How would an all-local 32-team football playoff field look?

Bartram Trail's Eric Weatherly carries the ball in a win over Raines in Week 11. (Drew Comer, Contributed photo)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We all found out the high school football playoff brackets last Sunday when the Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled its field. 

Since the FHSAA went to an RPI qualifier for the playoff field, I decided to use a little bit of imagination to fill out a 32-team bracket using only area programs. How would an all-local playoff bracket look, March Madness style? 

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Of course, it's all for fun, but how would a 32-team field look?

I gave our Super 10 the top seeds in the News4Jax playoff bracket and used RPI for spots 11-32. In the instance of RPI ties, I used the opponent's winning percentage as the first tiebreaker.

That was used once to break a tie between Sandalwood and Union County in the top 32 seeds. While we just used the top 32 teams for our playoff field, we did chart how all area teams finished in RPI to give you an idea of how the RPI played out in its first season of being used.

RPI, or ratings percentage index, multiplied a team's winning percentage (.35), an opponent's winning percentage (.35) and an opponent's opponent's winning percentage (.30) to come up with an RPI. 

Seed School Record RPI

1. Bartram Trail (10-0), .729

2. Fleming (9-0), .666

3. Trinity Christian (5-5), .591

4. Bolles (8-1), .663

5. Lee (7-3), .611

6. Columbia (7-3), .606

7. Mandarin (7-3), .611

8. University Christian (9-1), .672

9. Ponte Vedra (7-2), .607

10. Flagler Palm Coast (8-2), .647

11. Episcopal (9-1), .616

12. Westside (8-2), .601

13. West Nassau (8-2), .594

14. Baldwin (7-3), .576

15. Keystone Heights (7-2), .571

16. Parker (7-2), .569

17. St. Augustine (6-4), .563

18. Oakleaf (7-3), .560

19. Menendez (7-2), .548

20. Raines (5-4), .545

21. Fletcher (6-4), .542

22. Creekside (5-5), .541

23. Baker County (6-4), .534

24. Bradford (4-5), .523

25. Hilliard (6-4), .520

26. Suwannee (5-5), .517

27. Wolfson (7-3), .498

28. Sandalwood (3-5), .497

29. Union County (5-5), .497

30. Ribault (4-5), .484

31. Orange Park (5-5), .479

32. Fernandina Beach (5-5), .476

How the remaining area teams finished in RPI

33. First Coast (3-6), .464

34. St. Joseph (4-5), .464

35. Yulee (4-6), .448

36. Interlachen (4-6), .435

37. Jackson (3-7), .432

38. Matanzas (3-7), .432

39. Palatka (2-7), .431

40. White (3-7), .429

41. Fort White (3-7), .429

42. Middleburg (3-7), .427

43. Atlantic Coast (3-7), .426

44. North Florida Educational (3-7), .424

45. Englewood (2-8), .398

46. Nease (1-9), .390

47. Eagle's View (5-5), .388

48. Bishop Kenny (1-8), .386

49. Clay (1-9), .379

50. Paxon (3-7), .376

51. Stanton (1-8), .348

52. Ridgeview (1-9), .347


About the Author

Justin Barney joined News4Jax in February 2019, but he’s been covering sports on the First Coast for more than 20 years.

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