Perspective

Well you have correctly pointed out that I am making some assumptions and what I am assuming is that they are employing a strategy of using high profile sports (almost always football and/or basketball) as a means to promote their school and improve its profile.  Starting a football team is fine and drawing upon the student body and maybe try to convince some local kids to come there is not shady.  The part about going from 8-man football to an 11-man powerhouse in a short time is the suspect part.  Recruiting athletes is always the shady part of the deal because high profile athletes always need some sort of incentive to come to your tiny school.  These international 4 and 5 star athletes could play anywhere.  If you are that great of an athlete, even if new to the sport, any team in the country will accommodate you.  They are being drawn to tiny CAI in downtown Clearwater with hardly anything else to offer (have you seen their campus?) for a reason.  That is definitely something that causes me some suspicion.
Anyway, nobody has to win the internet and your take isn't wrong either.  I am done with my soap box because I'm beating a dead horse here.

Per their own website, CAI was founded in 1984.  Per Wikipedia, CAI was formed in 1997 when three schools (Jefferson Academy, A to Be School and Renaissance Academy )all merged.   My guess is that they are using the 1984 foundation date of whichever one of those three schools was founded first.  In any event, they started 6-man football in 2008, 7-man in 2012, 8-man in 2014 or 15 and 11 man in 2016.  
Clearly there was a school before there was football.   And I suspect there would be a school even if they stopped playing football . . . but the composition of the small student body would change significantly. 

For the record, I'm agnostic on the question of whether a school like this is good or bad. But, I do think we need to be honest about what they are, and what they are not. And, I'm not sure the politicians or voters who approve of private school vouchers approve of intentionally giving them to international students who otherwise would never show up anywhere near the state of Florida for school. 

So, if they're not associated with the FHSAA and they don't have to play by FHSAA rules, why are they playing teams that are associated and do play by FHSAA rules?   If memory serves me correct, when a Florida team wants to play an out-of-state game, they can only play against teams that are part of an official state athletic association.   Why is it any different for playing a team in state?
So, CAI can recruit.  They can provide housing for athletes.  They don't have to meet academic requirements.  There is no age limit.  Essentially, it's a remote Canadian all-star team playing down here where the weather is nice and playing against teams that can't do any of those things.   So how does a game against CAI factor into another teams power index/ranking?
Serious question:  can Bradford High School schedule a game against the Raiford Prison All-Star Team (it would probably need to be an away game for BHS)? 

Just curious . . .  how does a small school in Pinellas County, Florida, go about attracting kids from Canada and Europe?

So, I ask my question again:  how are they 'focusing' on international players?  How are kids from around the globe finding out about and developing an interest in attending CAI?  I'm genuinely curious.  

I have asked that question many times (on this site and others).   It just doesn't make sense to me. 

"The school receives public funding through voucher and tax credit scholarship programs as per a 2017 Huffington Post investigation where it was disclosed the school received more than $500,000 in taxpayer money for student scholarships between 2012–2016."
(compliments of Wikipedia)
 
Founded in 1984 Serves grades Preschool through 12th Grade, starting at age 2 Open all year and enrolling year-round Current enrollment is 250 7 to 1 student-to-facutly ratio Over 50 international students Over 23 countries represented (compliments of CAI's own website)
TUITION
Annual Tuition  – $13,345.00
International Annual Tuition – $16,800.00
(also from CAI's website)

Just curious . . .  how does a small school in Pinellas County, Florida, go about attracting kids from Canada and Europe?

I'm back in town, but swamped.  So, I'll have my picks to you by Saturday noon (and I promise I won't look at any of the scores from Friday night).  

Precedent has been set, hard for him to say no. I sense a deep objection followed by an appeal coming here!

The Reverend @nolebull813, now that has an interesting ring to it! LOL!!!

Also could use point differential in district games if you don't want the RPI format to decide it 
Anything better than what the FHSAA has on the table currently

I'm back in town, but swamped.  So, I'll have my picks to you by Saturday noon (and I promise I won't look at any of the scores from Friday night).  

I'm back in town, but swamped.  So, I'll have my picks to you by Saturday noon (and I promise I won't look at any of the scores from Friday night).  

@Perspective you have 5 more minutes to get your picks in starting 5 minutes ago. 
 
Everyone else, Thursday by 6 please 

I generally agree.  
Quick question:  how would you handle two-team and three-team ties?   Head-to-head ?   This would work for a two-team tie, but what about those situations where A beats B, B beats C and C beats A?  If both/all the teams would otherwise make the playoffs, we're only talking about seeding (but it could be the difference between getting a 4 seed and hosting a game vs. getting the 8th seed and playing the number 1 seed on the road).  But there could also be situations where only the district winner makes the playoffs and the other one or two teams would not.  I think I'd rather see a 1-quarter playoff on a Monday than have the 'who makes the playoffs and who doesn't' decision left to the computers. 

I generally agree.  
Quick question:  how would you handle two-team and three-team ties?   Head-to-head ?   This would work for a two-team tie, but what about those situations where A beats B, B beats C and C beats A?  If both/all the teams would otherwise make the playoffs, we're only talking about seeding (but it could be the difference between getting a 4 seed and hosting a game vs. getting the 8th seed and playing the number 1 seed on the road).  But there could also be situations where only the district winner makes the playoffs and the other one or two teams would not.  I think I'd rather see a 1-quarter playoff on a Monday than have the 'who makes the playoffs and who doesn't' decision left to the computers. 

Here are the states that use the current Florida model for selecting/seeding playoff teams:  Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina.  These are some of the states that use large districts, head-to-head, decide-it-on-the-field process for selecting/seeding playoff teams:  Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama.  Which group has more in common with Florida?  It's not that hard, but Florida is going in the opposite direction.   

He retiring so he can work on his new baby accessory line.  

You may be, or may not be more qualified than anyone on this board, but either way you really need to get over yourself. Coaches make mistakes (ask Cristobal) and referees, being HUMAN, do as well. If you are unwilling to concede that, you are absolutely delusional.
And no one needs your stamp of crotchety approval.

Personally, I think we ought to just call it a day and end the season now. 
Oh, and any tiebreakers should be decided by who got their picks in the earliest this past week.  
All kidding aside, my only concern with 2 and 3 is that the regular season results become meaningless (aside from "making the playoffs").  There's no reward for regular season performance - no home-field advantage, if you will.  (Perhaps you could spot the higher seed with one point to serve as the tie-breaker).   Yeah, yeah, I know that probably won't fly with the rest of the group, but that's what happens when you try to come up with a solution midway through the season; folks have a way of voting based on what's beneficial to them when the vote is cast.  Kinda like Congress. 
At the end of the day, I don't really care.  I've just got to hope my guessing streak and my lucky 'flipping quarter' continue to pay dividends for me. 

Well i was a male stripper and know more about exposing than anyone on this board so please leave the exposing stuff up to me.

@Jambun82 there was no need to post this three times. I am not dimwitted. I also happened to be at that game. I will keep my opinion of the officiating to myself. 

This is almost 40 years ago.  Things were so vastly different back then.  The private schools had not yet invested into athletics (for the most part) to enhance their school's profile so most of their players were rich white kids.  I remember playing against Bishop Verot and Cardinal Mooney back then and laughing at these kids trying to catch our speedy skill players.  The public schools had strict transfer rules so they were at the mercy of whichever group of kids were moving through their system at any given four-year interval.  That's why schools would rise and fall a few times per decade.  The traditional public powers were a little more resistant to the down periods because they tended to be in a talent rich areas but even they would miss the playoffs some years.
Fast forward to today and the only time you see a public power down is if they had forfeits or suffered from a mass transfer exodus out (see Lakewood this year... live by the sword, die by the sword).  The privates never have down years and load up on kids who probably wouldn't be attending their schools without a free ride.  Non-powers develop kids only to see them get stolen once they are productive, repeating their cycle of staying down and the powers staying up.