West Virginia high school football playoffs set to begin on Friday after litigation over seeding

UPDATE Nov. 20, 12:10 pm CT: The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday concerning the playoffs in high school football, and the games are back on this weekend.

In an email, the WVSSAC stated ‘the announcement comes after the Supreme Court of Appeals in West Virginia vacated injunctions issued by two circuit courts, reaffirming the WVSSAC’s authority to oversee and implement its rules for interscholastic athletics. The point system that was used for the entirety of the regular season (prior to the injunctions) will be used to determine the playoff fields and matchups.

Hampshire County, Point Pleasant Junior Senior, Westside and Tolsia have been re-inserted to the bracket and play will begin on Friday.

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Original story below:

The high school regular football season ended earlier this month, but the state playoffs have yet to begin due to legal proceedings involving the state’s ranking system.

The issue stems from injunctions filed by Wood and Cabell County Schools, according to WBOY-12 news. The schools said they felt a handful of teams in their regions were not seeded properly in the playoff brackets based on the strength of victory. That specific criteria designated more points for a win over a higher-ranked conference by a lower-classified school.

Wood County’s injunction was granted by the court on Saturday, and the WVSSAC had to go back and reallocate point totals to schools based on their original classifications. A total of 23 West Virginia schools were reclassified last summer.

As a result, four schools — Hampshire County, Point Pleasant Junior Senior, Westside and Tolsia — were bumped out of the playoffs, and four other schools were bumped in across three classifications.

Point Pleasant, a Class 3A school, filed an injunction that was granted Monday night, according to an attorney for the school. 

That allowed for a win-or-go-home compromise, where they would play St. Albans (who replaced them in the bracket), and Hampshire County would play Capital (another replacement school). The winners of these games would go on to the playoffs.

Class 2A Westside High School didn’t ask for a play-in game against the team that replaced it, but instead for the state to fix its system. That case is expected to be heard on Wednesday.

Other sports could be delayed by lawsuits as well

Meanwhile, teams across the state not involved in the situation are still waiting on a resolution so they can play.

“I wish that we could get people in higher powers to make a decision here,” Wheeling Central coach Mike Young told WTOV-9. “Come up with a plan and let us know what’s going on so we can move forward as a football team, as a program for Wheeling Central, and throughout the state of West Virginia. There is a large number of people being affected by this.”

The schools will need multiple days of preparation once they learn the date they’re allowed to play on, he added. And for many schools, winter sports are already well underway.

Any more delay will cause multi-sport athletes to potentially miss those games due to scheduling conflicts.