If East is tied, Meadows has the edge

Three teams could claim part of the Mid-Suburban East football title Friday but only one can get the IHSA's automatic playoff berth.

Rolling Meadows, Wheeling and Buffalo Grove would finish in a three-way tie for the East title at 4-1 if they win their regular-season finales on Friday.

But Meadows would get the official conference champion representative berth because of a plus-12 point differential in games involving the three schools. Wheeling is minus-3 and Buffalo Grove is minus-9.

Buffalo Grove beat Meadows 12-10 and lost to Wheeling 32-21 and Meadows beat Wheeling 35-6. But the MSL doesn't allow the point spread to be more than 14 points in a game for tiebreaker consideration to keep teams from running up big victory margins.

Wheeling would be 6-3 and qualify for the playoffs if it beats Elk Grove. BG would be 5-4 if it beats Prospect and would need to have enough playoff points to qualify for an at-large berth.

And the MSL does not have the power to declare BG or any other school as the conference representative.

According to the IHSA terms and conditions, tie-breaker criteria had to be submitted by Sept. 28 and has to be an objective system and not a subjective vote.