Indians To Battle For Playoff Opportunity
by Jamie Brockman
Oskaloosa will look to earn their fourth straight Class 3A playoff berth tonight when they celebrate Senior night and close the regular season hosting winless South Tama tonight. The Indians are projected to earn the 16th and final seed, but several things must happen for that to be a reality.
First, Oskaloosa must beat South Tama and finish 6-3. The margin of victory is unimportant as the IHSAA no longer uses the previous points system to determine qualifiers. Qualifiers are now determined by eight District Champions and eight at large bids, comprised of an R.P.I. system that uses your winning percentage, your opponents winning percentage, and your opponents-opponents winning percentage. 1.000 is the highest rating, while 0.000 is the lowest. After the eight District Champions, the eight highest R.P.I. not already in will make the field.
Currently, Oskaloosa is 19th in Class 3A with an R.P.I. of 0.5586. So, assuming the Indians win over South Tama, there are five to six other game outcomes that will determine Oskaloosa’s fate. Independence must beat Decorah, DCG needs to beat Carroll, Washington must defeat Mount Pleasant, North Scott will have to beat Davenport Assumption, and Pella over Grinnell. The good news is, most of these are likely to happen, but we’ll have to wait and see.
If the Indians get in, they’re projected to travel to highly rated Solon or Council Bluffs Lewis Central next Friday for the first round of the Class 3A playoffs. The IHSAA will make the playoff pairings public sometime late tonight into Saturday morning.
With this known, in addition to tonight being Senior night, the Indians should have a little extra fire tonight and take care of the Trojans.
If you can’t attend tonight, you can watch the live video stream on the Indians Network at www.indiansnetwork.tv or on M.C.G. channel 7. Join Jamie Brockman with OVP students Joe Glasgow in the booth and Andres Chavez on the sidelines. Pre-game coverage begins at 7 pm with kickoff scheduled for 7:30 pm.
