Despite playing one of the hardest schedules in Class 3A and in school history, the South Sumter High School Raiders football team has been denied a spot in the FHSAA Class 3A Playoffs. The Raiders finished the regular season at 4-6 and while the record might not show it, this team was absolutely deserving of a playoff spot in every way.

The Raiders played teams like Hawthorne, Vanguard, Bradford, Niceville, Wiregrass Ranch, Eastside and not one game on the schedule was a cupcake game (Meaning playing an easy opponent just to pad the win column.) South Sumter literally competed in every game. Out of the 6 losses, 5 losses came by 1 score. How this school is not in the playoffs is baffling. Our congratulations to Mount Dora High School on making it along with all the other programs, but South Sumter is among the top teams in Class 3A by far.

(Head coach Ty Lawrence of South Sumter High. Photo Credit -JOE OTT PHOTOGRAPY)

According to the FHSAA and Craig Damon “The MaxPreps rankings system is more pure than an FHSAA-Generated rankings system, even if no one knows how those rankings are compiled.” So it was thought that the MaxPreps rankings system was going to be the deciding factor this year.

According to head coach Ty Lawrence. Upon making the schedule for this year they believed the Max Preps rankings would be how the teams would get in. This is what the FHSAA told coaches at the start of the year. “Damon has advocated that the state should abandon the current FHSAA/MaxPreps rankings and solely use the MaxPreps rankings. It was argued that the current FHSAA power rankings should remain in place. Another faction favored not using the computers at all, and going back to the format of district champions and runners-up advancing to the postseason with no at-large teams. The FHSAA last employed the latter format in 2016.”Apparently not all coaches were aware of the exact way the playoff rankings would be calculated.

That brings us to now. South Sumter was ranked #11 in Class 3A if you look at Max Preps. They actually are ranked #10 with Miami Central being forced to forfeit all games due to an ineligible player they used.

“We didn’t get rewarded for playing the toughest schedule in the state. Wins get rewarded more than strength of schedule. I feel bad for our kids.” says head coach Ty Lawrence.

(South Sumter fans show up to every game and they are very passionate about their football team. Photo credit – JOE OTT PHOTOGRAPY)

In my opinion South Sumter should have absolutely been in the playoffs. To not reward this team after the schedule they played is a tragedy. My heart goes out to all those players, coaches, staff and fans who thought they had another game. Heck I even thought they would have had a chance to host a playoff game at a potential rank of #10, but now the season is over. The season is also over for Tavares High who despite a 7-3 year were left out as well.

The worst part about this situation is that it wasn’t the kids fault. It’s a fault of a system that needs to be evaluated in the off-season. Plenty of teams got into the playoffs that deserve to get in. No doubt about that. But there are certain situations such as the South Sumter High School that need to be evaluated. How do you reward schools for playing tough aggressive schedules? That needs to be addressed. I don’t want to go to a game as a fan and watch someone get blown out by 55 points every week. I would much rather see two close teams battle it out for a win.

That is exactly what we got with South Sumter High every week this year. That is the way football should be. But if there needs to be 5 or 6 cupcake games on the schedule in order to win by 40 or 50 points every week just to pad the schedule and make the playoffs, I think that’s the wrong direction to go in. There needs to be a way to reward a program for playing a schedule like South Sumter did this year. That is good for the game and I am a strong believer that employing a strength of schedule where you get the Top 32 Ranked teams in each class would be preferable. Sure taking the district champions is fine to reward them but there needs to be a better way to look at a team that won 3 or 4 games but did so playing a tough schedule and reward that.

Good for every team that got into the playoffs and we wish them the best of luck. This is going to be a fun postseason of football that we will all enjoy. I just think that this system needs to be looked at in the coming off-season so that a team that scheduled like South Sumter get’s rewarded for doing so.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. I am curious to know your opinion on this.