BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
If the high school football season ended today, Bradford, Keystone Heights and Union County would all be in the playoffs, based upon the initial rating percentage index rankings released by the Florida High School Athletic Association on Sept. 22.
Union is sits atop the rankings in Region 3 of Class 1A, while Keystone is fourth in the Region 2-4A rankings. Bradford is sixth in Region 4 of Class 1A.
The teams with the top six RPI rankings in each region at the end of the regular season will advance to the playoffs.
Three equations are added together to determine a team’s RPI: its winning percentage multiplied by 0.35, opponent’s winning percentage multiplied by 0.35, and opponent’s opponent’s winning percentage multiplied by 0.3.
Margin of victory/loss isn’t a factor.
Union’s current RPI is 0.76389. The next five teams in its region are Chiefland (0.68396), Hilliard (0.67396), Branford (0.63472), Lafayette (0.55000) and Dixie County (0.50104).
Keystone, which has an RPI of 0.61771, trails Cocoa (0.81111), The Villages (0.67500) and South Sumter (0.64375) and is ahead of Hernando (0.52778) and Astronaut (0.45556) in its region.
Bradford made it into the top six of its region ahead of Bronson with an RPI of 0.53021. Bronson’s RPI is 0.50833.
The teams ahead of Bradford are Hawthorne (0.73472), Wildwood (0.70417), Pahokee (0.63194), Fort Meade (0.57361) and Newberry (0.53958).
