Wyoming County lawyers Josh Miller and Derek Laxton filed a petition for injunctive relief on behalf of Westside High School Monday evening in the Circuit Court of Wyoming County.
The petition requests that the football playoff ratings points that are used to determine seeding be reverted back to where they were all season.
When numerous schools were dropped down a class in mid-August, their playoff rating points dropped accordingly. For example schools like Independence and PikeView were originally classified as triple-A schools, thus counted for 12 points for teams that beat them. When the state Board of Review granted an appeal to move 11 schools down a class, an additional 12 schools such as PikeView and Independence were moved as well. For this saw their point values drop from 15 (Class AAAA) to 12 (Class AAA), 12 to nine (Class AA) and nine to six (Class A).
Under the ratings point system that saw those teams drop, Westside would’ve qualified for the Class AA state playoffs as the No. 16 seed.
Three of the teams Westside scheduled – Summers County, PikeView and Independence – were dropped a class two weeks before the season started as were their ratings points.
An injunction filed in the Wood County Circuit Court was granted last week, restoring the point values to their original values prior to the Board of Review’s decision.
Westside’s argument in its injunction is that the teams that were dropped a class competed within that class all season and will do so in the playoffs, thus their point values should reflect the classification they competed in all season.
The late shift left Westside, which finished 7-3, just outside the playoff field as the No. 17-rated team in Class AA.
Should the injunction be granted, it will conflict with the one filed in Wood County last week, meaning it will likely need to be settled in a higher court and delay the Class AA playoffs.
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