Could state championships be heading back to South Florida in 2024 or will Tallahassee keep them? A question that remains unanswered.
Welcome to the 2024 Florida High School Football season with practices now underway around the state! We will present a plethora of storylines over the coming days that will impact the 2024 season as part of our 2024 Storylines To Follow series and we will update this as we go through the days and weeks leading up to kickoff of the 2024 season!
WHERE ARE THE FHSAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS GOING TO BE PLAYED AT?
Honestly, your guess is going to be as good as ours, but we have heard a couple of different things being floated out there for where we could be seeing the FHSAA State Championships this year, and we will let you digest those possibilities here.
The first option is a return to Bragg Memorial Stadium at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. While this option was great for having all nine classifications, the FHSAA did see a drop in attendance compared to the two previous years where at least some of the state championship games were played in the stadium formerly known as DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. From our understanding, there was a possible option to renew but also might not have been as definitive as we thought.
The second option being floated is a return to South Florida, this time possibly at Florida International University’s FIU Stadium in Miami. Our sources indicate that there is a strong push from FIU and the South Florida community to bring all the state championships back to South Florida, where attendance usually achieves its highest numbers. What makes FIU Stadium nice is that it is a 20,000-seat stadium comparable to Bragg Memorial Stadium and the former DRV PNK Stadium. Another thing is that it does have FieldTurf as the playing surface, which would allow the stadium to handle possibly eight state championship games. The biggest disadvantage for FIU Stadium is that the majority of the Rural classification teams are located north of Interstate 4, with most of those located along the Interstate 10 corridor in North Florida. However, the Rural classification did gain some new teams south of Interstate 4, with Fort Meade returning to the classification, along with additions of Moore Haven and Marathon coming into the classification for the first time.
However, there is also a thought of potentially separating the Rural classification and finding a location more suitable to play that championship game (or possibly both A and B division championships) close to the majority of the schools in the Rural classification. One option floated by our sources was the new H.G. Morse Stadium at the new Villages High School in Middleton. Another option could be having the Rural classification state championships at Gene Cox Stadium in Tallahassee. Both fields have artificial playing surfaces that would suffice regardless of the weather conditions that can seemingly change at a moment’s notice in December.
At this point, all of these are just options that are out there and have been floated, and nothing is definitive at this time as we hed into the season regarding where the FHSAA State Championships will be come December or even on what days, as that is also not clearly defined at this time by the FHSAA.
MORE IN THE 2024 STORYLINES TO FOLLOW SERIES
• New classifications will set tone
• How many defending state champions will be able to repeat?
• SSAA moves to 10-game schedule
• FHSAA playoff power rankings will shift more toward MaxPreps rankings
• Rural classification taking on new playoff format in test
• Where are the FHSAA State Championships going to be played at?
