DarterBlue2

Implementing a mandatory (non voluntary) open division could actually be the best way of dissuading schools from recruiting all star teams. For if it's large enough, but not too large (maybe 24 to 32 teams), these schools may well say wait a minute, do we really want to have to beat each other up every year for one title, year in and year out? On the other hand, a smaller open division determined at or near the end of the season with 8-16 teams, may encourage teams to recruit heavily in a bid to "compete for the best in Florida title." But it would also give solid teams who currently don't have a real shot, a legitimate shot at winning one of the remaining 5, 6 or 7 titles.

Didn't Western beat Milton this year? Milton was 7A Georgia champ this year.

I am not sure about that. California and New Jersey have had Catholic powers for a long time.

My hand is readily extended. STA is one of the poster children of what is wrong with Florida High School Football. The STA of 20-25 years ago was very good, but it was not what it is today. Back then, it was a well endowed high school that built a strong football team by bringing in enough talent to be competitive most years. Today, along with a handful of other privates and public school, it makes a mockery of what the game at the high school level should be. I am hoping that the recent trend (if two years even counts as a trend) in the state finals are a harbinger of better times ahead. No we will not revert to the halcyon days of yore, but maybe, just maybe, we will be able to keep the finals competitive.

We will never know if that's true or not. STA had its back against the wall in its final. Cocoa, won comfortably though it did not blow out Bradford.

He is who he is. But at least he's consistent. A true believer. I do respect that about him.

I like your set up a lot. We could quibble a bit about a few of the teams you currently have in 6A/5A, but for the most part, they seem accurate. And in any case, as there is active promotion/relegation, any discrepancies would be eliminated with the passage of time based on actual performance over the most recent years on a rolling basis. Teams on the rise and those falling off would also be promoted and relegated to reflect current form. The only thing standing in the way is the fact that this is too rational/logical for those with an agenda. But I totally agree that it would lead to more competitive games both during the regular season and during the playoffs. Maybe you could adjust the mandatory number of games against teams in your class (5A and 6A) during the regular season from 7 to 6 or 5 instead to reduce travel costs and time as there will be significant distance at times among the teams in those classes. If people of good will with the best interest of the game in their hearts got together, I can't for the life of me see why this could not be done with minor modification.

If he's charismatic and has deep connections in the community, they will come. With that said, given the fact administration at the school seems to have, at best, mixed feelings about the game and its success/failure, he's got his work cut out for him and may not be up to the task of navigating the land mines that lie ahead.

Based on those stats, Metro should probably consist of Dade through Pasco, the top 10 population counties. That would be different than what we had before the latest decision on the part of the FHSAA.

Went through implies that you won. They were stopped by Norland twice.

It's all very, very funny. I hate to say it, but the Georgia and Alabama equivalents are superior to our governing body.

You can feel whatever you want. It does not make it correct.

You are so dumb. You are talking about body of work during the season. But you are ranking the teams as of the end of the season. Well at the end of the season, BP was playing its best football and beat two south Florida powers one on their homefield and one at a neutral site and yet you can't acknowledge that they are a top 10 team because of your "perception" of their program. Shaking my DFH.

Fools are always blind. Why am I not surprised. I wish we could bet on this. I would take yours just for the fun of it. But I would give it back. There's no fun in taking candy from a baby.

I appreciate you!

You have confirmed my opinion of you, if you know what I mean. But here you go, I will spell it out. You are not particularly good when it comes to serious analytical thought. I will leave it at that.

BP beat Norland in the state championship game. If you don't play your best when all the marbles are on the line, you will never play your best. Norland's coaching staff did not make any dumb mistakes. Could they have adjusted better to BP's running game? That is an open question I cannot answer. It's quite likely they just did not have the caliber players up front to stop BP's running game. The week before Norland, BP went to AHP and whipped them on their own field. No one ever asserts that AHP is not well coached. BP certainly did not start the season as a top 10 team. But in my opinion they ended the season as a clear top 10. It happens. In 2012 Apopka was 1-2 after three weeks and reeled off 12 consecutive victories to win the 8A title. They lost to DP by 17 in their first game of the season but beat DP by 19 in the state semifinals where it truly counted. The difference was that Apopka was a young team loaded with sophomore talent. Late in the playoffs, these kids had improved a ton. DP was a senior heavy team that did not have much room for significant improvement. To me what you do on the field late in the playoffs says a whole lot more than what you did weeks 1-5. I stand by my assertion that you are materially underrating BP in the final top 25 you put out. You are giving far too much consideration to the past (past seasons mostly) and ignoring the present.

@nolebull813 the system may be screwed up. I will agree on that. But the finals this year, with the exception of one or maybe two games, were super entertaining.

If you are going to rank Norland and Miami Central in the top 10, by what logic can you exclude Berkeley Prep? No, seriously! Norland beat Central twice. Berkeley Prep beat Norland fair and square in the final. There were no controversial calls by the officials; there was no trick play. They beat them fair and square by mostly running the ball down their throats. You are either under ranking BP, or you are over ranking Norland and Central. I will say, in case you think I am a Norland hater: I have two nieces and two nephews that are Norland alumni. There are a couple other things I could bring up in your final 25, but I will give you a pass as the BP ranking is the most egregious in my opinion.

For now. But things run in cycles. Manatee has talent in the area. If you rebuild it, they will come.

Bradford clearly exceeded my expectations and were competitive. They also brought a very good crowd to the game. In the end, they came up short. But no shame in losing to one of the five best teams in the state this year.

I thought Venice had too much offense for Lakeland. I was wrong. Buchholz actually gave Lakeland a better game than Venice and but for two questionable coaching calls may have won. Venice, despite scoring a lot of points, never had Lakeland on the ropes and surrendered its best chance when they failed to get even a first down after Lakeland's punt early in the third quarter. Congrats to Lakeland. They won this game despite the fact their QB was seriously impaired for a majority of it.

The crowds were smaller. But this has been a trend. There are a number of reasons for the decline in attendance. A few follow: 1. The overall cost of attending the games relative to incomes. High school football games are generally attended by friends and family of the players and rabid fans. It's generally not supported by the kind of individual that attends the college game, let alone the NFL. Most of these individuals are low income. 2. The demise of small town teams making the finals. Back in the day, a number of the state championship games, regardless of classification, consisted of battles which had at least one representative from a small town or semi rural area (Bartow, Suwanee. Sarasota, Belle Glades, etc.). Fans from those areas tended to attend high school football finals. Often, literally the whole town would make the trip to support the local team. 3. The rise of the super team. When three, four and five peat teams become the norm, as they have, attendance diminishes. No one wants to watch a game where the result isn't in doubt. And even the fans of the dominant team get bored and start to not attend. 4. The cost of attending versus watching a quality broadcast from home. 5. Despite having some of the best players in the entire nation, Florida fans, due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that so many residents are recent transplants, just don't support the game the way they do in: Georgia, Alabama, Texas, etc. This is just a sad reality. Even in a central location such as Orlando, attendance had been dwindling over the years. The move to Tallahassee this year, probably accounted for a percentage of the decline, but we were already heading in that direction. The irony is that this year's championship games were very competitive with the exception of the Chaminade blowout and actually very cheap to attend if you excluded travel costs. Each game cost only $20 which included parking. And if you bought your tickets the day before, $17, including parking. Moreover, if you were willing to stay in the stadium between games (about a two hour wait), you were not asked to leave. Therefore, for the princely sum of $51, you could have watched the entire nine games if you were willing to put up with a little inconvenience. At $51, for the mathematically challenged, that amounts to less than $6 a game including parking which is less than the cost of attending a regular game today in most parts of the state. In some cases, a lot less. From a competitive standpoint, this may be the best games I have ever attended. I only got to watch the last six games (Friday and Saturday) as I had personal matters to attend to on Thursday. I was more than happy with the size of the stadium, which was adequate; the quality of the field, which was artificial turf; and the parking which was right next to the stadium with four ways to enter and exit which minimized bottlenecks entering and leaving. In recent times, the best attended games were held in Daytona Beach at the municipal stadium where BCU plays its home games. But the reason for the large attendance was to a degree a one off. 1. There were three Orlando area teams in the finals: Apopka, Edgewater and Jones. The trip from Orlando is about 45 miles, so it was not much of a hike for Orlando area fans to make it. 2. Miami Northwestern was in the finals. The Bulls fans, to their credit, always travel well. But for parking issues, and the overall management of the games played there, Daytona Beach may have represented the best place to have the finals. The stadium size was adequate and the venue was centrally located. As I make the move to life elsewhere, Florida high school football will always be a very fond memory in my heart. I was blessed to be an Apopka fan during the period of the school's greatest success. My interest in the game at this level started in 1998 when a neighbor's son was on the Dr. Phillips roster. He looked up to me as an "alternate parent" and nagged me to come watch DP play from the beginning of the season that year. I told him if the team won its first five games I would attend game six. They did and I kept my promise and was hooked from there on. It helped that in 1999 my first son began high school and that in 2001 when Apopka won its first state title both my sons attended high school there.

They would not. Berkeley's run game is for real. Rick Darlington would agree with that statement and he knows something about run games. Norland had trouble all game stopping their running attack. I have watched Central of film 4 times this year. They would have had the same problems. Not saying Central wouldn't have won, but they would, if they did, have been in a dog fight. My guess is that BP improved significantly over the course of the season.

I did. The Lakeland vs Venice game last night, bore some similarities to the 2012 game. Wider margin of victory, but a game in which the offenses dominated the defenses for the most part.