The Hopkinsville Tigers head into the final week of the football season sitting just outside of the Class 4 playoff picture with a chance to possibly play themselves back into the postseason this Friday night. That is if the KHSAA RPI rankings play out in the Tigers’ favor after this week’s games.
The Tigers finish the district schedule in a three-way tie for third place in the district with Warren East and Logan County. Hopkinsville beat Logan County but lost to Warren East. The Raiders beat the Tigers but lost to the Cougars. Logan County beat Warren East but lost to Hoptown. Confused yet? Just wait.
With the implementation of the RPI rankings a few years back, the KHSAA now breaks three-way ties, where none of the teams beat both of the other teams involved in the tie, using the RPI rankings to resolve the deadlock.
Currently, for the Hopkinsville Tigers, that is not good news.
After Friday night’s action, Warren East has the highest rating at .53202. That would give the #3 seed to the Raiders.
Logan County has the next highest rating at .48802. That, in turn, would give the Cougars the #4 seed.
Hopkinsville’s rating is currently .48261, which puts the Tigers at the #5 seed and out of the playoff picture.
The good news for the Tigers is that each team has a game to play this Friday and those games will impact the team’s RPI score.
The first thing for the Tigers is to take care of business Friday night as they host Pleasure Ridge Park (1-8). It is hard to see a scenario where the Tigers pass either Warren East, or most likely Logan County, if they do not win against the Panthers, especially when PRP’s record is factored into consideration.
With a Hopkinsville win, the Tigers then need to get some help. The most likely assist is to come from the South Warren Spartans (8-1). The question then becomes, with South Warren’s high RPI rating, does a loss by Logan County to one of the state’s top Class 5A teams hurt the Cougars enough to allow Hopkinsville to pass them by for the final spot in the district.
Warren East is at home this week against Franklin-Simpson. Even with a home loss to the Wildcats, who have a higher RPI than the Raiders, it is hard to see a way that they fall far enough for the Tigers to pass.
So, the best chance appears to be for Hopkinsville to handle PRP and then for South Warren to knock off Logan County.
So, the Hopkinsville Tigers’ playoff hopes will all play out on the field and on the computers coming up Friday night.
