Big changes in SC high school sports this year. Here are five things to know

High school football is set to kick off the 2024-2025 sports year in South Carolina, and it will mark a year of sweeping changes in the state.

Here are five things to look out for the upcoming high school sports season in the state:

New look to SC classifications

Realignment, which happens every two years, has altered classes and regions for the 2024-26 school years. There are still just five classifications (more on that later), with Class 5A featuring 54 schools, up from 36 during the 2022-24 period.

This year’s S.C. High School League realignment formula included the first-time use of an out-of-zone multiplier to determine which schools would be in what classification. That multiplier took each student who lives outside of a school’s assigned attendance zone and counted them as three for total enrollment purposes.

As a result, private and charter schools that are SCHSL members moved up in classification because they pull in a lot of students from outside of their designated attendance zone.

Gray Collegiate in West Columbia is going from Class 2A to 4A. Christ Church and St. Joseph’s, two private schools in Greenville, went from Class A to 3A. Bishop England, a private school in Charleston, is headed from 2A to 4A. Oceanside Collegiate, a charter school in Mount Pleasant, moved up from 2A to 3A.

One of the biggest surprises was Abbeville going down from Class 2A to A. The Panthers, a football powerhouse, were originally placed in 2A but won their appeal before the SCHSL appellate panel to move down. Abbeville officials pointed out in their appeal they aren’t having success in other sports and they’ve declined in enrollment.

The Panthers have won 12 football state championships, with nine coming in Class 2A.

Chester will be out of Class 3A for the first time in more than 20 years, moving down to Class 2A.

Some of the regions also will look different.

Irmo, which is moving up from 4A to 5A, will be placed with other Midlands schools Chapin, Dutch Fork, Lexington, River Bluff and White Knoll in Region 4-5A. The region has three of the top-10 teams ranked in the Class 5A S.C. Media Preseason poll — Dutch Fork (1), Irmo (5) and White Knoll (6).

After being mixed with Columbia-area schools in Class 5A the last two years, seven Rock Hill-area schools will make up their Region 3-5A with Catawba Ridge, Clover, Fort Mill, Indian Land, Nation Ford, Northwestern and Rock Hill all together.

After being mixed with Florence schools and Sumter schools the last few years, there will be an all-Horry County region in 5A with Carolina Forest, Conway, Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach, Socastee and St. James making up Region 6-5A.

Two state champions in 5A

While there are still only five classifications, Class 5A will be split into two divisions for the playoffs. The move to split Class 5A was done because it was larger (from 36 to 54 schools) than it has been in the past.

It’s not the first time the state’s top classification has been split. From 1981 to 2016, then-class 4A was divided into two classes for football only, with the top 16 teams based on enrollment in the upper division and the other teams in the smaller division. This new split will be for all sports.

Class 5A Division I will feature 26 schools, with 28 in Division II. Both Division I and II schools will be in the same regions in the regular season and then go to their respective divisions for the postseason.

There will be eight regions in 5A. For the playoffs, teams from Region 1-3 would be considered Upper State, and 6-8 would be Lower State. Regions 4-5 would be hybrid regions and have teams in both Upper and Lower states.

In Class 5A Division I, the top four seeds will receive byes in the first round.

Using RPI rankings for the first time

With the decision to split Class 5A divisions, a different formula will be used to seed teams in the playoffs for all sports.

The MaxPreps RPI formula, which North Carolina and other states use, will be implemented in South Carolina. Each team must enter the results of regular-season games into the MaxPreps website, and the RPI score (or Rating Percentage Index) is calculated based on the team’s winning percentage and its opponents’ winning percentage. Margin of victory isn’t used in calculating the RPI.

Using the RPI rankings, region champions will be seeded first in the playoffs followed by second-, third- and fourth-place finishers. All non-automatic qualifiers would make up the rest of the bracket based on MaxPreps’ RPI standings.

Class 4A and Class 5A are the only classifications using RPI rankings to determine playoff seeding.

For the Class 4A playoffs, there will be 16 teams in the upper state and 16 in the lower state. As an example, the four region champions in Upper and Lower State will be seeded 1-4 based on RPI. The same goes for second place and so on. Class 4A used 1-16 seeding the past two years but didn’t use an RPI formula.

With the use of RPI, there will be no predetermined home and away teams in the Class 4A and 5A playoff brackets, which most coaches are glad to see go away. The highest remaining seed will host. Because of the seeding criteria, region teams could face each other in the first round of the postseason.

The first RPI rankings will be released in Week Three of the football season for all fall sports (tennis, volleyball, football) and can be tracked on MaxPreps throughout the season.

Mountain View Prep enters SCHSL

Gray and Oceanside have taken the brunt of the ire toward public charter schools in South Carolina. There’s now a new charter school in the mix.

Mountain View Prep, located in Spartanburg, has opened for this year and is making waves on the athletics scene in the Upstate.

SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton met with Spartanburg County public schools back in June, according to WSPA-TV, to address questions about the new charter school and its ability to attract some high-profile players to its program.

Four-star junior running back Jaylen McGill left Broome High for Mountain View Prep. McGill rushed for 1,602 yards and 24 touchdowns last year and has plenty of interest from Power 4 colleges. Former Greenville High quarterback Bryson Drummond also transferred to MVP after helping the Red Raiders to the Class 4A semifinals last year.

Mountain View will be in Region 3-3A with Broome, Chapman, Union County and Woodruff. (Greer Middle College is also in the region but doesn’t have football.)

Changes in SCISA

There also will be changes with realignment and classifications for teams that are part of the S.C. Independent School Association.

Class 4A, SCISA’s biggest classification, is expanding from 14 to 19 teams for non-football sports. Among those schools making the move up are Hilton Head Christian, Hilton Head Prep and John Paul II. HHP will be Class 2A in football.

Northside Christian in Lexington is going from Class 2A to 3A in football and from 3A to 4A in other sports. The move puts the Crusaders in the same class for baseball, basketball, volleyball and other non-football sports with Midlands private schools Ben Lippen, Cardinal Newman, Hammond and Heathwood Hall.

Northside returns a bulk of its players and should be a contender in 3A for football.

Williamsburg Academy and Bethesda Academy, which played in the 2A championship game in 2023 for football, are both moving down to Class A for football.