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When the UIL added a fourth playoff team from each Class 5A district last year, it didn't just expand the postseason field. It expanded the confusion and anxiety about district tiebreakers.

After the conclusion of last week's games, coaches and fans across the area were poring over tiebreaker procedures, hypothesizing scenarios and calculating point differentials. Five of the area's nine 5A districts still have open playoff berths.

"It does drive you crazy," Richardson Berkner coach Jim Ledford said. "It was late Friday night before we figured it out."

Berkner is among five 9-5A teams that could end up tied for the district's final two playoff spots.

Assistant coach Dave Handal was assigned the chore of figuring out how many combinations of wins, losses and point spreads would result in Berkner making the playoffs.

"He kept trying to figure it out and people were asking him questions," Ledford said. "He got upset and went off by himself. It took him probably an hour, an hour and a half, just for our portion. We didn't look at Wylie or Lake Highlands or anybody else."

In District 8-5A, three teams remain tied for that district's final playoff spot. The district's executive committee, made up of the school principals, met Wednesday to decide how to interpret one of the many tiebreaker scenarios that could result Friday night.

Part of the confusion stems from the fact there is no uniform tiebreaker system. The UIL permits each district to set its own tiebreaker rules.

Most districts break ties with head-to-head results first. When more than two teams are tied, the second tiebreaker is usually a plus-minus point differential based on the scores of games among the tied teams. The final resort in most cases is a coin flip.

"I think it's a good system, because I wouldn't want to settle it with a coin flip," Cedar Hill coach Joey McGuire said. "The way the tiebreakers are set up, at least it's being settled on the field.

"It takes a while, but it's not as hard once you put it up on the board."

But most fans don't have a dry-erase board handy to write out the possible scenarios. Trying to keep track of potential outcomes and point differentials in one's head is often impossible.

Berkner's Handal produced a spreadsheet with a sliding scale of how many points Berkner would need to beat Plano West by to make the playoffs, dependent on how many points Lake Highlands would potentially beat Wylie by.

"From a coach's standpoint, it's always been entertaining, especially when it starts coming down to points in Week nine and Week 10," Arlington coach Scott Peach said. "As far as a player is concerned or a fan is concerned, when you're not on the inside and know how it all works, you bet it's confusing."

Coaches generally try to simplify things for players so that they don't become distracted while preparing for critical games.

Arlington can make the playoffs in a couple of scenarios that involve the outcome of three games, but none of them matters if Cedar Hill beats Duncanville to grab the final playoff spot. Arlington has broken its huddles in practice this week with each player saying in unison, "Go Dunc!"

The scenarios become even more complicated when determining whether teams fall into Division I (big school) or Division II (small school) playoff brackets, and how the teams are seeded within those brackets.Having an unclear playoff picture makes it hard to scout opponents for first-round playoff games. The four playoff teams already determined in 10-5A will be anxious to see who their first-round opponents will be out of the convoluted 9-5A.

"Friday night in the pressbox, we had three different teams scouting Rockwall," Rockwall athletic director Mark Elam said. "No one really knows who's going to play who."

Euless Trinity won't know until late Friday night whether it will play Arlington, Arlington Martin or Duncanville in the first round.

"If there's a fourth one, I'm not sure of it," Trinity coach Steve Lineweaver said.

Most everyone agrees using a point system to break ties is more fair than a coin flip. Most point systems are capped at 14 or 21 points to avoid running up the score, but it still creates agonizing situations for coaches.

Arlington's Peach says he still thinks about his decision to run out the clock with the ball in Cedar Hill territory at the end of a 34-31 win.

"You look back on it now, that's a big swing in the point system if we had gone in and tried to score on that drive," Peach said. "Those things play in your mind."

Point differentials are why Lake Highlands and Berkner will have coaches armed with cellphones at each other's games tonight. Berkner's Ledford said he doesn't want to regret settling for a field goal late in the game when a touchdown would have put his team in the playoffs.

As confusing as the current system is, coaches say it's good for the game overall because it keeps playoff hopes alive, no matter how slim or complicated. Lake Highlands, for example, has won just two games all season but could make the playoffs in one of the state's toughest districts.

"It keeps people interested," Berkner's Ledford said. "It keeps them talking about it. I think that's good. That's healthy."