LTC grid playoff situation clarified

There has been some confusion surrounding the new schedule and playoff formats adopted by the LTC for the 1992 schoolboy football season.

Information provided to the NEWS on Tuesday night about the LTC changes for next fall turned out to have several inaccuracies. My apologies for any confusion Wednesday’s story may have caused.

Orono Coach Bob Lucy was kind enough to provide the NEWS with a copy of the memo Orono High School Principal and LTC President Tom Perry sent out to league principals, athletic directors, and football coaches.

Here are the LTC changes for the 1992 season as outlined in the league memo, dated March 30.

The league has adopted a new, nine-game schedule for the ’92 regular season, which means all teams have added one league contest.

The extra game means each team will play a team it did not play last season during Week 1 of the ’92 campaign. The remaining eight weeks of the schedule will be the same as last year except for reversing the “home” teams.

Next season, four teams will qualify for the playoffs in Classes B and C. That is a considerable reduction in both classifications. In 1991, Class B sent eight teams to postseason play and Class C had all six members in the playoffs.

Each classification has opted to implement its own set of guidelines for determining its postseason qualifiers.

In the 10-team Class B division, there are three criteria. Heal Points will determine league standings except in the following situations.

If two teams have the same overall record, head-to-head competition would supersede the Heal Points.

For example, let’s assume that Orono and Old Town both finish the regular season with 8-1 records and the Red Riots had a 75.00 Heal Point Tournament Index and the Indians a 73.22 TI. If Old Town beat Orono in their head-to-head matchup, the Indians would assume the higher seed even though they had a smaller TI.

In the other exception to the Heal Points, if a lower-seeded team has a better record than a higher-seeded team, then head-to-head results would be used when applicable.

As an example, let’s say 5-4 Brewer was the No. 4 seed with a 69.50 TI and 6-3 Foxcroft Academy was seeded fifth with a 66.00 TI and the Ponies defeated the Witches in their regular-season meeting. In that case, even though it had fewer Heal Points, Foxcroft would advance to the playoffs.

If the Heal Points are not able to break a tie between two teams, the Mealey Point System will be used. In the event the teams remain tied, a coin flip would break the deadlock.

LTC Class C schools will utilize a different method of deciding their league standings. The first criterion will be teams’ records against their Class C opponents.

If two teams wind up with identical Class C records, the result of their head-to-head meeting would break the tie. If more than two teams remain tied and the tie cannot be broken on the basis of head-to-head meetings, the Mealey Points, based on the entire nine-game season, would be used.

Any other ties would be broken with a coin flip.

Thus, the LTC playoffs will last two weeks, with the Classes B and C league semifinals slated for Nov. 7, the LTC title games scheduled for Nov. 14, and the state championship contests set Nov. 21.