FHSAA Board of Directors approves new football playoff plan for 2017

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It has been the change a lot of people involved in Florida high school athletics have been waiting for – a chance to make high school football better.

That change for the better will start in the 2017-18 school year when the Florida High School Athletic Association revamps its playoff format for the first time since 1993.

In a 14-2 vote, the FHSAA Board of Directors voted to drastically change how teams qualify for the playoffs since district runner-ups were first granted playoff berths in 1993.

The vote for the new football playoff format follows an 11-2 vote that endorsed the proposal from the Athletic Directors Advisory Committee back on Sept. 7.

Now teams starting in 2017 will qualify for the playoffs using a point system format that is modeled after a similar point system used by the Nebraska School Activities Association. The point system will be used in all eight classifications.

Ultimately, this will make all 10-games each team plays worthy of something, which is not the case currently as all playoff brackets are already set prior to final regular season game in Week 11.

How will this all work? It will depend on what classification a team is in as to how things will work.

THE SETUP

Teams assigned in Classes 5A through 8A will still be assigned to one of 16 districts per class, carrying on the current assignment basis as it has been for well over four decades. However, only district champions will be granted automatic berths to the playoffs, with a seeding guaranteed from 1 through 4 based upon points in each region.

The runner-up spots in Classes 5A through 8A will be replaced with four wildcard berths for each of the four regions, meaning that three or four teams from one district could possibly qualify for the playoffs. Wildcard teams will be seed with seeds 5-8 in each region.

32 teams from Classes 5A through 8A will qualify for the playoffs.

For Classes 1A through 4A, a totally different approach is being taken, which includes eliminating districts for the first time in FHSAA history. Teams in these classifications will instead be assigned to one of four regions which will be used only for playoff seeding purposes.

This new approach for Classes 1A through 4A will leave teams with the full responsibility of scheduling all 10 of their regular season games. At the same time, though, they can set up their own conferences to allow for guaranteed games if they wish.

As for qualifying for the playoffs in Classes 1A through 4A? Four at-large qualifiers from each region will be seeded using points earned to fill out a 16-team bracket in each class.

For all classifications, the higher seed will host during the regional portion of the playoffs with hosting for state semifinals to be determined by the FHSAA. This will eliminate a previous rule of alternating line brackets that is currently in place.

POINTS & QUALIFICATION

Teams will earn points based upon four category levels of points as seen in the table below.

The points, which will all be calculated at end of the season, will give each team points for each of the teams they played based upon that opponent’s end-of-season record. The total points will then be added up and divided up by however many games that team plays for a point average which will be used for final seeding purposes.

All teams will have to have at least eight games minimum on their schedule to be eligible for the playoffs, also a change from when it only district games counted for qualifying no matter if a team had five games or 10-games on their schedule.

THE BRACKETS

Teams will be seed in brackets for each region in each classification based upon the points earned. The goal for the FHSAA is to host an NCAA-style selection show on the weekend after Week 11 (likely on that Sunday) to reveal the brackets and pairings for all eight classifications.

OTHER THINGS

Under the new football playoff format, there will be new rules on how teams will have to handle cancellations, postponements, and forfeits as well new rules for how tiebreakers will work.

No longer will teams be able to replace a canceled game with a different team during the season and have it count. The schedule that is in the FHSAA database system, through C2C Schools, a week prior to the season will count as the official schedule the FHSAA will go by for the purposes of awarding points for seeding purposes.

For teams still in districts, the elimination of the district tiebreaker that is used if needed will completely disappear as well under the new format. For example, If there is a three-way tie for a district champion that cannot be broken through head-to-head competition, the team with the best average of points will be awarded the district championship.

As for breaking ties, for playoff seeding, there is a four-step process the FHSAA will follow to break those ties, if needed.

GETTING TO THIS POINT

The plan to change the structure of the FHSAA playoffs started just over a year-ago when second-year FHSAA football administrator Frank Beasley was tasked to come up with a plan to improve the playoffs for football.

Since the plan became publicly known, in mid-May, Beasley has had many discussions with athletic directors and head coaches around the state that lead to the plan that was approved today. That also included mulitple presentations at the FHSAA’s June Board of Director’s meeting as well as the Florida Athletic Coaches Association summer clinic in Daytona Beach.

Beasley also surveyed all the member schools to get their input heard.

As a result of that survey, over 500 member schools responded with over 70% endorsing the change to the new format. Included in that survey were over 30-plus schools that are currently classified as independent, that would seek to return to being eligible for the FHSAA football playoffs if the new plan was approved.

TIMETABLE

The FHSAA has laid out a timetable of how the changes with the new playoff format will be implemented, which will start with tentatively updated regions and districts and concluding when schedules will be due to the FHSAA by all teams.

Dec. 2016: Release updated regions (1A-4A) and districts (5A-8A)
Jan. 2017: Appeals Due – Teams will be able to appeal to go independent, move up in classification (1A-4A) or appeal to move district (5A-8A)
Jan. 2017: Release final regions (1A-4A) and districts (5A-8A)
Feb. 2017: District meetings for (5A-8A)
May 1, 2017: 2017 schedules due in C2CSchools.