First look at new RPI rankings for high school football teams in South Carolina
The first high school football MaxPreps’ RPI rankings for South Carolina were released Tuesday afternoon.
From now on, the rankings will be updated after games are played on Thursday and Friday nights.
This is the first year RPI rankings will be used in South Carolina — and only for Class 5A Division I and II and Class 4A. With the decision to split Class 5A divisions, a different formula will be used to seed teams in the playoffs for all sports.
The RPI is 50% based on your winning percentage, 40% of your opponents’ winning percentage and 10% of your opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. Margin of victory is not used to determine 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 RPI standings.
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.
In Class 5A Division I and II, 12 teams make the playoffs in the upper and lower state with the top four seeds in each getting byes in the first round.
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.
Complete RPI rankings for football and all fall sports can be found at the South Carolina Administrators Association website.
SC Football RPI Rankings Top 25
Class 5A
Schools in bold are Class 5A Division I while other schools are Class 5A Division II.
1. Dutch Fork, 3-0 0.8138
2. Northwestern, 4-0 0.79063
3. Sumter, 4-0, 0.79063
4. Chapin, 4-0, 0.73542
5. Summerville, 3-0, 0.72361
6. Gaffney, 3-0, 0.72222
7. Hillcrest, 3-0, 0.68194
8. Spartanburg, 2-1, 0.68056
9. White Knoll, 2-1, 0.67708
10. Blythewood, 4-0, 0.65625
11. Dorman, 2-1, 0.65556
12. TL Hanna, 2-1, 0.65000
13. River Bluff, 4-0, 0.63802
14. JL Mann, 2-1, 0.63333
15. Irmo, 4-0, 0.63229
16. Lexington 3-1, 0.62865
17. Eastside, 3-0, 0.62083
18. Clover, 3-1, 0.62083
19. Woodmont, 1-2, 0.61806
20. Boiling Springs, 3-0, 0.61528
21. Ridge View, 1-3, 0.61094
22. Indian Land, 3-0, 0.59861
23. West Florence, 3-1, 0.59854
24. Lugoff-Elgin, 3-1, .59219
25. Riverside, 3-0, 0.57222
Class 4A
1. Westside, 3-0, 0.81111
2. Seneca, 4-0, 0.73333
3. South Florence, 2-2, 0.68958
4. Richland Northeast, 4-0, 0.67917
5. Camden, 3-1, 0.67292
6. North Augusta, 2-1, 0.65625
7. Gray Collegiate, 1-2, 0.64861
8. A.C. Flora, 3-1, 0.62188
9. South Aiken, 2-2, 0.60885
10. Bishop England, 3-0, 0.60556
11. Fountain Inn, 3-1, 0.60313
12. May River, 4-0, 0.60208
13. Crestwood, 2-2, 0.58438
14. Wren, 3-1, 0.58438
15. Dreher, 2-1, 0.57778
16. Daniel, 2-1, 0.55556
17. Lower Richland 2-2, 0.54583
18. Emerald, 2-2, 0.52708
19. South Pointe, 2-2, 0.51719
20. Gilbert, 1-2, 0.51472
21. Hartsville, 1-1-1, 0.51111
22. Lakewood, 1-3, 0.49479
23. Pickens, 2-2, 0.48958
24. Bluffton, 2-2, 0.48594
25. Berea, 2-1, 0.48194