Perspective

Actually, because of the blind draw, these two teams will play each other in a play-in game . . . which Madison naturally will win.

Again, I think the goal was to give everybody a chance to play football games this fall without having to worry about teams playing a specific number of games against specific opponents, determining district champions and reconciling RPI's for the teams that were adversely affected in different ways by Covid. And, of course, to maintain membership. Will there be inequities? Absolutely. Will there be playoff football? It appears so. In 2020, that's a fair trade off as far as I'm concerned.

Buchholz > Fletcher

Sounds like the Jones/Wekiva game was a decent game . . . if you agree that a one-point win in OT makes for a decent game. Jones 42-41 (OT). Link to the game story: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/highschool/football/os-sp-hs-wekiva-jones-20201016-mqxm7nxwyrhjdhvceqyfysyzua-story.html

In other words, DarterBlue wants the inside scoop! He wants to know what the F is going on!!

BlackMagic, I could be wrong, but here's the way I'm reading the FHSAA brackets (in all cases, the winner of Region 1 plays the winner of Region 2 and the winner of Region 3 plays the winner of Region 4): In 8A, the winners of Regions 2 and 3 will host the state semifinal games. In 7A, the winners of Regions 1 and 3 will host the state semifinal games. In 6A, the winners of Regions 2 and 4 will host the state semifinal games. In 5A, the winners of Regions 1 and 4 will host the state semifinal games. In 4A, the winners of Regions 2 and 3 will host the state semifinal games. In 3A, the winners of Regions 2 and 3 will host the state semifinal games. In 2A, the winners of Regions 1 and 3 will host the state semifinal games. In 1A, the winners of Regions 1 and 4 will host the state semifinal games.

I think if you were to pose this question to the FHSAA, they would say that this is exactly what they already have done. I wasn't there, so I don't know if it actually happened this way, but I think that's what they would say.

I'm so confused . . . where the heck have ColumbiaFan and Jesse been all day??? Doesn't Columbia play MadCo tonight? They must both be nervous!

We can nit-pick all we want regarding the playoff format. Heck, we do that no matter what the format is. But at least we have one this year. Whether intended or not, by instituting a playoff system that allowed every team that 'opted in' to make the playoffs, I think a lot more teams chose to stay in than might otherwise have been the case. And by "stay in," I mean both stay in the regular season and stay in the FHSAA. And those who 'opted out' will, presumably, receive the benefit of extra games. But I give the FHSAA credit for coming up with a system on the fly during a time in August when it wasn't clear that there would even be a football season. Just so that I'm clear, my only observation/criticism has to do with what the FHSAA said they were going to do and what they actually did do. They said the brackets were going to be completely random. When I looked at the 7A and 8A brackets, they didn't look random to me. Last night I read that they FHSAA stated that they used a "computer program" and then did "coin flips" ahead of time to determine the home team and visiting team for each game. I can buy the coin flip explanation, although I'm pretty sure there's been a computer program for that since, oh, I don't know, perhaps since the second or third computer program was written. Admittedly, it has been quite a while since I took my one and only computer class. But, I seem to recall that how you set the program up (and what information gets considered) goes a long way in determining what comes out the back end. If the program took into account team records, team power rankings, team geographic locations, team performances in prior years, or any other factors other than how to spell the team's name, then it wasn't truly a random process. What's the old adage? Don't pee on my back and tell me it's raining. Just be transparent. That's all I'm asking.

Initially, I believe FHSAA did state that the home team for each round would be determined by coin flip. However, perhaps in response to the national coin shortage, they decided that the 'random blind-draw' process was just as random as a coin flip. And, yes, it appears that Wakulla gets to stay at home all the way to the State Finals if they can beat Pensacola Pine Forest. Good luck!

The brackets feed teams into either the top line or the bottom line. At that point, it's predetermined who the home team is and who the visiting team is. Similar to the way they used to do it. Big difference is that there is no provision that prevents a team from hosting multiple home games or saves a team from having to play multiple away games. I haven't looked at the brackets closely enough on the home team/visiting team issue, but I understand there is a possibility that a school could play as many as 4 home games in a row or 4 away games in a row. In any event, I think it's pretty easy to pull up the brackets and determine where your school would play a certain game if it were to advance.

Tampa Plant was forced to cancel its scheduled game with Steinbrenner tomorrow night because of Covid. No word on whether the game will be rescheduled.

Yeah, I figured that part of it out. ("Well, it looks like I already have an answer. For those regions that have more than 16 teams in them, there will be another round of play-in games the week of Nov. 6th to determine the 16 teams that will play in the play-in games on Nov. 13th.") What I haven't figured out is how the 'computer-generated blind draw' basically came out with the the same brackets (at least in 7A and 8A) as if the teams had been seeded (with one notable exception where Dr. Phillips have to travel to Miami to play Palmetto in the opening round). I'm guessing records were somehow factored into the computer and Palmetto's 0 - 0 record caused this first round match-up to occur.

Josh, were you involved in the process at all? I don't want to be unduly critical, but I'm having an extremely hard time believing that the brackets are the result of a "computer-generated blind draw." See my comments on the "Playoffs" thread for a more thorough explanation. I'm willing to accept that the results were determined by a computer, but it would appear that the computer got some instruction along the way (perhaps based on rankings or power ratings of some sort). Do you have any information you can share?

And just to be clear, I have nothing against seeded brackets. It's probably the fairest way to do it. But, it's not the way that the FHSAA said they were going to do it. More importantly, if they changed their mind on how to set it up and chose to go with a seeded bracket instead of random, they should have waited until the end of the season (or at least the end of October) to do that -- especially this year. A lot can change in 4 weeks. And don't even try to convince me I'm wrong about that!

8A looks about the same (again, numbers in parenthesis represent current state rankings by this site): Region 1 - Lines up for a regional final between Bartram Trail (5) in the top half of the bracket and the winner of the showdown between Seminole (3) and Deland (9) in the bottom half of the bracket. Region 2 - Apopka (1) starts with a bye, then gets the winner of Winter Park vs East Ridge, on their way to a regional finals game against a team not good enough to crack the top 15 at this point in the season. Region 3 - OK, we finally see something interesting in the top half of this bracket, although I'm not sure how random it is. In the first round, Dr. Phillips (8) is scheduled to play Miami Palmetto (2). This could be because Palmetto, while ranked 2nd, is currently win-less. They're also currently loss-less. They haven't played a game. Their record is 0 - 0. But they apparently opted in, so they're in the bracket. Whoever wins that brutal first game will also have to get by Treasure Coast (6) to make it to the regional finals. Waiting in the bottom half of the Region 3 bracket likely will be Vero (7), assuming they can pick up the two relatively easy wins to get them there -- but they are playoff games -- and not regular season games -- so who knows? Regions 4 - Teams that are ranked (or First Five out) all got byes (Steinbrenner, Newsome and Osceola), but once they all start playing, this one sets up for a Steinbrenner (10) vs. Osceola (4) regional finals game. Again, this one looks a whole lot like a seeded tournament, with top seeds getting byes and, with the one possible exception of Dr. Phillips vs. Miami Palmetto in the first round, top seeds getting the easier paths to the regional finals. And other than the one aboration, I don't see any situations where the "two best teams in the region" play each other in an opening round game -- with or without a bye. In short, it doesn't look very random to me. Convince me I'm wrong.

I just took a quick look at 7A. In Region 1, Fleming Island (8) wouldn't face Niceville (7) until the Regional Finals. In Region 2, Edgewater (2) wouldn't play Mitchell (9) until the Regional Finals. In Region 3, Lakeland (3) would likely play the winner of the Bloomingdale (4) vs. Armwood (6) rematch in the Regional finals. And in Region 4, University of STA (1) , with a first-round bye, would have to get passed Manatee (10) to face Venice (5) in the Regional finals. The numbers in parenthesis represents the teams current state ranking. In all cases, the only time a ranked team would play another ranked team before the regional finals is if more than two ranked teams are in the same region (like Region 3). In short, and based solely on 7A, it looks a whole lot like the FHSAA went with a seeded tournament (based on records and rankings after 3 or 4 games) than the random, 'pick from a hat format' format that they said they were going to use. Here I am . . . convince me otherwise.

So, you're asking the organization that didn't even want to televise their last board meeting (arguably, the most important meeting they've ever had) to be transparent?

I'm curious what experience the schools running the single wing have had with transfers from skill players (namely QB's and WR's)? Or do the really promising, young QB's and WR's just not show up at schools who run this offense?

Every other team in 1A.

So, when I first saw this, my response was similar to some of the other responses: how can the FHSAA not have thought about this possibility, whether they consider it a hypothetical situation or not? I'm still leaning this way. However, when I re-read the answer, it occurs to me that the FHSAA simply does not want to announce a bright-line rule at this point. Instead, they want to be able to deal with each situation on a case-by-case basis. If a single player on a team's active roster tests positive, should it matter whether the kid was a starter or a kid who's coming off an injury who really wasn't around most of the team? If you have a bright-line rule that a positive test equals a forfeit no matter what, would that prevent a parents' club from raising the money to have every kid on team tested on Wednesday or Thursday of their next game week to see whether that team has any other positive test results? If not, then the game could go on. I suspect I could come up with at least 20 or 30 different scenarios and my guess is that the FHSAA simply doesn't want to lock itself into an answer for each and every scenario that is presented at this point. Again, I see both sides. A bright-line rule announced ahead of time takes all the potential politics out of the decision-making process, but it might also take away common sense solutions. It might also inadvertently encourage schools to be less than forthright with the state if they happen to get some positive news of the negative variety.

try this link: https://fhsaa.com/sports/2020/1/28/FB_classifications.aspx

As I understand it, they wanted to reclassify Madison County to 3A, but Jesse wouldn't let them.

Well, it looks like I already have an answer. For those regions that have more than 16 teams in them, there will be another round of play-in games the week of Nov. 6th to determine the 16 teams that will play in the play-in games on Nov. 13th.

I almost titled this "Playoffs (using my Jim Mora voice)." LOL.