Wyoming high school football playoff picture entering Week 7

Here’s a quick look at the Wyoming high school football playoff picture entering Week 7:

Class 4A
In: Sheridan, Cheyenne East, Natrona, Kelly Walsh, Rock Springs, Thunder Basin, Laramie.
Neither in nor out: Cheyenne Central, Gillette, Cheyenne South.
Out: No one.

Sheridan, East and Natrona are ahead of the rest of the pack; KW, Rock Springs, Thunder Basin and Laramie are more or less fighting for seeds 4-7, and Central, Gillette and South are basically fighting it out for the eighth spot. Technically, there could be some shuffling in these tiers, but for now there are three distinct separations of playoff battles happening in the big schools.

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Class 3A East
In: Torrington.
Neither in nor out: Rawlins, Douglas, Buffalo, Riverton, Lander.
Out: No one.

Right now, Lander is on the outside looking in, but if the Tigers can upset Douglas and Rawlins, they could make a real mess of things. The loser of this week’s Buffalo-Riverton game will have a tough time keeping pace, too.

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Class 3A West
In: Star Valley.
Neither in nor out: Green River, Cody, Evanston, Powell, Worland.
Out: Jackson.

A scenario exists where Green River, Cody, Evanston, Worland and Powell could end up in a five-way tie for seeds 2, 3 and 4. That’s how messed up (or, alternatively, parity-filled) the 3A West is this season.

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Class 2A East
In: Glenrock.
Neither in nor out: Newcastle, Wheatland, Moorcroft, Thermopolis, Burns.
Out: No one.

Speaking of scenarios, there is a bizarre scenario in the 2A East where four teams could tie for places 1-4 with 3-2 records. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

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Class 2A West
In: Mountain View, Big Piney.
Neither in nor out: Greybull, Lyman, Pinedale, Lovell, Kemmerer.
Out: No one.

Technically, everyone is still alive for the playoffs, thanks mostly to Lovell’s upset of Greybull last week. The scenarios here are messy; there’s a weird one where four teams tie for the fourth seed. Ugh.

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Class 1A 11-man East
In: Pine Bluffs, Big Horn.
Neither in nor out: Upton-Sundance, Southeast, Lusk, Tongue River.
Out: Wright.

The weird scenario here is where there’s potentially a three-way tie for the No. 4 seed, or, even worse, a four-way tie for seeds No. 3 and 4. It’s possible. I hope I don’t have to sort through it, though.

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Class 1A 11-man West
In: Cokeville.
Neither in nor out: Rocky Mountain Saratoga, Wind River, Wyoming Indian, Shoshoni.
Out: No one.

Rocky Mountain, Saratoga and Wind River are in the best positions to qualify for the remaining open spots, as they’re all 2-1 in league play. Shoshoni and Wyoming Indian need some miracles to happen to climb back from 0-3 and force a tie for one of the final spots; they play each other next week.

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Class 1A six-man East
In: Kaycee, Midwest.
Neither in nor out: Guernsey-Sunrise, Hanna, Hulett, Lingle, NSI.
Out: No one.

This might be the weirdest scenario, where zero-victory NSI actually has a better chance than one-victory Lingle. That’s because NSI has two conference games remaining instead of one and could, with the right scenario, force a tie for the No. 4 spot. Lingle could do that, too, but needs winless NSI to beat unbeaten Kaycee, in addition to a bunch of other things, to force a four-way tie for the No. 4 seed that might be broken coin-flip style.

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Class 1A six-man West
In: Farson, Snake River, Burlington.
Neither in nor out: Meeteetse, Ten Sleep, Dubois, St. Stephens.
Out: No one.
Ineligible: Riverside.

Meeteetse just needs to beat Ten Sleep next week to secure the conference’s last available spot. If Ten Sleep wins, though, that opens the door for winless teams Dubois and St. Stephens to stay alive, too.

–patrick