Playoffs? Playoffs??

Jan. 24, 2016

Cellar-dwelling Spiders hear rumors about playoffs, already on golf course waiting for snow to melt.

The mid-season AHA captains meeting was held last week, and in a first for at least the Spiders at C3/D1/D2, the level will offer two wildcard spots for the playoffs. With a parity-busting team at D1 (the 10–0–1–0 Anchors Blue) getting an automatic berth in the C3 playoffs, the rest of the C3 teams will be left with 11 spots among the 24 teams. That means the top three teams in each division (East, South and North), and the wildcard spots will go to the next two best records among the remaining C3 teams, in any division.

With the Spiders’ chances at a post-season spot essentially nonexistent given the eight-game slide since November, Jim Mora had long ago given his remarks. But with this news, the lights just turned out on the already dim playoff hopes for the Spiders. Essentially at 21st place in the combined C3 standings, thanks to the SPIDERS WIN! on Saturday, even an 8–0 run in the remaining games would require help not only from the teams ahead in C3 South, but across all C3 divisions, to get out of the negative double-digit AHA math.

Playoffs are scheduled for April 5–10, with most games at BIG.

C3 Seeding:

• Top three teams from each division advance to playoffs.
• Next two best records (“wildcards”) also advance to playoffs.
• D1 Anchors Blue automatically berthed in C3 playoffs.
• Three four-team pools, round robin, weighted-schedule (three games each).
• Semi-finals (top four pool play records) Sunday morning.
• Semi-final winners advance to Tier Championship Sunday evening.

Seeds for C3 Tier:

• Pool A: East #1, South #2, West #3, Wildcard #1
• Pool B: South #1, West #2, East #3, Wildcard #2
• Pool C: West #1, East #2, South #3, D1 Anchors Blue

Current C3 standings: