State Supreme Court Rules in Favor of WVSSAC for High School Football Playoff Rankings

A resolution has finally been reached in the ongoing saga of the 2024 West Virginia high school football playoffs.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled in favor of the WVSSAC, restoring the original ratings points formula used to determine seeds for the postseason. Injunctions from Wood County and Mason County against the WVSSAC have been vacated.

“The impact of this ruling is to allow the WVSSAC to proceed with the football championships according to its rules and authority,” the Supreme Court’s order reads.

With the ruling, the first round of the high school football playoffs is scheduled for Nov. 22 and 23 with dates and times for each game to be announced later. The typical playoff schedule has been pushed back by one week.

The first round of the playoffs was postponed earlier this month following an injunction granted in Wood County that changed the playoff ratings system, causing four projected playoff teams to be replaced by four teams that otherwise would not qualified for postseason play.

That resulted in Hampshire, Point Pleasant, Westside and Tolsia losing playoff spots to Capital, St. Albans, Lincoln and St. Marys.

But a ruling a few days later created chaos. Mason County Circuit Judge Anita Ashley issued an order to play play-in games last Friday in the Class AAA playoffs for the right to be among the top 16. Those play-in games were postponed and now ultimately canceled.

The Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the WVSSAC “beyond question” has the authority to reclassify schools and rejected the authority of either lower court to challenge it.

“We thus conclude that the (Wood County) circuit court exceeded its authority in adjudicating the as-applied challenge to the WVSSAC reclassification rule,” the court’s ruling reads. “The Circuit Court of Mason County likewise lacked the authority to interfere with the internal affairs of the WVSSAC and overreacted as a matter of law by directing the WVSSAC to schedule play-in games.”

Playoff games will begin this Friday and Saturday across the state.