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High School Football playoffs start this week, with FL trying out a new classification system

SeaPA

HR Heisman
Dec 17, 2002
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For as long as I can remember, the FHSAA has divided schools into various classifications based solely on student population at each school. Under that setup, teams were competing in the playoffs against schools of a similar size (with one glaring issue - they've always used TOTAL number of students, so a public school with 800 students, roughly split evenly so having 400 boys, would be in the same classification as a private, all-boys school that had 800 boys).

For this season and next, they've first divided schools into two classifications - Metro and Suburban (there's also a "rural" classification for very small, private schools). The Metro consists of all schools in the 8 most highly populated counties. The Suburban classification is all schools in the other 59 counties. Both the Metro and Suburban classifications are the split into 4 divisions apiece, based on student enrollment.

The idea is an attempt at leveling the playing field after the State legislature made it far easier for a kid to use the "school choice" rules to go to a school other than where he is zoned based on residence. There are some who believe it's made it far easier for "football factory" type schools in larger population areas to cherry-pick most of the premier athletes from there general area.

It will be interesting to see how it works out; there was a lot of heated discussion leading up to the vote on the new classification system. A lot of coaches/administrators - especially those from programs who did well under the old rules - hate the idea.

 
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I'll add that the playoff seeding is confusing as well. One of the 1R schools blew out another 1R school in the same region, is undefeated, and yet is seeded lower than the school they just blew out.
 
I am not really sure how they determine seedlings (or how they decide which teams make it in among those who did not win their district).
My local school went 9-1, and is the #2 seed in the region. The one loss was to a rival school, who went 7-3 but who went indefeated in the district. They ended up seeded 3rd; I am a bit surprised that they are not seeded in front of us. Probably won't matter; we both oprn against teams we should beat, then will face each other. But the winner of that game will probably get eliminated the following week by the #1 seed, who has crushed everyone all year.
 
Does IMG Academy get their own division where they can crush more made up schools and be awarded a title?
 
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Iowa needs to do something as well. Assumption/xavier, ACA, and WC all won the volleyball titles over tiny towns.
For you, "open enrollment makes things equal" fanatics not everyone has 300-500k people within 10 miles of the school is not the same as having 5k within 10 miles of school.
 
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