Heading into an open date following his team’s 35-14 win over Jenkins County, the Class A-DII state playoff picture looked pretty clear to Bryan County coach Cherard Freeman.
By Freeman’s calculations, the Redskins (5-4, 4-3) would secure a berth in the Class A-DII state playoffs with a win this Friday night at Metter as Region 3A-DII teams wrap up regular season play. The math seemed to be fairly simple.
Results from this past weekend, however, muddied those waters. It is now a real possibility of there being a three-way tie for third and fourth-place as Bryan County, Jenkins County and McIntosh County Academy all have the same overall and region records.
Unbeaten Screven County (9-0, 7-0) plays at Emanuel County Institute (7-2, 7-0) with the winner claiming the region championship and the No. 1 seed that goes with it. The loser will be the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.
The Redskins, War Eagles and Buccaneers will all be favored to win on Friday with Jenkins County playing Savannah and MCA taking on Portal. At mid-season Metter (4-5, 3-4)) appeared to be a shoo-in but the Tigers have lost three of their last four games to fall by the wayside.
The first tie-breaker is normally head-to-head but that won’t work as the three teams all beat one another: Bryan defeated Jenkins, the Bucs beat the Redskins and the War Eagles knocked off McIntosh.
That prompted region chairman Bradley Warren of McIntosh County to send out a memo explaining the second step in the tie-breaker scenario. It would be determined by how their season opening season fare on the year, i.e., strength of schedule.
On that basis Bryan County and Jenkins County would have a slight edge on McIntosh
The Redskins beat Johnson of Savannah in their opener and the two-win Atomsmashers will be a heavy underdog in their finale with state-ranked Jenkins. The War Eagles beat Glasscock County (2-7) which is expected to lose at Hancock County (3-6). McIntosh beat Islands (1-8) in its opener and the Sharks close with a strong Long County (6-3) team.
There are, of course, a lot of ifs and buts here but if the favored teams win—Bryan County at Metter being the biggest if—that would give the Redskins and Jenkins County two wins each from defeated opponents and it would then revert back to head-to-head.
In head-to-head---McIntosh would have been eliminated with Islands having only one win---the third seed would go to Bryan County thanks to its win over the War Eagles who would then go into the playoffs as a No. 4 seed.
Now if that isn’t as clear as mud then just take Freeman’s approach when he started sizing up all the possibilities.
“I thought we would be in if we won the game,” Freeman said. “Now, everything’s changed. We’re just going to go and try to win and if we do then we’ll just let the chips fall where they may. That’s all you can do.”