Anchorage Daily News

Tie-breakers? More like brain-busters.

Take off a shoe and slam the heel of it into your skull three times fast.

Now you know what it feels like to plot the myriad tie-breaking possibilities that might prove necessary to determine the final two state football playoff berths in the Cook Inlet Conference.

Last week didn't much clarify the situation, other than rubber-stamping No. 3-ranked Service's postseason invitation. No. 2-ranked South already owned a bid.

But entering the final games of the regular season this weekend, five teams -- Bartlett (3-3 CIC), Dimond (3-3), Chugiak (3-3), East (2-4) and West (2-4) -- remain alive for the league's two remaining state berths.

If Bartlett wins, it's in. That's a big if -- the Golden Bears play Service on Friday.

If Dimond wins, it's in. The Lynx play East on Saturday.

If No. 5-ranked Chugiak wins, it might be in. The big if: The Mustangs play South on Saturday. And even if they pull off the upset, they need either Bartlett or Dimond to lose.

That's because if Bartlett, Dimond and Chugiak all win and finish 4-3, only Bartlett and Dimond would qualify for the playoffs based on the first tie-breaker, head-to-head competition among the three schools. Bartlett is 2-0 in that category, while Dimond is 1-1 and Chugiak 0-2.

Much more mind-melting is a not entirely implausible scenario in which all five contenders finish 3-4. All it would take is Bartlett losing to Service, Dimond falling to East, Chugiak losing to South and West beating last-place and winless Eagle River.

If those events transpired, all five teams would be 2-2 head-to-head.

That would render moot the second tie-breaker, record against teams above the tie situation. All five contenders would be 0-2 against South and Service.

And that would bring matters to the third of six possible tie-breakers, defensive points allowed head-to-head. How things unfold from that tie-breaker remains unclear because points from this weekend's Dimond-East game must be taken into account.

Still, Chugiak sits best in that situation, because it has played all four of the other contenders and yielded just 36 points in those games.

According to the fifth tie-breaker in the CIC system, each time a team is eliminated from a tie using one of the four preceding tie-breakers, the system reverts back to the first tie-breaker -- head-to-head -- to further eliminate teams.

And just so you know, the sixth tie-breaker, described as "unlikely'' is a coin flip.

If it comes to that, the losing coin-flipper may want to take off a shoe and smack it hard into their own skull six times, one for every step in the tie-breaking system.

Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.

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