Wow, what an incredible night of football last night. Two of the stars of the PAC-6 were in action last night and both put on shows, Hillside's Vad Lee tallied over 300 yards of total offense with four total scores, while Jordan's T.J. Thorpe put up 278 total yards, including 60 (1 TD) on the ground, 113 in receptions and a 99 yard interception return. Both were selected earlier this week as invitees to the 2010 Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas NC-SC All-Star Game (along with Southern Durham's Sherman Ragland).
The Hornets came out strong and in so many ways showed why they are the class of the PAC-6, gaining sole possession of the PAC-6 crown and finishing an undefeated regular season. The Knights played tough, but the Hornets, led by quarterback Vad Lee were simply way too much. Both of these teams should make some noise the playoffs. For the Hornets, they should compete against whomever they face in their playoff run, while I think seeding and opponent match-ups will be more important for the Knights. They have some distinct weaknesses as well as strengths and depending on who they match-up against will be huge for them.
Jordan got back on a winning streak with a crushing defeat of Riverside last night, posting 51 points including a 99 yard interception return on the final play of the game for T.J. Thorpe that closed out the regular season. Jordan will most likely hit the road for the playoffs and similar to Northern, match-ups will be critical for the Falcons. Riverside closes out the season at 1-10 and will look to learn from a tough 2010 as they prepare for a rebound in 2011.
Southern sat last night out with their yearly bye and due to the Hillside victory take second place in conference. That should be good enough to snag a home game to begin their playoff run.
As we've done in the past we'll rely heavily on the expertise of Drew Pasteur over at Fantastic50.net to provide us with most of the insight concerning where teams are going. If you have taken the time to look over his site, I would highly encourage it, he's a master at what he does and is very up front with the facts that he is using and where there might be limitations in his analysis. He isn't shooting from this hip on this stuff - like I said, it's the place I trust when looking at these types of things. Visit Fantastic50.net at http://www.fantastic50.net
A month or so ago we also put out a primer on the playoff selection process and have updated each week with where we thought the playoff selections were going to work for the PAC-6 you can check that out with the following links.
[T-Minus One Month = Playoff Time] - Primer on how playoff selection and seeding works.
[Selection Saturday (1 Week) - PAC-6 Playoff Picture & More]
[Selection Saturday (2 Weeks) - PAC-6 Playoff Picture & More]
[Selection Saturday (3 Weeks) - PAC-6 Playoff Picture & More]
Drew has put up his initial brackets on Selection Saturday morning at 8:00 AM based on all of the information that he has received so far. This is what he has as of that time for the 4A and 4AA brackets.
JORDAN Playoff Breakdown - Currently #14 overall seed in 4AA East side, lowest seed in 4AA MIDEAST POD - First Round Opponent - #1 overall seed Fayetteville 71st (10-0 reportable record) - OFFICIAL
Jordan is currently slated to be the only team in the 'big playoffs' or the 4AA classification, the bigger schools. They are slated to be in the East side and then further divided into the 8 team Mideast pod based on geography.
At the moment they are an at-large team with a reportable 7-3 record, that makes them out of 16 total teams in the East the #14 seed. There are currently four at-large teams in the East (the rest are all automatic qualifiers, 1st through 3rd in conference). Those teams are Middle Creek at 8-2 reportable, Broughton at 6-4 reportable and Millbrook at 6-4 reportable. With these numbers you can see why Jordan is #14, Middle Creek is #13 and so forth.
When the teams are split by POD, Jordan is ending up as the lowest seed in the MidEast POD with the #14 seed. Broughton and Millbrook, lower overall seeds are both being placed in the East POD, thus the reason that Jordan is the lowest seed in their POD. Jordan travels to Fayetteville 71st in first round.
SOUTHERN DURHAM Playoff Breakdown - Currently #4 overall seed in 4A East side, third highest seed in 4A EAST POD - First Round Opponent - #10 overall seed New Hanover (6-4 reportable record) - OFFICIAL
Southern as the second place finisher in the conference received an automatic bid. Due to ADM numbers they will be a 'small' school and in the 4A playoffs. According to initial prognostications they are the lowest of the second place finishers as they are grouped with Southeast Raleigh (8-2 reportable). There are two first place finishers in the the 4A East side of the bracket at this moment, Hillside and New Bern, they will take the first two overall seeds, leaving SER and Southern to pick up the 3rd and 4th seeds respectively.
Due to geography they are placing Southern Durham into the 4A EAST POD. Important to note is that Southern in this situation will be a home team in the first round and if the seeding was to hold true and Southern were to win they would have a second round match-up on the road against Southeast Raleigh, followed by a third round match-up on the road against New Bern. In my opinion this is good draw for the Spartans.
NORTHERN DURHAM Playoff Breakdown - Currently #7 overall seed in 4A East side, third highest seed in 4A MIDEAST POD - First Round Opponent - #12 overall seed Lee County (6-4 reportable record) - OFFICIAL
Northern as the third place finisher in the conference received an automatic bid. Due to ADM numbers they will be a 'small' school and in the 4A playoffs. Initial prognostications have them as the third highest third place finisher in the 4A Eastern side of the bracket. Other third place finishers include: Dudley (8-2 reportable), Clayton (6-4 reportable) and Hoggard (4-6 reportable). They appear to be solid in their #7 overall seed and overall positioning in the 4A MIDEAST POD with the only question being who they will face in the first round. Also, they appear solid to have a first round home game at Durham County Memorial Stadium. Assuming seeds hold true and they win their opening game they would be slated to travel to Greensboro to take on another third place conference finisher in Dudley a team that Hillside played earlier this year and handled easily. A win in Greensboro would return the Knights to Durham for a rematch at Russell Blunt Stadium against the Hornets.
Northern should match up well with Lee County and I expect if they play some of their better ball that they move on to the second round to most likely take on a Dudley team that could also be a good match-up for the Knights.
HILLSIDE Playoff Breakdown - Currently #1 overall seed in 4A East side. Top projected seed in 4A MIDEAST POD - First Round Opponent - #16 overall seed Southeast Guilford (6-4 reportable record)- OFFICIAL
Hillside as the first place finisher in the PAC-6 conference received an automatic bid. Due to ADM numbers they will be a 'small' school in the 4A playoffs. They won the random draw with New Bern and obtained the overall #1 seed meaning a game against New Bern in the fourth round would be held in Durham.
If seeds hold to form, then a second round opponent for the Hornets would be the Purnell Swett Rams out of the Fayetteville area. A third round match-up would be against either Northern Durham or Dudley (a rematch of a non-conference game).
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