The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission on Tuesday, ending a weeklong postponement of the high school football playoffs.
All prior injunctions against the WVSSAC were vacated, and the original playoff ratings points formula will be used to determine seeding.
That means that Hampshire, which was bumped from the Class AAA field by an injunction filed by Wood County on Nov. 9, will end a 21-year postseason drought.
Hampshire (5-5) will be the No. 16 seed and head to No. 1 Princeton (10-0) in the first round. The game kicks off on Saturday at 4 p.m.
“We were pretty excited,” first-year Hampshire head coach Donny Evans said. “Told them before practice we’d hear something at 5 whether we’d be in or out.
“Today’s practice, we had a lot of fun. Wondering about the ruling. After practice, it felt like March Madness. They were all huddled around, heard the announcement and saw we were in. They’re all excited and ready to head to Princeton.”
Hampshire last made the playoffs in 2003 under Sean Biser, who also led the Trojans to postseason appearances in 2000 and ‘01.
The team’s five wins this year are its most since 2014.
“The guys did a lot of work this season to try to accomplish that goal,” Evans said. “The long-term goal was to make the playoffs. Short term, we just tried to get better every week, and that helped achieving that goal. They’re excited to end that drought.”
Frankfort, which finished the regular season 10-0, was the No. 1 seed in Class AA in both ratings systems, but its first-round opponent swaps from the ruling.
The Falcons will host 7-3 Westside on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to begin their championship run.
“We’re really excited,” Frankfort head coach Kevin Whiteman said. “It seemed like an eternity for a decision to be made. … We were able to tell the kids during practice, and they were really excited about it. I’m excited for them to finally get a chance to play.”
Frankfort has spent the last week-and-a-half not knowing who it would face.
Depending on the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Falcons could’ve been pitted against either Westside or Lincoln (3-7) this weekend.
“That’s the worst part about it, we had to focus on two different teams,” Whiteman said. “In West Virginia, you have to trade film for the playoffs, so we had 10 game films on each team to watch. Both of those schools knew they’d be playing Frankfort.
“We had to be presenting practice plans for the kids for both teams. We had no idea coming into this week who we’d play, and we decided to roll with Westside. Thank God that’s who it was.
“When you’re preparing for a playoff game, or any game for that matter, you don’t want to be preparing for two teams. I’m glad it’s finally nailed down.”
Moorefield is slotted as the No. 13 seed in Class AA and heads to fourth-seeded Williamstown (8-2) on Friday at 7 p.m.
In Class A, Petersburg (5-5) moves up to the No. 8 seed, giving the program its first home playoff game in school history. The Vikings welcome No. 9 River View (7-3).
Kickoff for that game is schedule for Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to death,” Petersburg head coach Shane Shockey said. “The kids are excited. Last week, we knew there was still a chance we’d still have a home game. We had a really good week of practice. The community is going to be excited. I expect them to show up in numbers.”
Before Tuesday’s ruling, Petersburg was the No. 9 seed and would’ve had a road game at Pendleton County.
The Vikings are 0-3 in the playoffs all-time.
“Last week, we spent the entire week prepping for Pendleton County,” Shockey said. “Then it got postponed, then we started saying, we have got to prepare for both situations. We started preparing for River View.
“I’m glad it’s over. Sitting and wondering what’s going on. That’s the worst part of it.”
No. 15 East Hardy (4-6) heads to No. 2 Tucker County (10-0) to open its postseason slate on Friday at 7 p.m.
The typical playoff schedule has been pushed back by one week.
A “play-in” game in Class A scheduled for Tuesday between St. Marys and Tolsia was canceled. St. Marys had already arrived at the field at Herbert Hoover but left following the ruling Tuesday evening.
The West Virginia football playoffs were postponed on Nov. 12 after injunctions filed by Wood and Mason counties earlier that week contradicted one another, making it impossible for the WVSSAC to honor both court orders.
The conflict stems from a decision by the WVSSAC in August to allow 23 schools unhappy with their classification in the new four-class system to drop a class, including Frankfort (AAA to AA) and Petersburg (AA to A), in football only.
Some schools argued then that because they made their schedules before the change, they should be awarded ratings points based on the original classifications.
However, in the WVSSAC playoff ratings released weekly, the state used current classifications for wins and bonus points.
The discrepancy prompted Wood County to file an emergency injunction on Nov. 9, which the WVSSAC granted, to award points based on classification prior to the August reclassification.
Four schools were bumped from the playoffs as a result, beginning a frenzy of litigation that wasn’t resolved until the state Supreme Court of Appeals sided with the WVSSAC on Tuesday evening to throw out all prior injunctions.