FHSAA inks deal to keep Drive To December in Orlando

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The wait is finally over for where the state championships game will be played at officially for the next three seasons.

This morning, via Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) Snapchat account, contract specialist Will Adams announced that Drive To December would continue to be played in Orlando at Camping World Stadium, formerly known as the Orlando Citrus Bowl with the Central Florida Sports Commission continuing to serve as hosts.

In a press release sent out by the FHSAA, the agreement extends the rights to the stadium hosting Drive to December through the 2018-2019 school year. Once the current contract is finished, Camping World Stadium will officially have hosted the state championship games for football for more years than other neutral site venue since the FHSAA went to a central site format in 1989.

However, don’t mark your calendars too fast with the traditional two-weekend format dates.

For the 2016 season, the dates of when Drive To December will be played will remain on the traditional two-weekend format the FHSAA has used over the last decade since expanding to eight classifications in 2005. Games for Classes 1A through 4A will be held on the first weekend of December on Dec. 2-3, while games for Classes 5A through 8A will be held on Dec. 9-10.

In 2017, things change drastically.

With the increasing number of events being held now at Camping World Stadium, a deal was worked out for the final two years of the contract for games to be held in a new one weekend format that will see all eight classifications play their games over three days in a Thursday, Friday and Saturday format. It is expected that two games will be played on Thursday with three games each being played on Friday and Saturday with the new one weekend format. The dates for 2017 and 2018 games will be Dec. 7-9, 2017 and Dec. 6-8, 2018.

The new date formats for the FHSAA in 2017 could possibly coincide with a new playoff format, which we first reported to you earlier this year and was further discussed at the FHSAA Borad of Directors meeting in June.

FHSAA Executive Director Dr. Roger Dearing expressed his thoughts about Drive to December staying in Orlando.

“For the past nine years, the Central Florida Sports Commission has proven to be exemplary hosts for this epic event,” Dearing said. “With a $207 million renovation project completed less than two years ago, along with the centralized location benefiting our member schools, we look forward to providing a first-class experience for our student-athletes and programs competing in the games.”