All of these are valid skepticisms. Allow me to respond with why I believe those teams make it to where I put them
Strawn has to play Newcastle, Forestburg, and Gold-Burg. I believe that even with a "bad" pre-district, the only challenge I see is Gold-Burg. However, I believe that Strawn's tradition of winning will have making it to playoffs. Will they win playoffs games? I don't know because we all know the road to the Region 2 championship is tough for all of those schools. Again, the tradition of winning in Strawn is what will propel Strawn through playoffs in my opinion.
With Cherokee, I see Blackwell just pulling an upset. Blackwell had a down year last season and will likely be around 8 or 9 wins when matching up with Cherokee. Plus, I think Cherokee will be looking ahead at Richland Springs for a rematch in the regional finals and realized that the Hornets are not to overlook.
With Benjamin, you might be right. They might be put out in the first round or the third round. I don't see Benjamin playing turkey ball for the opposite reason I see Strawn playing in December. Strawn is use to playing into December, so is Motley County. I'm not saying Benjamin is bad. Like I said earlier, they're in Region 2 with all of those teams, teams who know how to make it to Thanksgiving..
Finally, Richland Springs is probably going to blink and be in Jerryworld. The question is how much competition will they have to face a little adversity? I say none. If I'm mistaken, RS hasn't lost at AT&T. But, mostly had to play Strawn to get there. With Region 3 losing Strawn and Gordon, RS will only have film on their side while the teams in Region 1 and 2 will have experience week after week of having a tough opponent.
I may be wrong, but I have reasons as to why I might be right.