The all-NWC season schedule is attached as is a tournament playoff bracket.
By Cort Reynolds
The Northwest Conference athletic directors met Wednesday and came up with a unique new season schedule and tournament in response to the pandemic.
The previous schedule with non-league games to start out with has been totally scrapped. For 2020, the NWC has been split into two divisons, East and West, with a short three-game pool play schedule preceding a league tournament that will guarantee each school three more games.
Ada, Allen East, Bluffton and Columbus Grove will comprise the NWC East. Crestview, Delphos Jefferson, Paulding and Spencerville make up the NWC West.
The season is slated to kick off Friday, Aug. 28, as originally scheduled.
Ada will play at traditional rival Allen East in week one, while Bluffton hosts Grove. Paulding is at Delphos Jefferson while Crestview visits Spencerville.
In week two on September 4 AE goes to Bluffton, Ada plays at Grove, Crestview goes to Paulding and Spencerville is at backyard rival DJ.
In week three Sept. 11 CG is at AE while Bluffton plays at Ada, DJ visits Crestview and Spencerville is at Paulding. Seeding for the NWC tournament will then take place Sept. 12.
Division record in pool play determines seeding, with ties broken by using the results of head to head matchups or by drawing pills, if needed.
The league will then embark on a first-ever, three-week NWC tournament from Sept. 18-Oct. 2. Game one Sept. 18 will pit the number one seed from preliminary pool play out of the West vs. the East fourth-place finisher.
East number two also plays number three from the West, the East number one will play West four and West number two will play the East number three finisher.
Winners will face off in week two of the tourtney Sept. 25. First round losers will play in the consolation bracket in week two and week three, with their best possible finish being fifth.
The higher seed will not always host the tournament games.
Semifinal winners from Sept. 25 will then meet in the conference tournament title game Oct. 2. Games to determine third, fifth and seventh-place will also take place that night.
The first round of the state playoffs will then commence the next weekend on Oct. 9. Teams that lose in the first round will have the option of completing their regular season, possibly against other league teams and or non-league opponents previously on their original schedule.
In Ada's case, they were slated to host Waynesfield, USV and Arlington in non-conference play and could pick those games up again in weeks 8-10, or play other league teams from the West as well.
Bluffton also was scheduled to play Cory-Rawson, Pandora-Gilboa and Ayersville in the first four weeks of its original 2020 slate.
Of course, potential foes post-NWC tournament and post-state playoffs are contingent on whether teams advance in the tournament or have other issues with roster size, injuries, etc.
