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This the FHSAA definition for the issue at hand: An “impermissible benefit” is any arrangement, assistance or benefit that is not offered or generally made available to all students and/or their families who apply to or attend a school, or that otherwise is prohibited by FHSAA rules. Receipt of a benefit by a student-athlete or his/her family is not a violation of FHSAA rules if it is demonstrated that the same benefit is generally available to the school’s students or family members and is not based in any way on athletic interest, potential or performance. A student who is found to have accepted an impermissible benefit will be ineligible for interscholastic athletic competition for one or more years at the school to which the student accepted the impermissible benefit and may be declared ineligible for interscholastic athletic competition at all member schools for one or more years. Specific examples are listed here: https://fhsaa.com/documents/2020/4/14//Policy_37_2_2.pdf?id=71 There is no mention of the impact of blood relations, nor am I familiar with the NCAA regulations during Marcus Vick's career from 2002-2005. But these are the regulations that apply in this case.

because they are cheating. They should suspend the entire program and not allow them in the playoffs for two years. It's one thing to give a kid a ride home from practice that lives in your zone and its another to be paying for rides for kids that don't live in your zone and wouldn't be coming to your school if you were not paying for them to get there. This was the pattern and not just a random occurrence. The physical therapy and paying for personal training is also enticement. There is a reason they got 60 recruits errrr transfers over the last two years. The school suspended him because the fhsaa is about to hammer them. Bridgewater will get a minimum 6 games suspension and a $5k fine from the fhsaa. The next time he will be suspended from ever coaching in Florida. The school is facing harsh penalties and they are trying to avoid them. The other stuff pride packs, team meals, field paint, camps could have been paid for by the school. He could have just donated the money to the school and paid for it. I'm not sure how to feel in this case. I'm sure Teddy loves Northwestern and loves those kids but he was either oblivious to the rules or didn't care to follow them.

What remains to be seen are the short and long-term ramifications. It goes without saying that at the very least there might be some kind of sanction(s) levied against the coach and players. I hope this doesn't completely implode the program.

this x1 million. he could have just donated his cash to the school, even as a volunteer head coach, and the school could have purchased all of it, to no issue. the uber rides is literally the main issue( at least I think). uber picks up a kid 30 miles away, 3 miles away, 1 mile away and he is technically zoned for another school.....thats a problem. as far as tfa and what they did, it was this part, the uber rides, but the non school employee that rhymes with soffit, not only did he pay for the ubers, but they got those same kids on the field in spring and summer and they were not enrolled at the school.....yet....and he ubered them there for that too! all over orlando sports pages, teddy broke the rules, he is a school employee, even tho he says hes not. hes the head football coach, wether paid or not, he had to do background checks and etc....making him and employee of the school district. he broke the rules, which Im sure every coach in this poorly funded state has done same or similar, he went public with it. asking for donations, fine, dont spill the tea on what you been doing!

TFA was doing way more than just a few slap on the wrist actions. They are recruiting around the state and haven't stopped. MNW probably has an outcry because a coach did it out of the kindness of his heart and love for the kids. Hard to look at that in the same way as TFA which is all business and gives zeros shits about their kids. To be fair, TFA kids give zero shits about their school as it is a mutual business decision. However, rules are rules and Teddy broke the rules so consequences are due no matter the intent.

If Bridgewater does get 'taken down,' I'd like to see him take a whole bunch of other guys down with him. No reason why he should be the singular sacrificial lamb.

I think the argument is this: if 'free adults are allowed to give gifts to poor kids who happen to be good at sports,' we move from an amateur environment into a professional environment. Historically, high school sports, college sports and even the Olympics were reserved solely for amateur athletes. Within the last couple of decades, the barriers for professionals started to erode for the Olympics. You may recall that Jim Thorpe won gold medals in track in the 1912 Olympics, but was stripped of those medals because he had played minor league (or "semipro") baseball prior to participating in the Olympics. Ultimately, those medals were restored a few years ago. The USA Olympic basketball team used to be comprised only of college players. Now, it's all pros (with one or two college stars). Within the last 5-10 years, NIL changes have permitted college athletes to receive compensation. Before then, the rules in place for decades allowed college student-athletes to receive room, board and tuition. The $100 post-game handshakes from alums in the locker room and brown paper bags filled with money - although they happened everywhere - were illegal (and arguably still are; they just don't happen as much because the athletes can receive money legally through NIL). The NIL world is quickly filtering down to the high school level. However, the rules in most all states, and certainly in Florida, are rooted in the concept that only amateur athletes can compete in high school sports. And if you allow athletes to receive gifts, or otherwise compensate them or their families, such athletes are no longer considered amateurs. Simply put, the rules has always been that if you get compensated to do play a sport, you are considered a professional. And professionals cannot participate in amateur sports. Again, the rules in place (FHSAA Rules) are rooted in a clear distinction between amateur sports and professional sports. There was a clear line that is slowly becoming more and more blurred. If you want the argument as to why the rule makes sense, I think it is this: there is a certain beauty in amateur sports, knowing that everyone who is playing is playing for the love of the game and not for money. Everything changes once you start compensating athletes. As I have stated before, the concept of compensation is a slippery slope. What do you allow and what don't you? FHSAA rules prohibiting impermissible benefits were written before Uber even existed. But the rule is pretty clear: if you give something to football players that you don't give to all other students, that's an impermissible benefit - especially if the benefit is given to entice a kid to come to your school. If you allow schools/coaches/alums to compensate kids to play sports, then you take away the somewhat-level playing field. And, over time, certain schools will dominate high school sports because they will have the financial wherewithal to attract the most talented athletes. While this might be good for the handful of select, talented athletes, everyone else suffers. I guess the real question is whether we just want to eliminate the distinction between amateur athletics and professional athletics altogether and simply allow the free-market system to play out for all athletes and all schools? If you're inclined to answer this question with a "yes," I have only six words for you: be careful what you wish for.

Some kids NEED to transfer to get in the best position to change the trajectory of their entire life. Could literally save their life. Difference between going to college and being stuck in your neighborhood getting lost to streets. And I can only speak for myself, but I’m more interested in a at-risk kid changing his situation for the better in hopes of saving his life than your favorite high school team losing a game because he transferred from your favorite school.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/high-schools/2025/07/17/another-coaching-milestone-awaits-hillsborough-highs-earl-garcia/

With all the off-season discussion, don't forget the FHSAA regular season kicks off in 5 weeks. Last year, 460 teams competed in the 8 FHSAA championship classifications. This year, 458 teams are competing in the FHSAA. Not exactly the mass exodus that some were hoping for or predicting, but maybe it is coming down the road. Or not. In case you forgot your team's district or region foes, here are the 2025-26 FHSAA classifications: https://fhsaa.com/sports/2020/1/28/FB_classifications.aspx Information on the SSAA football season can be found here: https://www.sunshinestateathletics.com/page/show/5114520-football

Mega game. Rematch of the 2009 game where Lakeland won on a 2 point stop. Hope they have the horses to pull out another win this time

I agree. If you start to define equity to someone, communism immediately comes to mind. There’s no way possible to achieve equity in any regard. Everyone can’t be tied for first. Hell you can have 3 siblings raised in the same house their entire life by the same 2 parents given the same exact resources and all 3 will have vastly different outcomes when they become adults. So if you can’t achieve equity in the simplest formula possible, then there is no way to achieve it. It only acts as a guise to punish merit by incompetent people with way too much power

So if your a person who wants to give a donation no matter the amount how do you do it. Obviously if you played football you want your donations going towards the football team which is what Teddy is doing as the coach and now wants help. But now what about Cheerleading, Basketball, Baseball, Track & Field Soccer and other sports teams.

Wow this has my head spinning. I will reel this in and avoid the political stuff rather than hijack this thread. I am, though, confused about what you mean by Bridgewater donating his money directly to MNW versus giving it to a wealth redistribution process? What exact process are you referring to? Are you talking about shared gate receipts? I have never liked this policy and have always preferred the home team doing a 60-40 share of their gate with the visiting team rather than donating to a large pool that is divided up evenly. Here in Pinellas County we pool our gate and there are just a few teams propping up everyone else. There has to be a better way. By the way, you might be confusing communism with socialism. The processes you describe are socialist as well as the mayors you are referring to. Socialism is very different than communism despite similar concepts of sharing. Communism is bad all around. Socialism isn't so bad and there are no purely capitalist societies out there as they all have some forms of socialism, including the USA. Try not to get caught up in the anger baiting headlines and just read up on where everyone stands. I am not a fan of the NY mayor elect but my reasoning is he is too far on the left. Extremism is bad no matter which side you align with. Oops, I did go there, my bad.

Last year MNW received 28 transfers in 2 months This year they received 31 so far. I love today and truly believe he’s for the kids. But how do you think MNW became so good over night? , all those transfers not from the bulls district , hell a few of them are from broward county. so like most schools who recruit , of course the coaches care about the kids safety therefore getting them Ubers or picking them up. But we’re not gonna act like it’s not also to keep said high prospects on their team to also give them a much better chance to go all the way. This has been going on for years. Teddy fault is that he made it known what he’s doing without blatantly saying “in order to keep my current and future high profile prospects, i have to keep them happy and provided for” , that’s no difference then what TFA was penalized for. but because they’re a private school it was frowned upon. Northwestern was also investigated going into the playoffs last year for ineligible players. Central had to forfeit their season twice in 5 years because of “slick and sneaky behavior”

I know "communism" is a common scare word brought up in the political world just to easily dismiss any ideas of a shared revenue concept. In the world of sports, uncapped spending creates a great divide in competitiveness and hurts the sport overall. If we didn't have any type of distributed money from the government, only a few schools could afford to field a team. Football is incredibly expensive compared to other sports. The big programs do in fact have a huge budget advantage over the field despite the shared revenue anyway. The solution to this is actually to do whatever other states are doing to fund their programs. Georgia coaches make serious money and coaching is a legit career there. How do they afford it while Florida sucks ass?

Imagine the jealously and disdain you have to have for someone that brought you a state title, bringing in top flight talent, so much exposure, huge showcase game against a national brand opponent, all while forking out your own money to do it for some punk clowns to undermine you and try and push you out. SMH. You know in SFL you can get really good or really bad real fast. So I wouldn’t shocked if this all ends in a dumpster fire that kids start to jump ship and they struggle to maintain the standard

Larry Blustein podcast link talking about this event: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/south-florida-high-school-sports-radio/id993198627?i=1000717251522

I suddenly wish Bridgewater had known he was breaking the rules and kept it on the DL. He obviously cares a lot about that program and those kids. Hate to see a guy who cares like that get taken down while the true cheaters are out there doing their thing.

Yes, the free market should be allowed to draw the lines between amateurism and professionalism. The beauty of playing strictly for the love of the game will certainly be allowed to persist. And, kids and adults alike play A LOT of games for fun as it is. See adult rec leagues, intramurals etc. This includes those who've been able to become wealthy through playing the sport as well! I think that, eventually, people like most all of us are going to recognize that it is preposterous to have teenagers getting paid to play high school sports, and/or get a free college education along with the extra compensation. Most of us have been fans of the game and of the school, not the "star" athletes. In the long run, I don't think there will be much of a market for paid teenager athletes. But, if someone is willing to part with their $ to allow a kid to be less poor, and that means that School A easily crushes the competition, I don't think that's a bad thing. It IS a thing that will cause a great many people to lose interest. And that will in turn diminish the market, which will of course mean kids aren't making any money anyway. At issue, as I keep harping on, is the fact that the "big time" sports world where NIL money is available is an entirely different, beast of an animal that K-12 schools and even universities are not equipped to manage. Nor should they be. Big time, for profit sports should be separated from schools. The mission of the two entities is competely misaligned.

Yes of course big shot, how dare anyone try to help some young man out with a generous offer from his own pocket! Did the new pinstripe suits arrive yet from Brooks Brothers, F. Lee Bailey, Clarence Darrow Jr?!

ESPN quotes Bridgewater's Facebook post as follows: "The suspension came from MNW and it's impossible to suspend someone who doesn't work for you. So if im suspended from MNW im free to go to another school of my choice but IM NOT GOING ANYWHERE. "And if it comes down to it, I will volunteer from the bleachers like I used to in 2018 and 2019 when no one had a problem." Honestly, it seems like the guy has a bit of 'the rules don't apply to me' or 'I don't have to follow the rules' mentality.

Yes it's true and the alumni president stepped down. From what I read the alumni president went downtown or wherever and said something. I don't know if Teddy rubbed someone the wrong way but this is what I read. But see here's the thing about this situation. Northwestern has a strong alumni and community support. Half if not all the politicians in politics graduated from Northwestern and local pastors. If this was such a big issue something should have been said way before now and I think because Teddy asked for donations this all came about. Teddy has the money to take care of these things but why should he go broke doing it.

You are finally starting to make some sense, have they changed the black and orange water over at Bryant Stadium?

For clarity, it appears that Northwestern, not the FHSAA, administered the suspension. Not sure that does, or does not, render the arguments here moot, but one could argue that the school is trying to get out ahead of this.

Nolebull is ordering his "Free Teddy B" shirt right now

If it’s for something reasonable like a Gatorade and water donation & they reach out to the community of course I will help. it’s all within reason tho. 14,000 for a 3 day gym stay is unreasonable. 2,000 a week for food. Me & a few alumni would just get together and cook.

So if Dillard wanted to do some of these things you would say no and not support.

Nolebull, You are making a good argument for what the rule ought to be or why the rule ought to be changed. I'm telling you what the rule is. Interestingly, I witnessed first hand the FHSAA deal with a case that was very similar to the (presumably, hypothetical) one you just described. A family provided a kid with a bed for the night because that kid had an unfortunate family situation that would have left him homeless for the night had a teammate's family not stepped up and given him a place to stay for the night. Yep, you got it, impermissible benefit. Coach and school penalized. The difficulty is coming up with rules that can't be taken advantage of. Where do you draw the line? If paying for an Uber is OK, why can't you just buy the kid a car instead? More convenient for all parties. If you can buy a kid a meal, why can't you take his family grocery shopping and let them stock up? Or, better yet, just give then a gift card and let them spend the money as they please. What do you do when one school offers up a $1,000 gift card, but another school is willing to give the kid a $2,000 gift card? Do we really want to turn high school sports into professional sports?

I wouldn’t be so critical of the FHSAA if they didn’t lie and say they give 2 craps about student athletes. I wish people would just be honest. But I guess if they were honest, it would mess up their hustle.

Wait are you saying there is a rule that bars an adult mentor who coaches young men a sport from helping a struggling student athlete and his family with transportation? Whoa that’s next level crazy. “Hey coach I’m on the side of the road and almost got hit. I’m miles from school and it’s 110 degrees out. Can you get me a ride?” ”Sorry. Some turds 6 hours away in Gainesville said I can’t. Hope you don’t get hit or pass out.”

Say what you want, justify it however you want, wish the rules weren't what they are, but there is no question that a coach or other school representative paying for Uber rides for kids playing sports is a violation of the existing FHSAA rules. Period. And Teddy Bridgewater may be or have been an elite athlete, may be or become an excellent high school football coach, and/or may have his heart in the right place, but tweeting out a message to the world that you have done something that undoubtedly constitutes a violation of the rules is just plain stupid.

I know we already have a thread about “Must See” classic games, but can we compile a list of all the preseason games? They should not appear on MaxPreps (although a few do list them there). I know a few in SW Florida Aubrey Rogers @ Cape Coral Barron Collier @ Cooper City Riverdale @ Dunbar Gulf Coast @ Naples Immokalee @ South Ft. Myers Oasis @ Palmetto Ridge Sarasota Riverview @ Port Charlotte

What are the rules for booster clubs? Would you be able to run the money through the booster club? You might want to do your OV’s by Zoom. There should be a way to get donations for health services so athletes that need it for injuries and the like. Of course the opportunities for fraud and abuse are obvious.

Looks like his post did prompt the FSHAA to look into it: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2025/07/10/fhsaa-miami-northwestern-teddy-bridgewater-allegation-uber/84536789007/

Most of that is probably kids leaving First Baptist.

And did he “beg”? Or did he simply ask one sentence and see if anyone can help with fundraising? Every single team we have been apart of from 4 years old to high school has fund raised. I don’t remember begging anyone for money. But I guess I’m not a millionaire who coaches a transfer factory. Lol.

We lost some studs on defense, so that will be a wait and see. Shawn Simeon graduated, the #2 runner in the state, but we have a few young bucks that are willing to step up. This transfer portal is nuts, we have almost 60 kids in Collier that have changed schools. We lost 4, 2 of them would have been starters. Lely picked up a bunch and now arguable have the best QB (Brady Quinn) and RB {Nino Joseph) in the area. There offense was great last year and is only better now. If they can solidy that porous defense, they will be tough to beat. It took a Herculean effort to beat Port Charlotte last year and they look loaded again this year. I am hoping we can go 7-3. Getting back to the regional finals wil be a tall order.

Made a second pass through Maxpreps for all 576 (11-man teams). Yes, it takes a while. Here's what I've come up with through this morning: 265 Schedules are complete (assumes 10 game regular season beginning either Week 0 for SSAA or Week 1 for everyone else, unless out of state opponent. 311 Schedules have problems. Here's the breakdown: 218 schedules reflect less than 10 games 88 schedules are impacted by conflicts. ie. Team having more than one opponent on the same day- or- scheduled opponent has more than one opponent on that day. 5 teams have 11 games scheduled. Seems like there's a lot of information to be gathered and rectified over the next few weeks.

Miami Northwestern vs. Lakeland in Orlando.

No disrespect to any of the other teams on Lakeland's schedule, but this early-season stretch of games could either propel the 'Naughts to another state championship or completely demoralize them: Aug. 29: at De La Salle (California) Sep. 5: vs. Lake Mary Sep. 19: at Miami Booker T. Washington

Yes, in schools there are typically pretty clear and strict rules around who can be a volunteer for much of anything beyond helping pick up a piece of trash. Generally, the school district wants to cover its rear from volunteers who might commit crimes. But, there has to be some discernment here. Unfortunately, reasoning and decision making are not often emphasized in schools (or in much of society, either).