Yes As a Matter of Fact, Ties Do Exist for the Record

PHOTO BY CHRIS ADAMCZYK - THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Northern Durham was the lone PAC-6 squad in action last evening in non-conference play as they took on the Apex Cougars from the Tri-9.  The game went back and forth with the Knights taking an early lead, only to fall behind and have to mount a comeback late.  After both teams missed PATs on their final scores of the game, the scoreboard read 20-20 at the newly refurbished Durham County Memorial Stadium and it looked like the fans were in for a treat on a brisk October evening, with overtime and more football.  But that wasn't to be the case as this was truly a trick-or-treat night and no treats were to be found, instead of deciding the game on the field in overtime, the game was declared final at 20-20.

So what happened you ask?  According to the rules of the NCHSAA, prior to any non-conference game, both head coaches are asked whether they would like to play overtime if the game is tied at the end of regulation.  If one of the two coaches decides not to play overtime, then the game officially ends as a tie.  The key is that both coaches have to agree to play the overtime session.

Tie Equivalent to Loss in Playoff Speak

Fast forward or perhaps rewind to last evening and with the game tied at the end of regulation, the decision was made to not proceed to overtime.  According to an article in the Durham Herald Sun by Joe Johnson [Blocked PAT leaves Northern with a tie], the decision not to play overtime appears to have been made by the Apex coaching staff.  A quote from the article stated the following: "The game ended in a tie because both coaches have to agree to play overtime before the start of the game and Apex coach Bob Wolfe declined."  From this information it appears that at the very least Apex decided not to play overtime.  The inference is that if that had not been the case, overtime would have been played, which would indicate that the Northern staff had agreed to play overtime.  From the story, it's unclear with 100% certainty that this was the case, but suffice it to say that at the very least one of the two staffs definitely elected not to play overtime.

Not playing overtime and deciding a winner may to some sound relatively trivial, but with the structure of the current playoff format, the reality is that a tie is no better than a loss when it comes to how the playoffs work and from that standpoint by not playing overtime and at least having the chance to pick up a win, the Northern Knights specifically essentially registered a loss on the evening when it comes to the effect of the game from a playoff perspective.

One thing that is interesting in this entire situation is that over ten years ago, both of these squads and even more interesting, both of these coaches, Bob Wolfe at Apex and Gary Merrill at Northern Durham were connected to the result of a tie ball game, if not directly than indirectly.  Back in 2000, when playoff berths were only given to a pre-determined number of teams from each conference, the PAC-6 had a bit of turmoil that it had not seen before.  The dominant Northern Knights were in the midst of a bit of upheaval after losing to Jordan in conference play earlier in the season, the first time the Knights had lost to a Durham County opponent in 69 games - yes you read that correct.  In the same season, the Knights knocked off a talented Chapel Hill squad that had among others, Dovonte Edwards of N.C. State fame and later the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions [Dovonte Edwards: NCSU, NFL], out wide as a wide receiver for the Tigers.  To make the conference order difficult, the Tigers picked up a victory against Jordan (a game that is interesting simply by itself, perhaps we'll leave that for another day).  Because of the three way tie and only two pre-determined playoff slots, a random draw between the three head coaches took place at the local Shoney's off of Hillandale Road in Durham.  The result, Coach Rick Brown of Jordan and Gary Merrill of Northern left happy, while Coach Joe Wolf of Chapel Hill left with the tall task of explaining to his talented 9-1-1 Tigers that they would not have the opportunity to play the following week in the playoffs.  Based on nothing more than a random draw.  Interesting enough, that one tie for the Tigers, came against you guessed it, Coach Wolfe and his Apex Cougars.

The events of that season, where a highly talented Tiger squad was left out of the playoffs while teams with less records, but simply based on more pre-determined bids in a given conference as well as similar events occurring in other conferences was at least a portion of the energy behind the movement towards the currently expanded playoff system.  Sure, a ton of teams make it - but the reality is that in this system, the Chapel Hill's of the world, even with that tie, would make the playoffs.  So, I find it interesting that as we fast-forward to last night that the tie, although not directly related in the three-way tie in the PAC-6 so many years ago, but at least visibly on the ledger for Chapel Hill, pops up again, with another PAC-6 squad and in this situation, may very well have playoff implications.  

Why would this tie have implications at this point in time?  Northern Durham played a 10 game schedule this year, which means that endowment or not, every game is reportable on their end.  This means that all 10 games will appear on their record when it comes to playoff qualification purposes as well as seeding.  More importantly, wins are the important element of this situation.  At the moment, with Hillside and Southern remaining on Northern's schedule, it appears that at best the Knights will finish as conference champs and at worst as the third place finisher in conference.  So from the perspective of making the playoffs, the win total is somewhat immaterial for the Knights, but from a seeding purpose the wins will matter.  

Where this might be seen to hurt the Knights the most is if they lose to both Southern and Hillside over the next two weeks.  In that scenario they would be 4-2 in conference and 4-5-1 reportable.  They would make the playoffs as the third place finisher, an automatic bid.  When seeding came around they would be placed in the group with all of the other third place finishers (either 4A or 4AA and most likely the East grouping).  At that point the committee will order all of those teams by their reportable wins!  In this situation the Knights will most likely be near the bottom of that list.  If the tie had ended up in a win, then they'd be in the grouping, one win higher.  In the end, what this means is that the possibility exists that the Knights may find themselves on the border between having a home game or being on the road.  If the Knights also chose to not go to overtime, so be it.  If they didn't, then you can see why in part that decision may have been made.  

The final interesting element of this is Apex.  At 1-5 on the season heading into this game, the likelihood of the Cougars making the playoffs were slim, even if they had won their three remaining games, and with the tie, their chances were officially eliminated.  So in affect, it really didn't matter what Apex chose to do from Apex's perspective.  Historically, the decision to not play overtime, is not something new to Apex  Just go back to 2000 against Chapel Hill, or in 2005 against Eastern Wayne where they ended in a 9-9 tie.  It remains to be seen how this will affect the Knights in the end, but I'm sure at least a few folks will be looking at those final brackets to find the answer.

Photographs courtesy of newsobserver.com (The News & Observer)

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