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A true championship will find a way to win regardless of where the game is played. In 2014, Apopka, going into the playoffs with a 6-4 record, played its first three games on the road, including a trip to Jacksonville. It did not matter, they won them all. If Lakeland is destined to be a champion this year they will overcome the handicap if, indeed, there is one at the end of the regular season. It's almost as if you doubt that your team has it in them to win under adversity. If that is the message conveyed to the kids, guess what? That's right, they won't win.

The difference is I'm working under the assumption that Buchholz will have the home field advantage for all of those potential games, whereas you don't seem to consider that. While it's true that we don't yet know for sure how the final seedings will look, it seems a very good bet Buchholz will be ranked ahead of all of the other teams in 4S. All you mention have or figure to have a loss, with the possible excpetion of University City which you didn't mention. I like Lakeland or Venice vs. Buchholz in either a home game or a neutral site game. But, on the road in Gainesville, where those teams will still be perceived as favorites and thus will get screwed by the officials, Buchholz will win IMO.

For the sake of argument, if Manatee and Buchholz both go undefeated, then strength of schedule would be the deciding variable for seeding purposes. At this point, Buchholz has had the stronger schedule to date, and likely will have the higher strength of schedule rating based on opponents for the rest of the season. But remember that the 4 remaining teams are re-seeded after the regional finals, so #1 hosts #4, and #2 hosts #3. So as long as you are one of the 2 highest ranked teams after the regional finals, you will host a state semifinal, with the state final in Tallahassee. My conclusion is that an 8-2 (or worse) team can never overcome a 10-0 for the #1 overall seed, regardless of their respective strength of schedules. A 9-1 team could conceivably overcome a 10-0 team for the overall #1 seed with a significant enough differential in their strength of schedules (although it did not happen last year in the 8 classifications where that was possible). So your best bet is going undefeated and hope everyone else loses at least one game. The computer does not care that Venice or Lakeland are really good teams, it looks objectively at the fact that they lost multiple games. And transparency would be wonderful.

I didn’t know the 9 game policy but I did know about the socialist robbery that the county AD enacted. I wish the state could intervene. They are literally stealing money from the schools who have good fan support. There is no other way to word it. It’s theft. If you have 50 people show up to your game, you shouldn’t get the same money as a team who has 500 or 5,000 show up. There is no incentive to increase fan support. They are enabling bad behavior. It’s disgusting.

Ya'll know the FHSAA ranking isn't a true ranking this early in the season even though 4 or 5 games have been played. Have to say that Nole's rankings have a better understanding of where the teams should be regardless of classifications. I know this was posted before but here it is again for those that missed the FHSAA's rankings. https://fhsaa.com/rankings.aspx?path=football

I just went back & look & shout out to @Nulli Secundus for being the ONLY 1 who wasn’t prisoner of the moment & picked Dillard to win last week vs Miramar. to the rest of yall @Perspective @muckboy561 & etc ….. I ain’t even gonna say it lol lmao.

Jambun, Personal Foul .....No more "french fries" for you !

I’ve stayed there a few times since 2017 but my most recent time 2 years I was in sandy springs

My question is, if Manatee makes it to round 4 and their opponent happens to be Buccholz, where would they play? For the sake of argument, let's assume that they both go into that game undefeated. Does strength of schedule only then become a factor? Does the record of their opponents, or even the records of the opponents of their opponents, come into play? What if Manatee beats Venice and goes undefeated, and Buccholz finishes with 1 loss on the regular season, but because Venice lost 3 regular season games and Buccholz' 1 loss was to a "superior opponent," they get home field anyway? My head hurts thinking about all of this, LOL. But this lack of transparency is nauseating and really harms the credibility of the FHSAA, however much of that remains.

Since it is now effectively under the control of the state legislature and the governor, you would have to start with them.

Schedule is weak. No good wins. Play an 0-5 team tonight. If they dominate Benjamin next week then it would be hard to argue against them.

I do get that as im also the head softball coach and used to be the head wrestling coach.

Is there any way to get rid of the FHSAA? What steps need to happen?

It’s cool if it stays in house. That makes sense. The problem is stealing money from your school and giving it to other schools when you can be using it for your own programs non revenue sports. Imagine telling your girls softball team or boys wrestling team you have no money to fund their sports because you have to give it to Liberty and Harmony.

Exactly…..as you said, that’s how they get a lot of above average teams. And no elite teams anymore.

Lol oh really who’s the alumni ask them their class lol. And Atlanta is my second home I jus moved from there.

I took Dillard's record, program history and the fact that I work with a Dillard Alum here in Atlanta into account, lol. Congrats on the win!

I mean everybody BUT YOU picked against us like we’re bottom of the barrel sorry. Like we wasn’t competitive in every game during this tough ass stretch we had to start the season. also forgetting we were (4-0) against Miramar coming into the season over the last four years, Now (5-0).

No title contenders in Hillsborough. There are some pretty good teams (Tech, Berkeley, Carrollwood Day, etc.), but they won't beat the SF Juggernauts.

My point was that through the regular season, Apopka did not play like a team that was the best in 8A. Yes, one of the losses was to American Heritage Plantation by a small margin and that team went on to win a state title by a dominant amount. But they also lost, convincingly, to West Orange during the regular season. And they lost on the final play of the game to a good, but not state caliber Edgewater in the final regular season game. In short, none but the most rabid Apopka faithful would have thought they were going to win a state championship. Even though a lot of talent was on the roster, the team was not playing like a championship team. Lakeland most certainly has not sunk to the nadir Apopka sunk to in 2014. Well, guess what? The playoffs came and the team woke up. They drilled West Orange 42-0 in the second round then went on the road and beat a very loaded First Coast team 64-48 at their place. Lakeland was in the game almost to the end of both their losses. The talent is clearly there. If the kids and the staff really want to win it all, they can if they have right attitude. There is only so much advantage home field confers. And most officiating crews, even if they have a bias towards the home team, don't systematically "steal" the game for the home team. I hope that Lakeland's staff is not sowing the seeds of doubt in the players the way you are on this message board. For if they are, there season will most certainly end sometime during the playoffs. From what I have seen of them so far, it does not have to be their destiny to exit early.

Lakeland is tough enough... Like I said before, 4S is a tough class. If they make it to Tally, they earned it.

Just my 2 cents. The Venice team I watched play Cocoa should be in the semis at the very least... They are a good program. I do know that the competition is tough in that class though. Lots of "what ifs" are going to happen along the path to the playoffs. I honestly think Venice could win 4S if they can keep the penalties to a minimum. They have the horses on both sides of the ball.

Buchholz prolly going to tally from the north side. Really though, it is up to every team and coach to to win the game. Can't let the road woes get to your team before the game even starts. Have to go into their house like you're the landlords and jack up the rent.

You better get to 35 before half time then. Running clocks can kill the excessive scores.

That could be a problem for Venice . . . I don't think they're allowed to play road games.

I think we're going to see a lot of match ups where both teams are mediocre or worse. Someone has to advance! Mix in the awful playoff pairings with some awful officiating-which generally favors the perceived underdog, especially if they are at home- and it's going to be chaos in the playoffs as well. As has been the case for all time, it is generally best to schedule easy and win most/all your games. The ONLY times you should schedule difficultly are if you: 1) need money from greater ticket sales. Even in that case, you can be a bit "choosey" as a traditional power that gets good crowds and is down is preferable to a major national power that isn't going to bring many fans (see IMG or an OOS team) OR 2) are in an area where there is a lot of competition for the best area players and you need to distinguish your program through tough games.

DarterBlue2, if you have a problem with me and what I have to say, how about answering my questions, talking to me like a man instead of avoiding me, and making faces at my comments?

You don't tell me what to do. I asked a question, and I expect and demand an answer. Otherwise, there should be no comments about officiating on this message board.

I'm definitely familiar with Atlanta! I graduated from GT a few decades ago. Atlanta is definitely loaded with opportunity, especially if you're high tech. I'm high tech and luckily found one of the few engineering jobs locally here in the Tampa area.