Entering high school football's final week of the regular season, all five state playoff qualifiers from the Cook Inlet Conference have been determined -- South, West, Chugiak, Service and Dimond will advance.
But not a single team has secured its seeding for the postseason.
Plus, only two of those five qualifiers -- South and West (both 5-1 CIC), which meet Thursday night to decide the conference title -- controls its destiny.
Those two teams could finish as high as the No. 1 seed or as low as the No. 3 seed.
Chugiak and Service (both 4-2 CIC), meanwhile, could each finish as high as the No. 2 seed or as low as the No. 5 seed.
And Dimond (3-3 CIC) could land anywhere from No. 3 to No. 5.
Ah, prep football, all about blocking and tackling -- and math and tie-breakers.
So it goes in a conference in which two of the playoff-bound teams -- West and Dimond -- each lost its first two games of the season. Granted, each dropped a relatively insignificant nonconference game in that span.
Besides the South-West clash, the other conference games that will determine postseason seeding pit Bartlett at Chugiak and Dimond against Service. Both those games are set for 2 p.m. Saturday.
Heading into the regular-season finales, six tie-breakers that could factor into postseason seeding have already been established, based on previous results, so do clip-and-save the following:
• South owns the tie-breaker over Chugiak, courtesy of its 56-0 beat-down of the Mustangs in Week 5.
• West owns the tie-breaker over Service by virtue of a 52-16 anvil dropping Saturday in Week 7.
•Chugiak owns tie-breakers against both West and Service. The Mustangs bagged a 14-7 overtime thriller against West in Week 2 and pocketed a 27-26 upset of Service in Week 4.
• Service owns the tie-breaker against South on the strength of its 37-36 win over the Wolverines, after trailing by 19 points early, in Week 6.
•And Dimond owns the tie-breaker against Chugiak, thanks to J.J. Tanuvasa's 37-yard touchdown run with 1 minute, 51 seconds remaining, which furnished a 6-0 win in Week 3.
For what it's worth, trivia buffs, that marked the season's lowest-scoring game.
Find Doyle Woody's blog at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.
By DOYLE WOODY