Computers can be helpful or they can be a real hindrance.
Computer rankings are everything to a playoff-hopeful high school football team in Ohio. Most of the time, several rankings, which take into account multiple factors such as won-loss record, level of competition and game scores to compute a team’s rank, are pretty close to accurate.
The Wildcats of North Union are one of those teams keeping their eye on the computer rankings for Region 18 of Division V football.
After Tuesday’s release of the official computer rankings by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, NU sits at seventh in Region 18 after beating Division IV Galion, which is now 4-4 on the season.
The Wildcats (6-2) sat at sixth place after last week’s rankings.
With a victory over a .500 team that is in a higher division, NU should at least have stayed in their position at sixth this week, if you follow the logic.
There was, however, a great deal of shake up in the region, not only for the Cats, but also for the entire top eight teams that are looking for a playoff spot.
The top two teams in the region, Genoa Area and Liberty Center, both remain unbeaten and swapped the top two spots.
Liberty Center is in first place after a win over Swanton (2-6). Genoa Also claimed a win over Rossford (2-6) and is in second place.
Anna (6-2) leap-frogged Pleasant (7-1) to take third place after a huge 21-20 win over Coldwater, a team that won six state titles between 2005-2015.
Oak Harbor (7-1) stayed put in the fifth spot with a win over Edison and Elyria Catholic (7-1) made a huge jump from beyond the 12th spot in the rankings to sixth with a 28-21 win over Division III Bay Village, which is now 7-1.
The moving and shaking puts puts North Union in seventh places with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The Wildcats currently have a 64 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Drew Pasteur’s fantastic 50 website. A win this week against Division IV Buckeye Valley would bump their chances up to 90 percent.
With that said, the Wildcats really have one option to give themselves the best chance of making the playoffs . . . win,.
However, even with a victory over BVC, there is still a 10 percent chance that the computer will place them outside of the top eight, depending on what everyone else does in the region on Friday.
NU head coach Nick Hajjar probably summed up the jumbled region best when he said. “We will worry about what we can control.”
The release of this week’s computer ratings show another team with a good shot at the playoffs and another still on the bubble.
The Fairbanks Panthers are eighth in Region 23 of Division VI.
The Panthers travel to play at Triad (5-3) on Friday.
They will then close the regular season next week with a home game against 7-1 and state-ranked Mechanicsburg.
Jonathan Alder (5-3) is tenth in Region 16 of Division IV.
JA will host Tecumseh (5-3) on Friday and then play at Shawnee.