1987
As I understand it Clear Lake bailed out of the game with Bracken.

At the risk of losing my life and liberty, there is a special super-secret TAPPS rule (I learned it with the secret handshake in the basement of TAPPS HQ in Salado) which allows schools run by TAPPS Board members to scratch one playoff opponent each year. James Johnson used his scratch on this game.

Okay, seriously, there is no secret handshake. Or at least I haven't been admitted to that part of the secret society just yet And maybe most of the rest of the stuff above is full of it, too.

Clear Lake Christian had the option whether to participate in the playoffs as they were one of the three spots added to fill out the bracket to 16 teams. I believe TAPPS does make it an option for those teams to participate, but they have to indicate their decision prior to the start of the playoffs. As I understand it, the game is a BYE for Bracken and not a forfeit by Clear Lake.

You learn of this "special super-secret" after you serve your "double secret probation" but before you are inducted to the TAPPS equivalent of the "Skull and Bones" right ?
I was just curious of what happened. With AHC, ACHS and Bracken on that side of the bracket something like this could work out to be an advantge for Bracken (One less chance of injuries, more rested before the quarter finals). And on that side any advantage is welcomed I'm sure.
Lifegate, I had actually read your explanation on another thread and you did a great job explaining it.

I have never been given "double secret probation." I have imposed that penalty a number of times (including three times on you without you knowing about it ... that's why it's called double secret probation ... and those of us who are a little older than 1987 may remember the source of that joke ... National Lampoon's Animal House, one of the greatest pieces of cinematography of all time).

As for the brackets being loaded on one side, well, that's what happens. TAPPS does not "seed" the brackets ala the NCAA basketball tournament. If the good teams fall on one side of the bracket, that's left to the whims of the bracket gods.

I remember when Lifegate made it to the state basketball finals in 2001, I think. We got Houston Texas Christian in the semis and won by 4. The next game was between Ft. Worth Ambassadors and Cleveland Heritage Christian, two teams that would beat either of us like rented mules. I guess I should remind folks that we and Texas Christian were primarily white kid schools while both Ambassadors and Heritage were full of basketball-savvy and talented black kids.

After the second game, where Heritage won by 15 or so, I'm in the lobby of the gym and some upset pop from Ambassadors was talking about how the real championship was that game and not with those "sorry white boys." I walked up to the guy and said, well, we're the sorry white boys who won and we're real happy that the bracket gods blessed us with this trip to the finals. We both walked away laughing and as brothers in Christ. We did lose to Heritage by 23 or so the next day, but it wasn't the walk-away that they thought they were going to get.

LOL !!! Something that surely a majority of this board could agree on.