When it voted to expand its football playoff brackets in October, the North Coast Section Board of Managers sent a message that it wanted to include more teams in its postseason party.

But how many are actually ready to dance?

The section seeded its five-division, enrollment-based tournament on Sunday, placing 70 teams in this year's playoffs. The expanded brackets included six teams with losing records, nine with .500 records, and even a game that features a 9-1 team (Salesian) against a team that is 3-6 (Willits).

"Across the state, across the country there are more divisions, more brackets, more teams with .500 records or worse getting into the playoffs," said CalHiSports.com executive editor Mark Tennis. "From a purist's standpoint, it's certainly not good. It seems like the playoffs aren't a reward for great teams, they're another part of the season."

So, how did these teams make it?

To qualify for the NCS football playoffs, a team needs to meet one of three criteria — a .500 overall record, a .500 record in league play, or a .500 record against teams in its division.

"Before we started each of the meetings, we reviewed the records to make sure they had an even record in one of the three areas," said NCS commissioner Gil Lemmon, who was in the room for each of the five seeding meetings. "Every team that's in our bracket meets one of those requirements."

The expansion of the brackets

"There's just a disappointment," San Lorenzo coach Jacob Wright said. "We thought we were worthy of a playoff spot and we put together a winning record, so it's a little disheartening when you see a 5-5 team and a 4-6 team got in over us."

Contrast the new expanded format with the one used by the Central Coast Section. In four enrollment-based divisions and one open division, each with eight teams, only two teams have losing records and two are .500.

The Sac-Joaquin Section uses enrollment-based divisions but uses a combination of several criteria — including computer rankings from Calpreps.com — to seed the brackets. This year, that meant the defending California Interscholastic Federation Open Division state bowl champion, Grant-Sacramento, ended up as the No. 3 seed in Division II. The Pacers went 10-0 again this season and allowed a total of just 35 points in 10 games.

Even before the NCS discussed its own seeds, the fact that more teams were included meant teams that are used to a first-round bye now will find themselves playing an extra game.

"Administrators and officials would argue, and they'd argue correctly, that the schools like it," Tennis said. "It doesn't make them a ton of money because most of the first-round games are blowouts, but they probably make some or they wouldn't do it."