CHARLESTON, W. Va. (WSAZ/WTAP) – The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has received the necessary arguments to begin consideration of a ruling that could be key to the start of the West Virginia high school football playoffs.

The dispute involves two lower court cases challenging how playoff points are earned and matchups are set for football teams across the state.

School systems hoping to uphold the lower rulings made their arguments in written briefs filed with the Supreme Court. The deadline for filing those arguments passed at noon on Monday.

The Supreme Court, in a scheduling order on Friday, said that once that deadline passes, it will be ready to consider its decision, though it did not give a timetable for when a ruling would come out.

The dispute dates back to the reclassification of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, which reclassified 22 football teams in August and ruled that playoff seeding points would be calculated based on the schools’ new lower classification.

Wood County schools challenged that rule and, a day after the regular season on Nov. 9, won an injunction that forced the WVSSAC to calculate playoff seeding based on pre-August calculations.

But in doing so, the Wood County court order eliminated four teams from playoff contention that otherwise would have made the postseason, including Point Pleasant High, which won an injunction of its own Nov. 11 to restore its playoff shot.

WVSSAC is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the Wood and Mason County rulings.

Attorneys for the two school systems filed their written responses from Sunday night through Monday morning.

“Without in any way discounting the disappointment experienced by student-athletes who will not make the playoffs, an expectation based on something that should not have been granted, however disappointing, cannot be used as a basis not to. the right thing,” attorney Patrick McFarland wrote to the Supreme Court Monday in his representation of Wood County Schools.

Wood County received support Monday from Cabell County Schools and a parent from Lincoln High in north-central West Virginia. Both entities filed documents with the Supreme Court supporting Wood County’s argument.

Wood County’s response claims the WVSSAC overstepped its authority and violated its own rules in changing the calculations. His lawyer claims the new calculations violated the gaming contracts entered into before the reclassifications.

For example, Williamstown High in northern Wood County saw five of its contract opponents move up a class, each move decreasing the number of playoff points Williamstown would receive, thus affecting the number of home games it would- would host in the playoffs.

“Losing this opportunity would cause significant financial harm to the school and community through decreased revenue and increased travel expenses,” McFarland wrote. “Financial losses would include the athletic booster organization losing money from lost concession sales, raffles, merchandise sales and other fundraising activities conducted at each home game.”

Wood County also contends that WVSSAC rules require the organization to review member schools before any changes to the playoff structure, a requirement Wood County claims it failed to meet in changing how the rankings would be calculated.

Wood County also contends that the WVSSAC did not have an adequate review procedure regarding the school classification.

In Mason County’s written response, an attorney argued that the order that restored Point Pleasant High’s chance at the playoffs should follow the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Wood County case.

Point Pleasant’s attorney agreed with the WVSSAC that the Wood County case should be dismissed and the playoff calculations that have been in place since August should be reinstated. If that argument prevails, her order would be unnecessary because it would restore Point Pleasant to the playoffs.

The WVSSAC argued that the Wood County court overstepped its authority and its decision threw the state playoffs into disarray, leading to further court cases and the postponement of the playoffs.

If allowed to stand, the WVSSAC argues that Wood County’s decision will permanently affect the SSAC’s ability to enforce its rules in the future, insisting it will lead to statewide confusion similar to the one exposed this month.

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