The new regions for 3A this year do not seem to spread out much of the talent in the upperstate. How did this happen? Any thoughts on these and their outcomes.
Because football is the only sport they look at when they break up new regions. How did SV get moved to upperstate? NW vs. SV the last 3 state title games.
I mean looking at the upperstate in 3A.
In one region there is Eastside, J.L. Mann, and Greennville. These may be three of the best teams in the upperstate for 3A.
Riverside? They have lost a good amount of their seniors who were mostly starters. Riverside will be a solid team but not one of the best.
Riverside is in a different division (AAA-III) while Eastside, JL Mann, and Greenville are in AAA-II. Don't think you can blame/credit football for the realigning of conferences. There was an objective of creating 8 conferences (4 upstate and 4 lower state). In the upstate that moved at least AAA from 3 to 4 conferences ... going from 7 or 8 schools per conference to 6. Athletic directors have had a lot of pressure in recent years to shorten their travel time ... so dropping a "required" home and away series for a 7 or 8 school conference to 6 helps. Also, the four conferences allows for a more equitable arrangement of play off brackets. Looking at a map, I dont see any "gerry-mandering" (?sp) of the conference groups. Might I have done it differently, perhaps, but it's not unreasonable. In terms of impact ... the biggest difference is that the AAA-II teams will have had a chance to play better in-conference matches, and will be better prepared for playoffs ... pretty much, IMO, driving the upperstate championship for soccer through that conference for the next three years.
This is also the same alignment that put Rock Hill and South Pointe in a different region than Northwestern (all in rock hill).