Mid-Valley Division wild-card berths -- know your situation and playoff formula

Baldwin Park secured a big win in the Valle Vista League last week, beating defending league and CIF-Southern Section Mid-Valley Division champion San Dimas. The win, however, was more important than the Braves might have realized. It gave Baldwin Park a leg up in the race for the league title, but it also was huge for the Braves' playoff aspirations.

The Valle Vista, Montview, Rio Hondo, Mission Valley, Olympic and Almont League each have two guaranteed playoff spots for the Mid-Valley Division playoffs. There are four at-large berths, but keep in mind that if teams finish third or fourth in their respective leagues and both have .500 records are better, no fourth-place team can earn an-large over a third-place team. Other than that, the four playoff seeds will be determined by a CIF formula. That formula looks at a few different things, with the most important being head-to-head results. The at-large teams finishing third with the most points based on the formula below will qualify. Fourth-place teams won't be considered if there are at least four third-place teams with .500 records or better.

(a) Head-to-head competition of teams under consideration (4 points)
(b) Overall strength of the league from which the team is entered (1 point)
(c) Overall win-loss record (1 point)
(d) Strength against common opponents (1 point)
(e) Strength of schedule (2 points, using overall win-loss record of opponents)