Unbeaten, unseeded: Forfeits muddle Southeast bracket

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Troy has forfeited its first six victories of the 2007 football season because it used an ineligible player, the Southern Section office announced this afternoon. The Warriors (now 1-8, 1-3) forfeited league victories over Fullerton and Buena Park, as well as nonleague wins over Brea Olinda, Corona del Mar, Don Lugo, and Diamond Bar.

The forfeits put a bizarre -- and, to my recollection, unprecedented -- spin on the playoff entries from the Freeway League. La Habra (9-0, 4-0), the top-ranked team in the Southeast Division, appeared to have wrapped up the outright league championship, as well as the top seed in the division playoffs, after the Highlanders’ 52-9 victory over Sonora Thursday. However, with their forfeit victory over Troy, Fullerton (now 6-3, 4-0) claimed a piece of the league title and -- after a Friday coin flip -- the Freeway League’s number 1 entry for the playoffs.

In another oddity, Fullerton and La Habra did not play one another; their game was a casualty of the air quality issues related to October’s wildfires. By section rule, Fullerton, ranked 10th in the latest Southeast Division poll, must be seeded ahead of the Highlanders, and it would appear that La Habra might drop from being the clear-cut top seed to completely out of the top four through absolutely no fault of its own.

-- Eric Maddy, stats guru
-- Image from www.orientaltrading.com