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Midnight Coin Flip Utilized To Determine Playoff Teams From Oklahoma High School Football District

Three teams met outside a catfish restuarant to find out which two teams advanced to the postseason and which team sees its season abruptly end
Buck Ringgold|
Buck Ringgold

At the stroke of midnight Saturday, three Oklahoma high school football teams learned its postseason fate - all by the toss of a coin.

Due to all tiebreakers being exhausted in a three-way tie for third place in District A-II-3, the ultimate decision took place outside a restaurant when the head coaches of the three teams - Liberty, Central Sallisaw and Gore - convened at once to flip a coin at the same time.

The coin flip took place at Catfish Round Up, just off Interstate 40 at Exit 200 outside of Seminole, east of Oklahoma City.

Both coins for Central Sallisaw and Liberty ended up tails, while Gore’s coin turned up heads. That means Central Sallisaw and Liberty get to move on to next week’s A-II playoffs, while Gore’s season comes to a bizarre end.

In Oklahoma, except for Class 6AI and 6AII, only the top four teams from each district advance to the playoffs, and should there be a three-way tie for third, one team is going to miss the playoffs.

Finding A Solution

The possibility of the midnight coin flip came about in an e-mail that was shared by T.J. Eckert, an anchor at Tulsa television station KJRH, the coin flip would take place at Catfish Round Up.

The head coaches from the three schools met with OSSAA Associate Director Trinity Johnson. Each coach flipped a coin at the same time with its school’s primary color marked on it, and the two teams whose coins fall on the same side will advance to the playoffs, with the other team’s season coming to an end.

Social media got wind of the decision, and after the games were finalized Friday night, the coin flip officially took place, which was also streamed live on the OSSAA’s Facebook page.

Friday Night Flips

In the e-mail obtained by Eckert, due to the three-way tie for third in A-II-3, it was be the fourth time in more than 30 years this has taken place.

While a coin flip has been an unusual occurrence, one such instance was part of a famous book and later a legendary scene in a motion picture adopted from the book.

In 1988, Texas schools Odessa Permian, Midland Lee and Midland High finished the regular season with a three-way tie for the final two playoff spots. The coaches met at a truck stop in the middle of the night for a coin toss, where whichever coin shows the opposite face from the other two meant elimination for that team.

Heads landed for both Permian and Midland Lee, while tails landed for Midland High, meaning the latter team was eliminated from the playoffs. That scene was featured in Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger’s 1989 book chronicling Permian’s 1988 season as well as the 2004 movie of the same name, although Abilene Cooper replaced Midland High in the film.

Last year, another coin toss in Texas took place, as three teams (Amarillo High, Lubbock High and Amarillo Caprock) met at a convenience store in Plainview to determine the final team to make the 5A Division I playoffs.

Amarillo High won the coin flip, meaning the Sandies got to advance to the postseason while the other two teams stayed home. Ironically, the coin flip was enforced when Amarillo High was forced to vacate six wins for using an ineligible player.

How Friday Went Down

Liberty had entered Friday night all alone in third place in A-II-3, but lost 63-8 to Talihina, the defending A-II state champion which finished the regular season 10-0. Regent Prep got the No. 2 seed behind Talihina.

Central Sallisaw and Gore were tied for fourth place entering Friday. Central defeated Porter 52-14, which went winless in district play, while Gore beat Mounds 49-0, which won only once in the district.

Those results forced the three-way tie for third place. The next criteria used was head-to-head results. 

Gore defeated Central but lost to Liberty, which in turn lost to Central. 

Then point differential is used to determine the playoff seeds. The most a team can gain or lose points in a single game is 15. Liberty had 30 points, but after losing to Talihina by at least 15, it finished with 15 points. Central and Gore both had zero points going in, but each school won by at least 15 points, so those teams got 15 points to tie Liberty.

As a result, the coin flip was the last resort to determine the two final playoff teams in A-II-3.

Due to Central’s head-to-head win against Liberty, the Tigers were awarded the No. 3 seed out of the district and will play at Woodland in next week’s opening round playoff game. Liberty, the No. 4 seed, takes on Ketchum in its playoff game next week.

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Buck Ringgold
BUCK RINGGOLD

Buck Ringgold is a veteran high school sportswriter with extensive experience covering sports in Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana. He is a longtime contributor to High School On SI.

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