The final week of the high school regular season is here, and with it come a multitude of playoff possibilities for Williamson County high school teams. We break down the significance of all games and give you the playoff possibilities for each below.
Summit kicks off Thursday night
Summit clinched its seeding on Thursday night with a win over Lincoln County. The Spartans are the No. 3 seed in Region 5-5A, and will face either Beech, Hilsboro, Hillwood or Gallatin.
Either way, the Spartans will hit the road. Should the favorites win out in Region 6-6A, Summit will travel to Beech.
Sorting through 6A Region 6
Independence (5-4), Brentwood (7-2) and Ravenwood (7-2) sit at 3-1 in the region. They’re all guaranteed playoff spots, but, there’s a wide range of possibilities for seeding in Region 6-6A.
Centennial (3-6, 2-2 in the region) and Franklin (1-3, 5-4) are also fighting for the last playoff spot.
Ravenwood travels to Independence, Brentwood hosts Centennial and Franklin visits Dickson County. The first team listed in each game is the favorite. If the favorites win out, seeds (in order from one to four) would be Brentwood, Ravenwood, Independence and Franklin.
However, upsets could change that order to a large degree.
Independence, which has improved in the season’s second half (and now has Brentwood transfer Chayce Bishop, a talented receiver, as of last week), would win the region outright by knocking off Ravenwood, since it already beat Brentwood.
But if Independence loses to Ravenwood, and Centennial upsets Brentwood, Ravenwood would win the region, with Centennial grabbing second, Independence third and Brentwood fourth.
Either a Centennial win or a Franklin loss would put Centennial in the playoffs. But Franklin could sneak in and win the fourth playoff spot by beating Dickson County, combined with a Centennial loss. Franklin should be able to handle the Cougars, who’ve been out-scored 181-27 in region play.
If Independence and Centennial both pulled upsets, Brentwood would finish second, followed by Ravenwood, then Centennial.
The one-, two-, three- and four-seeds play the four-, three-, two- and one-seeds in Region 5.
Elsewhere around the county in games of significance…
Things are simple for Nolensville (5-4, 2-2) in Region 4 of Class 4A: beat Marshall County and it’s the No. 3 seed in its region, and travels to the No. 2 in Region 3. Lose, and the Knights are the four-seed traveling to the No. 1 in Region 3.
Brentwood Academy (7-2, 4-2) lost its shot at winning Division II-AAA with back-to-back losses to McCallie and MBA. The Eagles face Ensworth (6-3, 3-2) on Friday. A Brentwood Academy win assures the Eagles the three-seed, which is important because that gets BA a first-round playoff bye. A loss puts BA as the four-seed, which gives it a first-round game against the No. 3 seed from Division II-AAA West.
Battle Ground Academy (7-2, 2-1) can’t get the No. 1 seed. It needs to beat Lipscomb to get the No. 2 Middle seed in the Division II-AA playoffs, where the Wildcats would get a home game with the No. 5 seed from the East.
BGA could fall as low as No. 4 should it lose and Franklin Road Academy beat Christ Presbyterian Academy. But BGA would still be the two, even by losing to Lipscomb, should CPA win.
These teams already know their fate
Fairview (7-2, 4-0) has already clinched the No. 1 seed for 3-A Region 6 regardless of the outcome of its game at Cheatham County.
Page (8-1, 5-0) has done the same in 5-A Region 5.
Spring Hill (0-9, 0-4) will see its season end regardless of whether it defeats Lawrence County (1-8, 0-5).
The same is true of Grace Christian Academy (1-7, 1-4) regardless of how it fares at Fayetteville (0-9, 0-5).
