The number of 2A teams has grown in the past few years. I fully expect that there will be 16 upperstate teams, if not more this season. This is my 8th season coaching and Pendleton has made the playoffs each year and I've never heard of a fee. I don't think a pay-to-play situation would be legal (other than referee fees). Different teams may decide to participate or not participate for different reasons. Occassionally a scenario occurs where teams with poorer records will actually play whereas a team with a slightly better record will not. New programs or younger teams may elect to expose their players to playoff soccer whereas more veteran programs who've perhaps had a very disappointing season elect not to.
I'm not going to complete a list of playoff projections but I'd be pleasantly surprised if we received the 11 seed. The loss to Abbeville Monday leaves us tied for 4/5th in the region and while our nonconference schedule has been largely against 3 and 4A schools we don't have the wins to support that high a seed. I think more than likely we're looking at a 13 or 14 and having to travel to an Emerald or B-L where we have an hour and a half trip.
