Perspective

If this is a new prank, it almost makes the recent "tearing up the school bathroom" TikTok prank tolerable.

Solid effort, young buck. Better than mine would be.

Do our own poll??? Why in the world would we do that? It's much easier to just take shots at yours. All jokes aside, I suspect there is at least one board member among us who may have an issue with his school being ranked 19th.

From the article: "The 15-year-old student, whose brother had attended Miramar High but who attends another school, later told police she made the threat as a joke, the report said." Somebody is about to learn a cruel and/or expensive lesson about what's a joke and what's not. Some things just aren't funny.

Thanks for the insight. I asked if the game would be televised because that was really the only explanation I could think of as to why they would be playing on a Saturday afternoon instead of a Friday night. Saturdays are for college football games as far as I'm concerned. I did notice that Cardinal Gibbons played STA this past Saturday. Assuming that game was played as scheduled (and didn't roll over from a Friday night game because of bad weather), the CG coaches may have wanted to get in a full week of practice. The Saturday games catch up with you at some point, but CG plays a more pedestrian Flanagan the following Friday night, so they probably figured it was better to play them on a shorter week than Venice (and they wouldn't be wrong). By the way, it looks like it's about a 3 hour drive from Fort Lauderdale to Venice, so they'll either bus over on Friday (and perhaps do a walk through Friday afternoon), stay at a motel, play Saturday and then bus back or those CG boys, coaches and fans will be getting an early start Saturday morning.

Is this game being televised nationally? Why is it being played on a Saturday and why at 12:30 in the afternoon? Just curious.

What position did he play?

Looks a little like a 1950's mentality in a 2020's school setting. Honestly, in watching that video, I couldn't really tell if the coach's hands went up around the kid's neck. If they did, that's a big no-no. If the coach had kept his hands down on the kid's body, perhaps he would have a good argument that he was simply trying to deescalate the situation by moving the two kids apart from one another. Yeah, I know the current rules probably say "no physical contact/touching at all unless you are defending yourself," but I guarantee you that everyone on this board understands that coaches make some physical contact with kids on a daily basis (drills, hugs, separating kids about to go at one another, etc.). It's all about the context. Looks like his past history is coming back to haunt him a little, as well. This makes me wonder: what did people get away with before everyone had a phone with a camera? (Yes, I know this could open up a can of worms for a much bigger conversation, but I'd prefer not to go down that road right now).

I hadn't heard the story or seen the video. Here's an article that probably sums it all up: https://www.theledger.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2021/09/29/winter-havens-tate-resigns-head-football-coach/5923528001/

SubZero, not trying to hijack your thread or take anything away from the Miramar win (congrats on that) . . . but I gotta give Hallandale credit for finding a way to field a team and play games after everything they went through over the summer. I'm guessing their team is comprised of the handful of guys who stuck it out and guys who rightfully should be playing JV this year. In any event, kudos to their team for getting out there on Friday nights and competing.

Did Riverside (Lee) recruit any of the Columbia players to go back with them on the bus after the game?

That's exactly what he's saying, Jambun. Clearly, the folks in the stands 200 feet away could see the play better than a back judge or side judge a few yards away, even with other fans, cheerleaders, players, coaches, photographers and the chain gang obscuring their view. And then, after making the determination that the defender went out of bounds, the officials had the audacity to actually blow their whistles, to send a signal to everyone out on the field that the play was over (which may or may not have had anything to do with why the player who made the interception was able to continue into the end zone without much resistance). I wasn't there and I haven't seen film of the play, but it's pretty darn obvious to me that those refs just flat-out took that touchdown away from the kid -- they snatched it right out of his hands and off his highlight reel. The horror! Man, I hope those refs can live with themselves.

MaxPreps shows it as a home game for Dwyer, as well. (MaxPreps also shows it as an away game from Boca on Boca's schedule).

I'm thinking someone needs to do a well-check on Jesse.

Dude, (and I'm saying this to you in the respectful way that an older uncle might say it), chill out. I respect your passion and you are a knowledgeable young man. That doesn't mean that your opinion will always be shared by others. But try not to take everything so personally. Just a bit of unsolicited advice from someone who's been there before.

Almost 10 years . . . back to 2012 when the Knights went undefeated in their district and proceeded to win 3 playoff games, before losing a nail-biter to eventual state champion Tallahassee Godby, 24-20, in the state semi-finals. Of course, it hasn't helped Robinson much to be in the same district with Tampa Jesuit and Jefferson all those years.

With all due respect to both ColumbiaHF and Miami Central, if you can't finish better than 3rd in your district, you probably don't deserve to make it into the playoffs. CHF, to use your logic, it's unlikely that a team that doesn't make it to the SEC championship game is going to secure one of the four spots in the national champtionship playoffs - although it's possible. My point is simple: MC had two chances to at least be the district runner-up and didn't make it happen. However good they may have been in the past or the future, for that season, they weren't good enough to finish first or second in their district, so I'm OK with them being left out. If an occasional team with a losing record does make it in, they likely won't make it past the first round, so it basically gives the top seeded team(s) a relatively easy opening playoff game where they can rest some starters and play some second-teamers. Last, the biggest problem I have with the "rewards tough scheduling" concept is that some schools have very little control over the vast majority of their scheduling (i.e., if they're in a big district or in a county, like Hillsborough, where the County handles almost all of a team's scheduling). In addition, while the pundits and coaches may think they know which teams are likely to be good again when they're making up their schedules, when it comes to high school teams, it can be a roll of the dice. I'll give you this example just to make my point. Say you were a high school coach in South Florida and you were trying to beef up your schedule for 2021 because, you know, you want to increase your chances of having a higher RPI and getting home playoff games. So, last spring you reached out to Hallandale and scheduled them. How'd that turn out? I'm not necessarily opposed the RPI concept; but I don't like teams getting a huge advantage in the playoffs based on an RPI formula that has some serious issues.

So, here's the thing, within each Region, the four district champs make the playoffs and then the four teams (regardless of district) with the highest RPI's also make it. As a result, chances are you'll end up with the best 5 to 7 teams in the region plus one or two more "debatable" teams (and, like the NCAA basketball tournament every year, a couple of "debatable" teams will end up missing out, which then gives them the right to bitch and moan about the process for the next month). But, because the district champs make it, there's a high likelihood that the best couple of teams within each region make the playoffs and battle for the a spot in the final four. Now, here's my biggest issue with the RPI: in addition to being used to select the four "best" non-district winning teams in each region, it's also used to determine home-field advantage for every playoff game up to the championship game. In other words, the "officially terrible" formula determines whether a team gets a home playoff game or, alternatively, has to hop on a bus and travel 5-6 hours to play a game. In the absence of a more sophisticated formula, I would rather see the FHSAA go back to a system where home field games are determined in advance based on a systematic rotational basis.

PinellasFB, Florida's RPI formula is no secret at all. Per Rule 4.7.4 of the FHSAA Football Sport Manual, the RPI Ranking Calculation for a particular team is calculated by adding together the following three components: (1) that team's Winning Percentage (multiplied by .35), (2) that team's Opponent's Winning Percentage, [not including the game played against the team in question]* (also multiplied by .35), and (3) that team's Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage (multiplied by .30). * The part in brackets is not part of the rule, but that's the way the FHSAA does it. This explains why some teams' OWP was 1.000 a week or so ago.

STA losses over the last 10 years or so to in-state opponents: 2021 - Tampa Jesuit (24-21) 2020 - Cardinal Gibbons (17-10) 2019 - none 2018 - Central (43-27) and Lakeland (33-20) 2017 - Miramar (44-27) and Venice (27-20) (also lost to Centennial, AZ 12-0) 2016 - Booker T. Washington (27-23) (also lost to Bishop Gorman) 2015 - Deerfield Beach 2014 - None (but did lose to Don Boscoe, NJ) 2013 - Dillard (24-23), Miramar (22-20), Deerfield Beach (22-7) and Dwyer (35-28) 2012 - Miramar (also lost to Don Boscoe) 2011 - Miramar (27-20; OT), Cooper City, and Dwyer. Sorry, I forgot to write down a few of the scores. But, regardless of whether you count this year as part of "the last 5 years," or not, it looks like you're right either way (i.e., no more than six losses over a 5-year span).

Here's what I think Ray is saying: if you know you're in a district with a "team full of national recruits," and you know you've got that team on your schedule for late in the season, then perhaps you should try to schedule a game against a similar team earlier in the season - even if it costs your team an early-season loss. Sounds like Dillard did that to a certain extent with their KOC, but it would still have made sense to try to schedule one of the big boys (even an IMG) just to get the experience, pinpoint weaknesses, etc. If Dillard tried to do that and was unable, well, not much you can do about it because, as you have pointed out, you have no control over who your district opponents will be.

For what it's worth, I reached out to the FHSAA regarding the issue of whether an opponent's loss to the team whose RPI is being determined is reflected in the Opponents Winning Percentage. I heard back in less than an hour and they confirmed that it is not. I'm assuming the converse also is true (i.e., an opponent's win over the team whose RPI is being determined would not be reflected in the OWP either), but I have not confirmed this. So, using Venice as the example, when calculating Venice's OWP, the losses to Venice by Venice's opponents are not reflected in the RPI.

Jambun, why did you think the hypothetical was about you? Yeah, there's an old expression that if the shoe fits, wear it. But the hypothetical was simply intended to point out yet another unintended (presumably) consequence of the legislators' actions. Pointing out the things that might happen (and things which are happening) as a result of legislative changes is a classic way of pointing out the flaws of potential or existing legislation. So, if either were still alive, I think Darrow and Bailey would be just fine with what I wrote. You opted to put your opinion out there for the world to see. I respect that and I respect your opinion. I just happen to disagree with it.

The initial RPI Rankings are out for football. Per Rule 4.7.4 of the Football Sport Manual, the RPI Ranking Calculation for a particular team is calculated by adding together the following three components: (1) that team's Winning Percentage (multiplied by .35), (2) that team's Opponent's Winning Percentage (also multiplied by .35), and (3) that team's Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage (multiplied by .30). As of today, Venice's RPI Ranking is number 1 in the state. It's .89167, which is derived by adding (1) their Winning Percentage (1.000) times .35 equals .35000, (2) their Opponent's Winning Percentage (1.000) times .35 equals .35000 and (3) their Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage (.63889) times .30 equals .191667. Those three calculations do indeed total .89167. Here's where I'm struggling: if Venice is undefeated (which they are), their Winning Percentage is indeed 1.000. But, it's impossible for their Opponent's Winning Percentage to be 1.000. Venice's opponents have at least three collective losses because they all lost to Venice. Now, here's what I suspect someone will say: yo, the "Opponent's Winning Percentage" is based on all the games they have played except the games against the team whose RPI you're trying to figure out. Maybe that makes sense; maybe it doesn't. However, I looked over the FHSAA Handbook (including the Administrative Procedures), as well as the Football Sport Manual, and I could not find any mention of doing it this way. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Well, duh! Player movement will simply lead to greater disparity between the "have" teams and the "have not" teams, which will lead to more blow-out games. And running clock in the second half of games means the game officials get to go home early. (Wife to husband wearing a white hat: "What time will you be home tonight, dear?" Ref responds: "Well, I've got STA vs. Hallandale tonight, so I should be home by 9:00 . . . and probably won't even need to shower before going to bed.").