Seneca Valley boys' basketball coach Victor Giannotta had an interesting reaction to the news that the section the Raiders compete in, Section 3-AAAA, lost a last-place team in New Castle and gained the reigning WPIAL champion in Central Catholic after the WPIAL announced its realignment for the 2008-09 school year.

"It adds to our RPI," Giannotta deadpanned. "Come tournament time, everyone in our section will have a better RPI."

Giannotta, of course, was kidding. There is no selection committee to decide which teams make the WPIAL playoffs as there is in the NCAA basketball tournament, where the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) plays a role.

Adding a perennial power in Central Catholic and a team that went 25-5 last season -- and losing a squad that went 7-16 and dropped to Class AAA because of an enrollment drop -- might actually have the reverse effect on Section 3-AAAA's participants when it comes to their chances of qualifying for the postseason. That's because the WPIAL takes the top four teams from each section.

"Adding Central Catholic adds yet another very, very good program and brings an outstanding coach [Chuck Crummie] and outstanding tradition," Pine-Richland coach Dave Krakoff said. "It presents a challenge for us. It makes our section very, very strong.

"It was already strong, and Central Catholic makes it unbelievably challenging. It should be a lot of fun competing in a [section] with all these good teams."

"I think you'd be hard-pressed to argue it's not the best section in Quad A," Giannotta said. "Now that we have the WPIAL champion ... We already had a decent reputation, now from top-to-bottom, we're clearly the best."

Other than Central Catholic, the rest of Section 3-AAAA will be made up of PG North area schools: Butler Area, North Allegheny, North Hills, Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley and Shaler Area.

In fact, the only PG North Class AAAA school not in the section is Fox Chapel. The Foxes, who have been sort of a nomad when it comes to section alignment over the years, will remain in Section 2.

Fox Chapel coach Ben O'Connor said that there was a chance his team would go back to Section 3, where it competed as recently as 2005-06, but that the Foxes wanted to stay put.

"It's pick your poison," O'Connor said. "Both sections have their strengths, but there's just a familiarity the kids have. We've established rivalries with teams such as Plum and Penn Hills ... There are a lot of class acts is our conference, too, a group of coaches and guys I get along with. But I would have gotten along with guys in the other section, too. It's just a case of this allowing us to maintain consistency."

Though Section 2 lost Central Catholic, it gained Franklin Regional, which won the Section 1-AAAA title last year.

In other section realignment news, things don't get any easier for Deer Lakes.

The Lancers are a combined 23-68 the past four seasons and were moved up to Class AAA. Deer Lakes will compete in Section 1, with Mars Area, Knoch, Hampton, Highlands, Kittanning and Valley.

The Lancers' old section, 4-AA, was broken up almost beyond recognition. North Catholic and Northgate were moved out of Section 4-AA and into Section 3-AA. Avonworth went to Section 6-AA, joining Quaker Valley. Springdale was another team that was "bumped" from 4-AA to 1-AA.

In Class A, Sewickley Academy and Vincentian were moved from a section (1-A) that included Lincoln Park, Union, Monaca and Western Beaver to one that includes Cornell, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Trinity Christian (4-A).

Much can be made about sectional alignments and how they affect rivalries and competition and relative section strength, but Giannotta has a different perspective on it. He has learned to be at peace with wherever his team ends up and whomever it is grouped with.

"I guess I'm getting old because you know what? You can't worry about it," he said. "Ten or 12 years ago, I would be going nuts and trying to figure things out.

"But the way I look at it is everyone's got to play everyone [in its section] twice."