'Quality Points' Knock Eagles Out of Grid Playoffs

Barrington High's football season came to an abrupt end on Thanksgiving Day after Rhode Island Interscholastic League tie-breaking rules were put into play to determine the four playoff teams.

The RIIL had informed Patch the day before the Turkey Day game that Barrington had already clinched a playoff spot, no matter what happened in the La Salle versus East Providence game on Thanksgiving Day. That proved to be incorrect. And a RIIL representative apologized on Friday for the misinterpretation, which was reported in a preview of the Thanksgiving Day game.

La Salle upset East Providence, 14-6, and earned the third seed in the playoffs with the win. If La Salle had lost, Barrington would have been in. East Providence fell to the fourth seed with the loss, which knocked Barrington out of the tourney under the tie-breaking rules.

In short, when La Salle, East Providence and Barrington all finished with identical division records, a "quality points" system was used to pick the final two playoff teams.

Quality points are the number of Division I wins opponents of La Salle, East Providence and Barrington had during the season.  Under this format, La Salle earned the most quality points (15) to edge out Barrington (14), even though the Eagles beat La Salle during the season.

East Providence matched Barrington's quality points.  So, East Providence's win over Barrington during the season gave the Townies the fourth seed in the division.