I can't tell you how the rankings are produced because I am not involved with that and really if you ask any varsity coach they will tell you they don't care about rankings. Because all that matters going into the playoffs is your seed from your region. I will use my team (TL Hanna) as an example. I happen to agree with you that we don't have any huge wins and it is debatable whether we should be ranked but it doesn't matter because we have the #1 seed from region 1 and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. By the way, we are probably ranked because we have won two tournaments and have the second most wins in state behind Wando but I am just guessing. You do make a great point about Mauldin. They are very good and probably underrated.
I do want to address your attempt at comparing schools by their wins and losses. Since matchups and situations change daily it really can't be done. For instance red cards, unusually bad officiating, personal tragedies, etc. happen all the time and affect wins and losses. Greenwood was affected by that late in the season but will be up to full strength and at home on Tuesday...I expect them to compete very well. Another factor is coaching. Currently lots of schools with bad traditions in soccer have quality coaches. What that means is that the big blowouts are really going away because these coaches are playing the hand that is dealt them and training their boys to play disciplined and physical to prevent goals. I give you another example using a team in our region. We played at Woodmont Thursday and their coach Justin Jones employed a very defensive and physical strategy that really limited our scoring opportunities. We felt fortunate to come out of there with a 1-0 win. What if we had made a mistake in the back or an official missed an offsides and Woodmont had scored? They could have easily won and that has happened across the state to plenty of quality teams.
I guess what I am saying is it that soccer has gotten better across the board and only the truly elite teams seem to be immune to bad losses.
