Marcos de Niza High’s football team is the No. 10 seed in Class 4A and Valley Christian is No. 8 in 3A for their respective playoffs play-in round Nov. 20, the Arizona Interscholastic Association announced.
Undefeated Corona del Sol puts it record on the line Friday in its 6A regular-season finale at Mesa Mountain View (6-1). The Aztecs (7-0) are all but a lock to be selected for post-season play.
What remains to be seen is whether Corona makes the Open Division field, reserved for the top eight teams in the state pulled from Classes 6A, 5A and 4A, or whether it is sent to the 6A playoff bracket as perhaps the top seed.
Open Division and Class 6A brackets will be announced by the AIA on Nov. 21.
Strength of schedule could bite even an undefeated Corona for an Open Division bid. There are teams ranked ahead of it with a loss or two based on schedule strength.
Tenth-seeded Marcos de Niza (4-3) visits No. 7 Northwest Christian ((4-2) at 7 p.m. on Friday in the 4A play-in round.
No. 8 Valley Christian (6-1) plays host to traditional White Mountains power Eager Round Valley (5-2), the No. 9 seed, at 7 p.m. on Friday in the 3A play-in round.
Friday’s eight winners in 4A and 3A will be reseeded into their respective classification playoff brackets for the round of 8.
