Foregoing the normal Rewind this week to try and give you (the reader!!) a little playoff breakdown. With the playoffs coming down the track and pairings announced on Saturday morning, it’s a good time to take a full glance at each class and see where things stand heading into a full slate this week with multiple games on both Thursday and Friday.
We will try to break down the 8-man and 6-man pairings in a separate post later in the week.
Class A
District Champions: Omaha North (A1), Bellevue West (A2), Lincoln Southwest, Lincoln High winner (A3), TBD (A4), Omaha Westside, Millard South winner (A5), Omaha Burke, Papillion-LaVista winner (A6).
Wild Card thoughts: There will be four wildcards in Class A with the district winners and runner-ups joining them in a 16-team playoff. The losers of the A3 and A5 title games will be in the playoffs. Omaha Burke is in even with a loss to Papillion-LaVista. In the A4, Lincoln East is the district champion with a win over Grand Island. A Grand Island win would give Millard West the district title if the Wildcats defeat Lincoln North Star.
Home Team: Burke, Westside, Millard West, Bellevue West, Lincoln Southwest/Lincoln High winner should have home games locked up. Millard South in good position win or lose. And Lincoln Southeast and Omaha North with wins.
Class B
District Champions: Blair/Roncalli Catholic winner (B1), Omaha Skutt, owns tiebreaker (B2), York (B3), Scottsbluff/McCook winner (B4).
Wild Card thoughts: There will be 12 wildcards in Class B with the district winners joining them in a 16-team playoff, meaning only seven teams in the class will not play in the playoffs. The top-four teams appear to be locked in: Skutt Catholic, McCook, Scottsbluff and York. York appears locked into the four-seed.
Home Team: The four listed above, Waverly, Seward, the Blair/Roncalli winner and the Northwest/Hastings winner should all be home teams in the first round. The bottom of the bracket is a mess. It appears Lexington and Bennington could both get in at 3-6 with losses this week, or there may be room at 3-6 for the Plattsmouth/Gross Catholic winner. Three of those four teams should advance.
Class C1
District Champions: Lincoln Lutheran if they beat Ashland-Greenwood; Auburn if A-G wins (C1-1), Arlington (C1-2), Pierce with win over BCNG (C1-3), Wahoo/Columbus Scotus winner (C1-4), Aurora/Central City winner (C1-5), Adams Central/Cozad winner (C1-6), Ord/Gothenburg winner (C1-7), Chadron (C1-8).
Wild Card thoughts: There will be eight wildcards in Class C-1 with the district winners joining them in the playoffs. Aurora and Pierce appear to have locked in the top-two seeds headed into the week’s final games. The Ord, Gothenburg loser is still comfortably in. And, it appears Auburn, A-G and Lincoln Lutheran will all qualify from District 1.
Home Team: Some interesting stuff going on here in Class C-1. Two district champs — Arlington and Chadron — are well outside the top-16 in points but will be in the field. They will likely be rewarded with trips to Aurora and Pierce. The bottom of this field gets really interesting. An impactful non-district crossover game with Milford and Doniphan-Trumbull will have a big say on seeding for both C-1 and C-2.
Class C2
District Champions: Wilber-Clatonia/Malcolm winner (C2-1), Oakland-Craig/BRLD winner (C2-2), Norfolk Catholic (C2-3), Centennial (C2-4), Sutton with win over St. Cecilia, otherwise a tiebreaker (C2-5), St. Paul/GICC winner (C2-6), North Platte St. Patrick’s (C2-7).
Wild Card thoughts: There will be nine wildcards in Class C-2 with the seven district winners joining them in the playoffs. The O-C/BRLD loser would be in, Freeman and Doniphan-Trumbull are safe and the Shelby-Rising City/Aquinas winner should get in as well. That makes for 12 solid teams and St. Pat’s will be a district winner outside of the 16. Six teams for the last three spots: Aquinas/SRC loser, St. Cecilia, North Bend Central, GICC, Battle Creek and Bergan.
Home Team: Almost feels like the home teams are fairly solid: the top-8 in the points should hold. St. Paul likely needs to defeat GICC to hold on to a home spot. Oakland-Craig and BRLD will be for seeding. Doniphan-Trumbull could be in position for a jump with a win over C-1 Milford.
We’d love to playoff banter with you on Twitter. Follow our crew @THEnebpreps, @strivsports, @tony_chapman76, @allgood_eric and @nebprepsBerk. The postseason will soon be here!!