The Sunshine State Athletic Conference announced its new football members Friday, a group including Bradenton Christian School and Out-of-Door Academy.

Another local private school, Saint Stephen's recently completed its third season in the conference and reached the championship game.

The Sunshine State Athletic Conference (SSAC) is an independent league, meaning the Thunder and Panthers will no longer compete for traditional district and state football championships within the Florida High School Athletic Association.

The SSAC is broken into two leagues and three divisions, whose teams compete for their own state championship in the Florida Bowl.

The Panthers and Out-of-Door will join the Falcons in the SSAC's Bay division. St. Petersburg Keswick Christian and St. Petersburg Shorecrest Prep -- another new member -- are the remaining two teams in the division.

"We will never make apologies for making decisions to put our kids in the best competitive advantage we possibly can. In layman's terms, this is an attempt to find a level playing field," BCS head coach and athletic director Allan Gerber said. "When it's a group of schools that are governed by like-minded people, there's a pretty good likelihood the governance will benefit everyone within the league."

Bradenton Christian and Out-of-Door spent last season in a traditional FHSAA district, Class 2A-District 5, and finished as the bottom two teams. Tampa Cambridge Christian, the district champion, reached the state championship and finished the regular season as the top ranked team in 2A.

The Panthers finished the season 3-7 and 1-3 in the district -- their lone district win came against ODA. Out-of-Door also went 3-7 and was winless in the district. Meanwhile, SSES went from winless in 2011 to a championship contender in 2015.

Last season, the Thunder also served as Saint Stephen's only non-league game. The Bay division had eight teams last year, meaning seven of the Falcons' eight regular-season games were spent on division opponents. With four new teams in the conference -- Fort Myers Canterbury is joining as part of the Florida Championship Series -- the SSAC could add two new divisions and trim each one to four or five teams.

Now division play will only take up four games for SSES, BCS and ODA. All three teams will be flexible to schedule four other games against FHSAA-affiliated schools or teams from other divisions within the SSAC.

"It puts all of us in a position where we have more of a say over who we're playing," Saint Stephen's head coach Tod Creneti said. "I think it benefits all of us. Of course, it's great for us because we want to locally relevant games and this year we'll get to do that."