One-Loss High School Football Team Fined For Pulling Most Embarrassing Stunt Imaginable Ahead Of Playoffs
The lack of sportsmanship here is astounding.
Washington School blew out Marshall Academy 53-6 in the final week of the Mississippi high school football regular season last week to become district champs. Typically, games decided by 47 points don't deserve more than a sentence-long recap, but this one calls for our undivided attention.
After seeing the final score, most would assume that Washington was by far and away the superior team and simply beat up on a lesser opponent in the final game of the regular season, but that wasn't the case at all.
Both teams entered last week's contest with identical 8-1 records and big-time postseason aspirations, but vastly different ones.
In what may be the most bizarre yet peak 2025 decision imaginable, the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) restructured its playoffs this season, creating a two-tier state championship system that will result in two different state champions from the same classification.
The two-tiered system makes no sense whatsoever, and the decision to create it came back to bite the competition committee in a major way.
Bleachers at a high school football stadium. (Photo by: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
In what could have and should have been a competitive final game of the regular season, Marshall head coach Chris Bunio decided he and his team were going to try to win the ‘easier’ of the two state titles up for grabs, as the loser would fall into the second-tier bracket.
According to the Delta Democrat-Times, Marshall sat at least 13 players in the game and did not run a single offensive play during the second half.
Marshall's lone score in the game came during the first half, but only because a Washington defender fell on the play. After Washington went up by 35 points, the clock continuously ran due to the mercy rule.
After Washington scored on its opening drive of the second half, Marshall received the kick and proceeded to take delay-of-game penalties over and over again, until officials ultimately awarded Washington with a safety.
From there, things reportedly got even more awkward and ridiculous, as Marshall then refused to kick the ball away as the clock eventually hit double zeros.
The MAIS has since fined Marshall Academy $7,500 and banned it from hosting a playoff game for the remainder of the postseason. Bunio was also fined $1,000 and has been prohibited from all contact with the team during the playoffs.
What we have here is a classic situation where two things can be true at once.
The MAIS creating a two-tier playoff system was idiotic, and it opened itself up for this exact scenario. On the flip side, Marshall allegedly losing the game on purpose to avoid the tougher yet real state championship bracket is mind-numbing and embarrassing.