Telegraph Staff Writer
Bradford High School is ranked second in its region, while Keystone Heights and Union County are ranked third in their respective regions in the latest RPI football rankings released by the Florida High School Athletic Association on Oct. 6.
The teams with the top six RPI rankings in each region at the end of the regular season advance to the playoffs.
Three equations are added together to determine a team’s RPI: its winning percentage multiplied by 0.35, opponents’ winning percentage multiplied by 0.35, and opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage multiplied by 0.3.
Margin of victory/loss isn’t a factor.
Bradford, which was ranked sixth in the initial rankings, jumped from fifth to second in Class 1A’s Region 4, with Hawthorne, as it has all season, occupying the top slot. Hawthorne’s RPI is 0.690, while Bradford’s is 0.557.
The next four teams in Region 4-1A are Wildwood (0.550), Pahokee (0.548), Newberry (0.537) and Bronson )0.481).
Bradford has the 11th best RPI in all of Class 1A, which consists of 37 teams.
Union was the number-one team in Region 3-1A when the first RPI rankings were released on Sept. 22. The Tigers remained in the top spot the following week, but have since dropped two spots. Their RPI of 0.631 leaves them trailing Hilliard (0.670) and Chiefland (0.666). Rounding out the top six are Lafayette (0.596), Fort White (0.524) and Dixie County (0.502).
The Tigers have the sixth-best RPI in all of Class 1A.
Keystone, which plays in Class 4A’s Region 2, was ranked fourth initially and fell to fifth before rising to third in the latest rankings. The Indians have an RPI of 0.667 and trail Cocoa (0.774) and The Villages (0.743). The three highest RPI numbers behind Keystone belong to Hernando (0.577), South Sumter (0.547) and Umatilla (0.490).
The Indians’ RPI ranks them ninth in all of Class 4A, which consists of 42 teams.
