After his Center Trojans defeated Beaver last Friday to wrap up an 8-1 regular season and a share of the Midwestern Athletic Conference title, coach Larry Taddeo smiled and asked, "Who's No.1?"

He wanted to know what school would be the top seed in Class AA for the WPIAL playoffs that begin tomorrow night.

The WPIAL answered Taddeo's question Monday night at its annual pairings meeting. Undefeated South Fayette is the No. 1 seed with undefeated Mount Pleasant No. 2. Center is No. 3 with Beaver Falls No. 4.

Did the WPIAL slight the Trojans?

If he thought that way, Taddeo didn't let his feelings show.

"It's the playoffs and everybody starts with a clean slate, so it really doesn't matter," he said. "There are a lot of good teams out there. We think we're a pretty good team. I guess we'll all find out."

WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley admitted that the football steering committee had the toughest time putting together the Class AA bracket. Part of that is because there are more Class AA teams than in any other classification, and part of it is because there are a lot of good teams.

"You look at Beaver. It is the only Class AA team [in the playoffs] with four losses but look at who it lost to ... the co-champions in the conference [Aliquippa, Beaver Falls and Center] and to Triple-A Ambridge," O'Malley said. "Look at Washington, it's a fourth-place team but a pretty good one. There's a lot of parity in Double-A.

"The good thing is we have 16 teams [in the classification] in the playoffs. If we had just eight, that would have been tough. At least with 16 we have some flexibility."

OK, but if the Midwestern Athletic is the best Class AA conference in the WPIAL, as some long-time followers of high school football say it is, and Center is the No. 1 team in the top conference. Shouldn't Center be seeded No. 1 for the playoffs?

Others contend South Fayette and Mount Pleasant shouldn't be penalized for playing in conferences that are considered weaker and that their 9-0 regular-season records should count for something.

"There was some sentiment that the Interstate Conference was the toughest," O'Malley said when asked about which Class AA conference was deemed the strongest. Mount Pleasant won the Interstate title and the conference includes Greensburg Central Catholic, McGuffey, Washington and Jeannette.

"Is Aliquippa one of the top eight [Class AA] teams? Maybe, but the Quips have to go on the road," O'Malley said, referring to the fact the Quips are the No. 3 team from the MAC. "Is that fair for McGuffey, which is a [second-place] team? I don't know."

Aliquippa is the defending WPIAL Class AA champion and plays at McGuffey tomorrow night. The Quips were seeded No. 7 last year and proceeded to win the title.

Quips coach Mike Zmijanac says this isn't a very good Aliquippa team. But not "very good" by Aliquippa's standards is excellent at most schools.

Taddeo pointed out that No. 1-seed South Fayette, which entertains Beaver in the first round, had better beware of the Bobcats.

"Beaver is a pretty good football team," he said. "South Fayette better not take them lightly."

As for Center playing host to Washington, which has a rich football tradition, Taddeo shrugged his shoulders.

"Everybody's good from here on out," he said. "It will be our last home game as Center, so we've got some motivation."

Actually, Center fans should be pleased with the Trojans place on the bracket sheet. The other three MAC teams are on the opposite side, which might be a good thing.

Plus, there is this merger thing hanging over every athletic team at the school.

Center and Monaca high schools will combine to form Central Valley for the 2010-11 school year. There has been a great deal written about this being Monaca's final year, but the same is true for Center.

By the way, Center has never won a WPIAL football title. Taking a first-place trophy back to a school in is final year wouldn't be a bad thing.

"The one thing that remains constant is that a team still has to win three games to reach Heinz Field," O'Malley said, referring to the WPIAL championship games. "At some point in time you have to beat somebody who's tough."

There are usually a couple teams that are not highly touted that made some noise in the playoffs. With that in mind here are our sleeper picks in each classification.

To qualify as a sleeper, a team has to be the No. 3 or No. 4 team from its conference.

In Class AAAA, our sleeper is Mt. Lebanon, in Class AAA it's New Castle, in Class AA it's Aliquippa and in Class A it's Springdale.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.