BY GREGG SARRA
The most-asked question in high school football is, "How do the power ratings work?" And how do they compute? The formula can be found on the SectionXI.org website. But I wait for the sectional offices to give us the finalized standings.
This year was wild. There were ties in three divisions where the tiebreaker criteria was needed. Here's how things worked out:
In Suffolk Division I, Patchogue-Medford and Sachem East tied for seventh place. Patchogue gets the nod for the seventh spot and Sachem East falls to eighth because of the head-to-head criteria. Patchogue beat Sachem East during the regular season after it was found that Sachem East had used an ineligible player in its 'on the field win' over Patchogue. So the administrative gaffe of not catching the ineligible player and costing the Arrows a forfeit almost cost the them a playoff position. But it does shove the East boys into a quarterfinal playoff against Floyd. Nice job.
In Suffolk Division II, North Babylon and Bellport tied for third place with the same power points at 122.700. They did not play head-to-head so the next criteria is which team beat the highest finishing common opponent. They were still deadlocked and the third criteria went to highest finishing uncommon opponent. Bellport beat Smithtown East which finished in fifth place. So Bellport gets third place and North Babylon falls to fourth.
In Suffolk Division III, there were three teams tied for fifth place with a 120.2 rating. That was Half Hollow Hills West, Kings Park and Hauppauge.
In head-to-head, Hills West best Miller Place, Hills West beat Kings Park and Kings Park beat Hauppauge. So Hills West gets the fifth seed, Kings Park gets the sixth seed and Hauppauge takes the seventh spot.
In Division IV, Amityville and Bayport-Blue Point were tied for third place with a rating of 127.5. They did not play each other so the head to head does not matter. They both lost to the highest finishing common opponents in Babylon and Glenn. So the third criteria is who beat the highest finishing uncommon opponent. And that would be Amityville beating fifth place Port Jefferson. That gives Amityville third place and Bayport takes fourth place.
Nassau County was much simpler. They had no ties in any conferences. But what was interesting was the six teams with 6-2 records in Conference II -- that was pretty amazing.
So there you have it -- good luck to all the teams in next week's quarterfinal round.