Only one playoff seeding question (or triangular playoff possibility) will not be answered by the time games are done Friday night.
The lone exception to that comes in the Class 1A six-man North Conference — and the seeding means everything to the Meeteetse Longhorns.
With a victory over Hulett on Saturday, the Longhorns would secure a first-round home playoff game, a feat the program has not accomplished since 2001.
Even with a loss, the Longhorns tie Hulett and Kaycee for the second, third and fourth seeds from the 1A six-man North Conference and have a one-in-three shot of hosting in the first round anyway.
If the Longhorns get the chance to host in the first round, they’ll break one of the longest such droughts in the state; only seven schools have longer first-round home playoff game droughts than Meeteetse does, and none of those seven schools has a chance this year to break their streak like Meeteetse does on Saturday.
Of the 24 teams still in the running for the 20 first-round host slots, 19 hosted in the first round either last year or in 2010; the five exceptions, in addition Meeteetse, are Riverton, Burlington, Hulett and Upton-Sundance.
Riverton, which has already secured the top seed from the 3A East, will host its first playoff game since 2004; Burlington, win or lose this week against Cokeville, will host its first playoff game since 2008.
Hulett, Meeteetse’s opponent on Saturday, is trying to backdoor its way into a home playoff game, which would be the school’s first since 2008. And Upton-Sundance, which, technically has never hosted a playoff game as a combined program, is trying to put a home playoff game into the communities for the first time in several years; Upton last hosted in 2006 and Sundance in 2005.
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On the other side, some schools have made hosting in the first round an annual tradition — especially in Class 4A.
For the second consecutive year, the same four schools (Natrona, Gillette, Sheridan and Cheyenne East) will host first-round playoff games. Gillette is hosting in the first round for the sixth consecutive year, while Sheridan will open the postseason at home for the fifth year straight and Natrona for the third year in a row.
Douglas has all those 4A schools topped, as the Bearcats, by virtue of their second-place finish in the 3A East, will host in the opening round for the seventh year in a row.
But none of those schools has a stranglehold on first-round home games like Southeast and Cokeville do.
Although Southeast’s hosting responsibilities are not cemented entering this week — the Cyclones have to beat Upton-Sundance Lingle and hope Upton-Sundance loses to Lusk on Friday to wrap up the 1A 11-man East’s No. 2 seed — the Cyclones, with a win and help, will open up the playoffs at home for the 16th consecutive year.
Cokeville, meanwhile, has already locked up one of the top two seeds in the 1A 11-man West and will host a first-round playoff game for the 20th consecutive year. The last time the Panthers missed out on the first-round hosting duties was 1992, when they failed to qualify for the postseason at all.
In addition, Lovell, Lusk and Dubois have also secured first-round hosting rights for the third consecutive year.
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However, the seven schools with playoff hosting droughts longer than Meeteetse will all see their streaks extended at least one more year.
Rawlins and Laramie both haven’t hosted a playoff game since 2000, while Torrington hasn’t been at home for a postseason game since 1996. Three schools — Cheyenne South, Farson and Wyoming Indian — have never hosted a playoff game.
The seventh school on that list has the most surprising streak. Despite an overall program winning percentage above .500, 12 all-time playoff qualifications, six postseason victories and three title-game appearances, Pine Bluffs hasn’t played a playoff game at home since 1948.
That’s 64 years, if you’re counting.
The 1948 season for Pine Bluffs was a special one: The Hornets won the Southeast six-man crown and beat Jackson in the state semifinals before hosting Byron for the state title. Byron won that game 44-0 in far eastern Laramie County; Pine Bluffs hasn’t hosted a playoff game since then.
Pine won’t host in the playoffs this year, either. The Hornets have to hope for Lingle to beat Southeast to qualify for the Class 1A 11-man playoffs, and even if they get in, they’ll be the No. 4 seed out of the East Conference, which means no home games no matter what.
Sorry, Hornet faithful. We can hope Year 65 will be the lucky one.
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Here are this week’s picks, with the teams I think will win in bold and the teams I think will make every attempt possible to prove me wrong in the regular type:
Thursday
Class 1A 11-man
Shoshoni at Wyoming Indian
Friday
Class 4A
Cheyenne Central at Kelly Walsh
Cheyenne East at Sheridan
Cheyenne South at Rock Springs
Evanston at Laramie
Gillette at Natrona
Class 3A
Cody at Worland
Green River at Powell
Lander at Riverton
Rawlins at Buffalo
Star Valley at Jackson
Torrington at Douglas
Class 2A
Big Piney at Lovell
Glenrock at Moorcroft
Kemmerer at Mountain View
Lyman at Greybull
Newcastle at Big Horn
Pinedale at Thermopolis
Tongue River at Wheatland
Wright at Burns
Class 1A 11-man
Cokeville at Burlington
Lusk at Upton-Sundance (at Upton)
Rocky Mountain at Saratoga
Southeast at Lingle
Wind River at Riverside
Class 1A six-man
Guernsey at Dubois
Snake River at Farson
Ten Sleep at Hanna
Saturday
Class 1A six-man
Hulett at Meeteetse
Kaycee at Midwest
Open: Normative Services, Pine Bluffs.
Last week: 28-3 (90 percent). This season: 201-35 (85 percent).
There they are, the final picks of the regular season. How do you see the playoffs shaping up, based on what might happen this week? Anything jump out to you as intriguing or interesting on the Week 8 schedule? Feel free to post your thoughts below.
(And how did I get to this point and NOT mention that two games in Week 8 pit undefeated teams against each other: Gillette-Natrona in 4A and Big Horn-Newcastle in 2A? The Ram-Dogie game starts at 1 p.m. in Big Horn; the Mustang-Camel showdown starts at 7 p.m. in Casper. If I still lived in Wyoming, I’d just call in sick to work and go to both.)
–patrick
Speaking of sick, you must have been that when you picked Newcastle over Big Horn. What happened in that game? A slaughter!
That game was a surprise to everyone, I think, except maybe the folks in maroon and yellow. I said on Twitter that I don’t think I’ve underestimated any team in the state this year as much as I’ve underestimated Big Horn. I think once a game gets rolling in one direction like that, it’s easy to see it snowball…. I think Newcastle is better than that score but I think Big Horn is better than I’ve given them credit for all year.
–patrick