have moved them down to a bottom seed.
Note, that was the year 16 seed West Montgomery beat 1 seed West Wilkes.
Shelby was the 7 seed and lost to Cummings in the third round and was arguably the second best team in the west. Imagine them meeting in the first round of the playoffs. How is that fair to Shelby!?! I think it was an eight quarter rule violation. Does that really help the varsity or the JV. My opinion on those types of infractions to fine them heavily from their playoff purse or make them play all playoff games on the road.
I think the automatic forfeits is out of control in some scenarios. Also, players and sometimes coaches are paying the price for adult screwups. Seen it before and seeing it currently in a non football sport.
Note, that was the year 16 seed West Montgomery beat 1 seed West Wilkes.
Shelby was the 7 seed and lost to Cummings in the third round and was arguably the second best team in the west. Imagine them meeting in the first round of the playoffs. How is that fair to Shelby!?! I think it was an eight quarter rule violation. Does that really help the varsity or the JV. My opinion on those types of infractions to fine them heavily from their playoff purse or make them play all playoff games on the road.
I think the automatic forfeits is out of control in some scenarios. Also, players and sometimes coaches are paying the price for adult screwups. Seen it before and seeing it currently in a non football sport.
Reidsville beat Cummings that year 31-30 (2002) in one of the greatest high school games I ever saw....that was the only on field loss for Cummings....they went on with the 6 other losses (forfeits for using an ineligible out of district player) and won the 2A title...Reidsville won the 2AA title over Bandys
I played in that game against Cummings back in 02 for North Rowan, and they took us behind the woodshed. I wish I could erase that game from my memory. I felt like I was playing up against a small college, and their speed was the fastest I’ve ever seen before.
I remember a gentleman leaving the stadium saying.......there is no way that team lost seven games.
It's hard to consider NE an underdog during that time. They had a bad year that year by their standards, but they were in the middle of a multiple championship game cycle. 3 appearences out of 4 years or something like that. Won a couple. Lost a couple, including this 16 seed year
Yes, I believe they were missing some key players for the conference losses that caused them to finish 3rd and get a 16 seed....remember that was also at a time before the subdivided playoffs....where in today's format they would be more like an 8 or 9 (maybe higher) if we went back and seeded the bracket with 64 teams qualifying for the playoffs instead of 32 for the 1998 season....also don't forget that seeding only began at some in the mid-90s....up until either 1994ish or so......so this discussion only goes back about 25 years with seeds, unlike the predetermined brackets by conference finish, like many sports still used up until around 2014...let's also not forget that the #1 seed that #16 seed North Edgecombe beat in 1998 were the Camden Bruins, they were a solid team; lot of good players in that program; saw them with my own eyes in Week 11; they beat the team I followed back then when I was a student at Gates Co HS 40-20), they were not as overrated as some would have you believe (they lost 8-6, not 35-0), but they were nowhere near as battle tested as the other 1A powers in the East, as mentioned earlier, I was at Gates Co. HS and saw every team in the Tobacco Belt Conf.; not exactly murderers row; Camden & Gates at 1st & 2nd were better than average 1A teams, but there was a HUGE dropoff from 3rd on down; league went 0-3 in 1st Rd, in addition to Camden's 8-6 loss to NE, Gates lost to Northside 36-22 and 3rd place Chocowinity lost to JK 60-6, while the rest of the league combined to go 11-28 in regular season with 10 of those 11 wins against other teams at bottom of league...Camden's other loss came in Week 1 to Williamston, who made the playoffs, and lost in 2nd Rd, but did not win their conference, but that was also at a time where their playoff reporting record was 10-0, since you dropped a non-conference game if you played 11 in regular season....NE lost by 1 TD to Bunn & Northampton-West with at least one of their best players injured...their Tar-Roanoke Conf. was much stronger from top to bottom, not to mention the 1A leagues represented in East bracket with teams like James Kenan winning a tough Carolina Conf. (only loss until 3rd Rd of playoffs was 28-27 to a loaded Clinton team who went to 3rd Rd in 2A and lost to Reidsville by 1 pt), South Robeson & Union from Three Rivers Conf., Northside (who won Williamston's conference).......in a related story....how much the landscape has changed in 20 years....so many school names from 1A in 1998 are now history....South Robeson, Jamesville, Tar Heel, Bladenboro, Williamston, Roanoke, Northampton-East, Northampton-West, Chocowinity, Creswell....plus non-football Aurora & Bear Grass....Anybody remember the seeds of Elkin & Southside who squared off in the 2002 small 1A state finals? I went to the game and remember Elkin won going away, and know Southside did not win their conference, and was thinking Elkin did not win theirs either, figured both were seeded around 6 or lower
And yes, NE was one of the teams that set the standard at 1A back then....saw them in the 1st Rd in 1996 when I was traveling to watch my Gates Co. team and lost 52-26, but the game didn't feel that close...they scored on first play from scrimmage and never looked back...Tremayne Pittman & Thurmond Knight were lightning & thunder before Tiki Barber & Ron Dayne with the Giants....I believe NE won state in 1994 over Murphy 7-6 when they stopped a 2 pt conversion late, lost to eventual state champion Williamston 14-6 in 2nd Rd in 1995, went to finals and lost to Murphy 13-0 in 1996, won it 1997 over Rosman 38-28, and lost to Starmount 22-20 in 1998....so yes, went 4 times in 5 years and picked up 2 rings...Coach Raymond Cobb had a great run; I met him after the Gates Co. game in 96....then saw him again 12 years later after a 1st Rd game in 2008 at SouthWest Edgecombe when the South Granville team I've kept up with for the last 15 years now took a tough 34-20 loss
Well, he was right. The only game they actually lost on the field was to Reidsville.