Because of the 180 mile travel rule that SCISA has, it doesn't matter who St. Joe's plays in the first round because they don't have to travel to that team's home sight if they are the three seed and they wouldn't be able to host a first round playoff game if they were the two seed.
Instead of having to travel to Hilton Head to play either Hilton Head Christian or Hilton Head Prep on their home field, they will probably travel to Columbia to play on a neutral field. That means a 1.5 hour trip to Columbia for them and a 2.5 hour trip to Columbia for the team that actually earned the home game during the season.
Most people that have seen the teams in SCISA believe that Pinewood is clearly the best team and there is a pretty big distinction between Pinewood as a #1 seed on one side and Cardinal Newman as a #1 seed on the other side. By forfeiting the play-in game, St. Joe's assures themselves of being on Cardinal Newman's side of the bracket instead of Pinewoods. And oh yeah, St. Joe's beat Cardinal Newman 3-1 on Wednesday night.
And in terms of rest, it is also a very big advantage, both Hilton Head teams played last night and will have to play each other on Saturday and then travel to Columbia for games on Tuesday.
It's a bad system when it can work out that a team forfeits a game on purpose to further their chances.
