Football: NJSIAA admits "mistake" in Shawnee seeding

ROBBINSVILLE -- It might be cold comfort to players, coaches and supporters of the Shawnee High School football program, but the state's governing body has admitted the Renegades were mistakenly given a lower seed in the South Jersey Group 4 tournament that begins Friday.

"A mistake was made," New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association assistant director Jack DuBois said on Wednesday.

DuBois conceded after the organization's executive committee meeting on Wednesday that Shawnee (7-1) should have been the No. 2 seed in the South Jersey Group 4 tournament.

Instead, Shawnee was given the No. 3 seed, with rival Timber Ceeek (8-0) -- a team the Renegades have faced four straight years in post-season play -- taking the No. 2 seed.

DuBois said there was a "misapplication" of the organization's regulations on the power-point system that is used to determine playoff fields.

Shawnee coach Tim Gushue said he was "disappointed" with the development but hopes that his team would maintain its focus on Friday's home game against No. 6 seed Clearview (6-2).

"We tell the kids all the time that there are going to be times when things don't go the way you want them to go," Gushue said. "I'm disappointed. I thought our kids had done enough to earn the No. 2 seed.

"But we have a job to do. I look at it like when there's a sudden change in a ballgame and things don't go the way you planned.

"You have to adjust and move forward and make the best of the situation."

DuBois said he was made aware of the issue on Sunday, when he heard from media members and also received a call from Gushue.

Asked why the seedings weren't changed at that point, DuBois indicated he and others at NJSIAA felt it was too late.

"We had done the whole tournament and the whole year had been prefaced on that regulation," DuBois said. "At that we were beyond that. It was a miscue."

Gushue was not satisfied with that explanation. "At 1 pm. on Sunday this whole problem could have been rectified by calling all the affected schools to explain how the wording was not written properly . . . " Gushue said. "I still do not see why that could not have been accomplished."

The issue arose because Shawnee beat Hammonton on Friday night, in the Renegades' final game before the cutoff for determining the playoff fields.

Under the NJSIAA's power-point system, Shawnee should have received 22 points for beating Hammonton -- 6 for the victory, 4 for Hammonton's group size, and 12 in residual points based on three each for Hammonton's four victories this season.

That would have given Shawnee a total of 145 power points, tied with Timber Creek for the No. 2 seed behind Lenape. The Renegades would have won the tie-breaker on strength of schedule.

Believing they would earn the No. 2 seed, Shawnee's coaches spent more than six hours Saturday and much of Sunday morning preparing to face No. 7 seed Absegami (6-2).

Absegami coaches also began preparations to face Shawnee, while coaching staffs from Clearview and Timber Creek were expecting those two teams to play in the first round.

Instead, the games in the first round of the tournament on Friday will be No. 6 Clearview at No. 3 Shawnee and No. 7 Absegami at No. 2 Timber Creek, the defending sectional champion.

If Shawnee and Timber Creek both advance on Friday, the teams would meet Nov. 18 at Timber Creek. If Shawnee had been given the No. 2 seed, that game would be at Shawnee.

The reason for the mixup is that NJSIAA's regulations for the 2016 football tournament stated that when a team that is playing its eighth game (which Shawnee was) meets a team playing its ninth game (which Hammonton was), the team playing its eighth game will receive three fewer power points than normal for a victory.

The regulation was on the books last year as well, but was amended to note that it would be applied only in a specific case: when the team playing its ninth game entered the game with a 8-0 record.

DuBois said that amendment from last year "didn't take it into the regulations" this year.

DuBois said he didn't know why not.

"I didn't pick it up myself . . . until the season was over," DuBois said.

DuBois said the "good part" about the mixup is that no team was eliminated from the tournament.

In a related development, DuBois said he plans to convene a committee in the off-season to take a look at the power-point system for football.

He indicated the organization might have erred in creating a "multiplier" this season to encourage teams to play North Jersey's premier non-public program such as Paramus Catholic, Bergen Catholic and St. Peter's Prep.

That rule change has created a furor because the multiplier effectively guarenteed that North Jersey non-public teams would earn the top six spots in the Non-Public 4 tournament and three would earn the the top three spots in the Non-Public 3 tournament.

As a result, 9-0 St. Augustine is the No. 7 seed in Non-Public 4 and must travel to No. 2 Bergen Catholic on Saturday and 8-0 Camden Catholic is the No. 4 seed in Non-Public 3 and will host 9-0 St. John Vianney, the No. 5 seed.

"It's a high item," DuBois said of the priority of revising the power-point system.

DuBois also said the football committee is likely to consider a proposal to expand fields to 12 teams in the public-school tournaments, with the top four teams receiving byes.

-- Contact Phil Anastasia at panastasia@phillynews.com

-- Follow @PhilAnastasia on Twitter

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