LUMBERTON — When someone talks about the playoffs, they are usually speaking of teams with winning records battling it out for a championship.

But that’s not always the case in North Carolina.

Of the nearly 2,000 schools that made the state playoffs in the major sports of baseball, boys and girls basketball, football, boys and girls soccer, softball and volleyball, around 25 percent had losing records.

The problem exists on all levels of competition from 1A up to 4A, but the majority of the 487 schools that advanced to the state playoffs with a losing record were in the 1A classification.

The current playoff system automatically awards playoff berths to a determined number of teams based on their conference finish, regardless of record.

For example, the Southeastern Conference with six teams is awarded four automatic berths to the playoffs, while the Three Rivers also has six teams and has five schools moving on to postseason. The reason for the disparity is the Three Rivers is a split conference, with 1A and 2A members.

There are only two 2A members in the conference, St. Pauls and Fairmont, and they qualify for the postseason regardless of the record or finish in the conference. The remaining four members of the conference are 1A schools and they compete for the final three automatic spots.

Having a system like this does lead to teams, like the St. Pauls boys basketball team last season, earning a No. 2 bid and hosting a first-round playoff contest despite a losing record. Jordan Matthews had a 21-5 record entering the playoffs and were a No. 3 seed, but were forced to travel to face a 3-19 St. Pauls squad.

Que Tucker, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Deputy Commissioner, understands there will be situations like St. Pauls-Jordan Matthews that occur each year. She cautions the NCHSAA will not toss out the importance of conferences.

“If you only take say the conference winners and not the No. 2 teams, then you leave filling the brackets to wildcards,” Tucker said. “You don’t want to render the conferences as unimportant, because they are every important. If you just take wildcards, then you can have a team scheduling nothing but patsies to boost their record.”

Lumberton girls basketball coach Danny Graham and other coaches agree with the NCHSAA that conferences are critical, but are trying to limit the number of losing teams that enter the playoffs. Graham realizes there are very good teams that stumble during the season because of injuries or other circumstances and register losing marks, but he is hoping to avoid situations like a 3-19 team playing a 22-1 squad.

“I’m not saying teams with losing records don’t belong in the tournament,” Graham said. “I think you should go on a team’s conference record first and their overall record second when determining bids. The way it is now, a team from a split conference could have just two conference wins and be a No. 1 seed.”

Tucker agrees with Graham that a school earning a No. 1 seed is unfair based squarely on it belonging to a split conference.

“We probably need to look at putting in some qualifiers in split conferences,” Tucker said. “It’s a struggle for us to be balanced and fair to all conferences.”

Graham understands the current design assures 64 teams, 32 in the East and 32 in the West make the playoffs in each classification.

“The current system guarantees more teams make the playoffs,” Graham said. “I think teams with losing records will still make the field no matter what, I don’t see that changing unless they decrease the field.”

Declining playoffs bids

The NCHSAA is slowly beginning to attempt to rectify the situation by allowing schools to opt-out of the playoffs.

Previously, if a school declined a bid to the postseason it was fined by the NCHSAA. However, by allowing the opt-out provision, schools are able to avoid the fine.

“We think it allows teams that know they have no business in the playoffs a chance to step aside,” Tucker said. “It remains to seen if any schools will, because young people still want to play that game.”

Another step the NCHSAA is the beginning of a pod-system in high school football. The idea is by grouping schools in four different sections, it would not only eliminate long trips in the playoffs, but also help weed out of the “weaker” playoffs teams in the early rounds.

Last year, teams with a losing record only won 16 percent of their games in the playoffs. However, there were squads that won three games in the playoffs despite a losing mark, including Fairmont’s boys basketball team.

Graham hopes the NCHSAA will take the pod-system and utilize it in other sports as well.

“We hope in the near future, they will seed the basketball playoffs like they are in football,” Graham said. “The North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association sent out a questionnaire and most of the coaches, 92 percent, want to see teams seeded. If they do, it’s a step in the right direction.”

Tucker knows the pod-system format seems to have several coaches from different sports hoping it will spread to their playoffs.

“We will know if it works or not after the last football championship game,” Tucker said. “At the end of day, we may look and say this wasn’t half bad, let’s try this for basketball.”

Graham added he hopes to see the changes, not because he’s a coach, but because it’s the right thing for the fans.

“You want to see a good basketball game if you’re paying good money,” Graham said. “You want to see a 22-win team play a 16-win team, not a 22-win team play a team with four wins.”