Summer football 7 on 7 leagues have begun qualifying teams for the state tournament. Ganado hosted a tournament on Saturday and Industrial played the previous week and despite finishing the round-robin tournament with a 2-1 record, did not qualify for the state tournament.
However, according to the rules of 7 on 7, Industrial should have been the one of the teams to grab a spot in the state tournament.
In a tournament of eight teams, as was the case at the Rice Consolidated tournament as well as the Ganado tournament, the top two teams lock up a spot in the state tournament. Four teams are divided into two pools and each team within the pool plays the other three teams in the same pool once. When those games are done, the top two teams from each pool play in two semi-final games, and the winners advance to State.
Oftentimes a tie-breaker will come into play, as was the case with Industrial. Industrial, Van Vleck, and Rice finished at 2-1 in pool play, with only two teams moving forward. The first step in the tie-breaker is head-tohead but Industrial lost to Rice, Van Vleck lost to Industrial and Rice lost to Van Vleck.
According to the official 7 on 7 rules handbook in a state qualifying tournament “In a threeway tie, only the scores of the games between teams in the tie will be counted. Once a winner has been declared, the remaining two teams will revert back to head-to-head to break the remaining tie.”
Head-to-head, Van Vleck defeated Rice 2120, Industrial defeated Van Vleck 14-13 and Rice defeated Industrial 37-6. Points scored in the games between the three teams involved left Rice with 58 points scored, Van Vleck with 35, and Industrial with 20 meaning Rice advanced as the number one team. However, once the winner is determined, points don’t matter as the rules state it reverts back to head-to-head, which the Cobras won 14-13.
Instead Van Vleck and Rice won their semi-final games and locked up a place in the tournament.
Industrial will try again to lock up a spot at the Tidehaven on June 12.
At the Ganado tournament, Ganado and Boling qualified for the State meet.
The State 7 on 7 tournament will be held June 25 and 26.
