Spsl Seeks Playoff Pool With Kingco -- One-Year Deal Would Combine Football Berths

It could be taken as a challenge: Our league's tougher than your league.

But that's only a small part of the thinking behind a proposal that would link the South Puget Sound League and KingCo Conference in the preliminary round of the Class AAA state football playoffs.

Both leagues have three first-round playoff berths for 1993 and are in two-division alignments. In the past, they each have allotted two of those berths to their division champions. The third entry has been decided by a preliminary playoff game between the second-place finishers in the two divisions played on the Tuesday following the final regular-season game.

Under the SPSL proposal, which will be presented to the KincCo football coaches tonight, the second-place teams from the SPSL North and South divisions would cross over to play the second-place teams from the KingCo Crest and Crown divisions in those Tuesday preliminary games. The two winners would advance to the opening round of the playoffs along with the four division champions.

In other words, the SPSL would be assured of two first-round berths, but could end up with as many as four. Same with the KingCo.

The 15-team SPSL had four full berths last year, compared to only two for the KingCo, but the SPSL was limited to three for the three previous years and has three for both 1993 and '94. This would be a one-year pact as the KingCo drops back to only two playoff berths in 1994.

Dave Lutes, Kent School District athletic director and SPSL football chairman, wrote the proposal and it has been unanimously approved by SPSL coaches and SPSL athletic directors. SPSL coaches are tired of bumping each other out of the playoffs.

"Our thinking was, let's just try to get out of our league," said Auburn Coach Bob Jones, whose second-place North Division team was eliminated by the South Division runner-up in both 1990 and '91.

"If you look at how well people in our league have done the past couple of years, we wondered if we could have gotten into the playoffs with someone other than in our league," Jones said.

In 1991, Auburn lost the preliminary playoff to Puyallup, 14-7, and the Vikings went on to reach the Kingbowl. Auburn earned a direct playoff berth last year and reached the semifinals. SPSL and KingCo teams have won seven of the past 10 state titles.

"Everybody's always saying, `Our league is stronger than your league,' " Lutes said, "so let's line up and play and find out."

But approval by the KingCo coaches and ADs is hardly a sure thing. The WesCo AAA Conference made a similar proposal last May.

The WesCo and KingCo have been linked the past two years in basketball, volleyball, softball, cross country and track, forming the Wes-King bi-district, and the alliance in those sports has been extended for two more years.

According to Donna Tyo, Bothell athletic director and chairman of KingCo athletic directors, the WesCo is interested in extending the alliance to all other sports except wrestling and gymnastics, which are hooked into regional tournaments. Golf also would be excluded in the alliance.

The WesCo has just two playoff berths in football for both 1993 and '94 and would benefit most in that sport, at least for this season. The KingCo would gain an advantage in tennis and swimming, two of its strongest sports.

"Their (WesCo's) major thrust is in football," Tyo said, "but if we gave in football, they'd give in tennis and swimming and we'd continue talks in baseball and soccer."

The SPSL is aligned with the Narrows and Olympic leagues through the West Central District in most other sports.

The WesCo proposal will be heard by KingCo coaches in all sports tonight, with recommendations then taken back to the athletic directors. The football coaches also will hear the SPSL proposal.

Lutes said the SPSL-KingCo alliance in football first came into consideration three seasons ago, but he said the playoff allocations between the two leagues didn't match up. This year, it's a perfect fit.

"Instead of getting three teams (to the playoffs), you could get four, but you also run the risk of getting two," Lutes said. "If that's the case, you didn't belong there anyway. With a league our size, the third- or fourth-place team could make it a fair way to the Kingbowl."

He said another advantage of the SPSL-KingCo alliance would be eliminating the possibility of repeat games. In the SPSL, each team plays two to three cross-over games with the other division and two of those teams could meet again in the preliminary playoff. Same in the KingCo.

Under the proposal, the SPSL No. 3 team would play host to KingCo No. 4 in a preliminary-round playoff, with the winner advancing to the first round. KingCo No. 3 would play host to SPSL No. 4, with the winner also advancing to the first round. Coin flips likely would determine No. 3 and No. 4 in each division.

---------------------------------------------------. AAA football finals.

Teams from the KingCo Conference and the South Puget Sound League have won seven of the past 10 Class AAA state football championships.

. . 1992 Newport 48, Puyallup 21. . 1991 Cascade 14, Puyallup 7. . 1990 Curtis 30, Newport 14. . 1989 Curtis 25, Kentwood 0. . 1988 Ingraham 21, Kentwood 0. . 1987 Puyallup 27, Gonzaga Prep 21. . 1986 Gonzaga Prep 14, Juanita 7. . 1985 Juanita 28, Gonzaga Prep 13. . 1984 Juanita 41, South Kitsap 27. . 1983 Bellevue 17, Kennewick 14. . 1982 Gonzaga Prep 25, South Kitsap 7. . 1981 Richland 7, Kentridge 6. . 1980 Mount Tahoma 21, Issaquah 3. . 1979 Mount Tahoma 37, Rogers-Puyallup 3. . 1978 Snohomish 14, Ingraham 8. . 1977 Sumner 12, Gonzaga Prep 7. . 1976 Snohomish 20, Federal Way 7. . 1975 Foss 17, Richland 7. . 1974 Blanchet 14, Mount Tahoma 6. . 1973 Kentridge 26, Wenatchee 24. . . (Kingbowl started in 1977. State football playoffs started in 1973. Blanchet was a member of the Western Conference when it won the 1974 state championship.)