Mississippi High School Football Team Fined For Throwing Final Game of Season, Thanks to Most Ridiculous Playoff Format Ever
In a country with only 50 states, there are hundreds of high school football state champions crowned every year. They come in all different divisions or classifications. Some states are more straight forward than others. Mississippi splits up their public and private schools. Public schools (MHSAA) have divisions 7A through 1A. Private schools (MAIS) have 1A through 4A. Here's all of them. The teams in this story play MAIS Class 3A football. (MaxPreps)
For some reason, within MAIS Class 3A, Mississippi has decided they will have 2 state champions (Division 1 & Division 2). But the divisions aren't decided at the start of the season. At the end of the regular season, the MAIS Class 3A teams ranked 1-4 play for the Division 1 State Championship.
While the next 8 teams play for a second, Division 2 State Championship.
The way I see it, the first state championship is the only real state championship. I'm not sure why anybody would prefer to play in the lesser one if they have a chance to compete for the being crowned the best team MAIS Class 3 team in the state. But apparently not all teams think that way. Technically speaking, the winners of both brackets are state champions. And if you're the coach of Marshall Academy, you would do anything in your power to take the easiest path to one. Even if that means throwing your last regular season game to get yourself lowered in the rankings.
In the final game of the regular season, Marshall Academy was playing Washington School. Both teams were 8-1. Both with "aspirations" to play for the Class 3A Division 1 State Championship. But under no circumstances was Marshall Academy about to do that. In that final game, Marshall sat their starters. By halftime, the score was Washington School 43, Marshall Academy 6.
In the second half, when Marshall got the football on offense, they refused to snap the ball. They took delay of game penalties until the referees decided to award Washington a safety. On the ensuing kick, Marshall refused to kick the ball. Took multiple delay of game penalties on the kick. Until finally, the refs stepped in and declared a forfeit.
Tomorrow, Marshall Academy will play Central Hinds Academy in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs. Next Friday, Washington School will play Leake Academy in the first round of the Division 1 playoffs. Meaning Marshall Academy got their wish. Their insane stunt worked (final rankings).
Advertisement
Kind of… Marshall got their wish when it comes to securing an easier path to a not-as-good state championship. But they were hit with sanctions. Their coach Chris Bunio has been banned from coaching in the playoffs. He was personally fined $1,000. His school, Marshall Academy, was fined $7,500. Marshall was also banned from hosting any playoff games.
It's one of the more bizarre and annoying stories you'll find in the world of high school sports. Everything about it stinks. The way Mississippi waits until the end of the season to split their teams into divisions. The way these teams (or at least Marshall) seem to think the Division 2 State Championship means just as much as the Division 1 State Championship. Which it doesn't. They play in the same division all year. They play the same teams. If the top 4 teams in Class 3A get placed into "Division 1", then THAT is the real state championship. As a player, even if I thought my team was going to get beat by 50 in the first round, I can't imagine not wanting to compete for the highest possible championship my team could qualify for. The lack of competitiveness from Marshall Academy is shocking.
From what I can deduce by looking at these teams schedules, there's one team in particular who everyone is scared of. Tri-County Academy. Here are the scores of some Tri-County games vs other playoff teams this season.
Tri-County vs Washington School - W 48-12
Tri-County @ Wayne Academy - W 38-7
Tri-County vs Central Hinds Academy - W 50-0
Tri-County vs Leake Academy - W 52-18
I think it's pretty safe to say that Marshall Academy's coach threw the game because he thought they stood no chance to beat to Tri-County. Which I suppose, from a practical standpoint, I can understand to some degree. But what I can't understand is why they went about throwing the game the way they did. It's one thing to roll out your backups in the final game of the season and let them get their ass kicked. It's one thing to intentionally run shitty plays for four quarters. But to get the ball in the 4th quarter and refuse to snap the football. Then refuse to kickoff the football so the game can't be played. Why would they make it so obvious?
It's almost like the coach was trying to make a point about how stupid the MAIS playoff system is. "If you're going to give me two paths to a state championship, why wouldn't I take the easier one? The more fun one."
Practically, I get why he did it. And it's one of those things where it's kinda hard to fully blame Marshall Academy. If the MAIS is going to put their teams in such a stupid system, it's hard to get mad when they use the tools at their disposal to exploit it. But how stupid is Marshall's head coach for throwing the game in such a way that the refs could cite "Rule 9-9 of the National Federation of High School Football Rules Book regarding unfair acts". Now the state actually has something tangible to point at and penalize them for. Marshall is lucky they're being allowed to play in the playoffs at all.
Advertisement
Fix your high school football, Mississippi. To whichever team wins that Division 2 State Championship… I'm sorry… but that's not a real state championship. That's the MAIS Class 3A NIT.
Congrats on the state championship, Tri-County.