By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Non-conference play was pretty much a wash collectively for Alamance County football teams.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association is going to a new seeding structure in addition to eight classifications for the state playoffs, with seeding determined strictly by Ratings Percentage Index. That formula is based 40 percent on a team’s winning percentage, 40 percent on its opponents’ winning percentage, and 20 percent on the winning percentage of its opponents’ opponents.
So with the eight-team Mid-Carolina Conference, there’s only three non-conference games available for each team. The Mid-Carolina Conference consists of teams in Class 6-A, Class 5-A, and Class 4-A.
With all the county teams in the same conference – and joined by Roxboro Person – the final six weeks of competition means teams in the conference will go a combined 24-24 the rest of the way.
Alamance County teams were a cumulative 11-10 in non-conference play.
Southeast Alamance went 3-0 in non-conference games. Cummings, Western Alamance, and Williams were 2-1. Eastern Alamance and Southern Alamance were 1-2. Graham was 0-3.
The most-frequent non-conference opponents for county teams were Eastern Guilford, which took on Eastern Alamance, Williams, and Southeast; and Orange, which met Williams and Southeast.
Orange is winless in four games under first-year coach Fritz Hessenthaler and has a visit from Eastern Guilford this week.
Eastern Guilford lost for the second time Friday with a 40-9 defeat to visiting Reidsville, which already has suffered two losses,
Some of the Alamance County teams’ opponents haven’t looked all that hot. Thomasville’s lone victory came against Cummings. Chatham Central and Cedar Ridge each own one triumph, both coming vs. Graham.
Northwest Guilford’s lone victory came against Western. The Warriors beat Southwest Guilford and Rockingham County – and both are 1-3.
Cummings beat Eden Morehead, which fell to 0-4 with Friday’s loss to Oxford Webb.
On the flip side, Southern’s three non-conference opponents are a combined 9-3, while Eastern’s non-league foes are 8-4.
The regular season ends October 31.
