The Southern California JC football playoffs went as expected when announced Sunday. BC is the No. 4 seed and gets a Golden Empire Bowl showdown with Allan Hancock, a battle of two 9-1 teams.

BC beat Hancock 31-24 when Hancock's fourth-and-goal pass from the 2-yard line was knocked down in the end zone by Eddie Coronado with two seconds left in the game when these teams met last time.

Other matchups: the same as Sunday's early-morning blog: No. 1 Mount San Antonio vs. No. 8 Pierce, No. 2 Fullerton vs. No. 7 Harbor and No. 3 Cerritos vs. No. 6 Palomar.

What this means is BC will get only one playoff game if the Gades win. Mount SAC isn't going to lose to Pierce unless there's a swine flu outbreak on the Mount SAC team or some other natural catastrophe hits.

BC and Hancock are two physical teams. That's the way they play every year and it's the way they played in the first game this season. The biggest question is the health of some key BC players who were injured in Saturday night's 24-9 win over Canyons. It will be very difficult beating Hancock if DL Tyrone Crawford (ankle) is out, or starting CB Chika Madu (ankle), or RB Ben Estill (knee).

Hancock's only loss this season was that wild one to BC, but BC led 24-3 in the third quarter that night.

Look for an entertaining, hard-hitting game on Saturday.

BC wrapped up the outright National Northern Conference title Saturday night with a 24-9 win over Canyons and assured itself of a home game, Saturday's Golden Empire Bowl.

The eight-team Southern California playoff matchups will be announced later today (this is being written Sunday, Nov. 15, at 12:45 a.m.). I expect to see BC the No. 4 seed and most likely playing a rematch vs. Allan Hancock, with the only other possible opponent being Palomar.

El Camino, which handed BC its only loss on Sept. 26 (40-24) was knocked out of the playoffs when it lost on Saturday to Cerritos, 42-28. Likely top seed Mount San Antonio (9-1 after winning Saturday) and Cerritos (9-1) are the National Central Conference playoff qualifiers. Cerritos will probably be the No. 3 seed, although there's an outside chance the committee might reward BC because it is a conference champ while Cerritos took second place in its conference. But I don't expect that since Cerritos beat an El Camino team that has a win over BC and was higher ranked than BC heading into this weekend.

Fullerton, also 9-1 after winning Saturday, won the National Southern Conference and will probably be seeded No. 2 (it was No. 2 behind Mount SAC in last week's poll).

BC, 5th in the poll last week, will move up with El Camino (No. 4 last week) out of the playoffs. Hancock was No. 6 last week and is 9-1 (the loss was to BC, 31-24 on Oct. 10), so logic says the Bulldogs will move up a spot to No. 5; if that happens, it'll be BC vs. Hancock.

Palomar, No. 7 last week, got into the playoffs as the National Southern Conference runner-up after holding the tie-breaker over Saddleback, which beat Grossmont 44-27 Saturday. If Grossmont (No. 10 last week) would have won, it would have gotten into the playoffs instead of Palomar because it held the tie-breaker over Palomar.

The seventh and eighth seeds will be the two representatives from the weaker American Conference. L.A. Harbor, which entered Saturday as the state's only unbeaten team, fell to 9-1 when it was upset 29-21 by San Bernardino Valley. Harbor is in the playoffs, however, because it won the American Mountain Conference.

L.A. Pierce is the final playoff team because it won the American Pacific Conference. Pierce also lost Saturday, 49-41 to Santa Monica, which puts the Brahmas at 7-3.

Since Harbor and Pierce are from the weaker American Conference, and both lost Saturday, I can't see them moving past any of the other six playoff teams when the seeding is announced.

The matchups will be official around midday today (Sunday, Nov. 15). If my guessing is right, here's the way it will shape up:

No. 1 Mount SAC (9-1) vs. No. 8 Pierce (7-3)

No. 2 Fullerton (9-1) vs. No. 7 Harbor (9-1)

No. 3 Cerritos (9-1) vs. No. 6 Palomar (8-2)

No. 4 BC (9-1) vs. No. 5 Hancock (9-1), which will be the Golden Empire Bowl.

I'll have another blog later today after the playoffs are announced.