Perspective

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. 

Let's also not forget George Jenkins was the founder of Publix, which has very fine deli sandwiches.  If we're ranking teams based on the quality of sub sandwiches made by grocery stores founded by alumni, George Jenkins will DOMINATE all others. 

I'm headed out of town bright and early tomorrow morning and will be out the rest of the week with questionable Internet service/availability, so, much to my chagrin, I've got to get my picks in early.   I'll miss out on those last-minute injury updates, suspensions, etc.  Nevertheless, here are my picks (subject to change on Sunday when I text NoleBull . . .  apparently that's a thing):
 Norland (Thursday)
Cocoa
Carrollwood Day
Miami Palmetto
Jesuit
Venice
South Sumter
American Heritage Plantation
Palm Beach Central
Titusville
 
For Cribboy, I'll take Western and the 90 points for 500 Dollars (real or Monopoly - your choice). 

Sumner's starting QB was out for the game with an ankle injury. I know injuries are a part of the game but If Gregg plays, Sumner wins by three touchdowns, easy.

Do I hear 60?  

If you are referring to me you are certainly in the ballpark.

Maybe 50

Multiple choice response:
A. Aren't we all swamped?
B. Was that text sent this morning?
C. So, the guy who runs the website had time to text you, but not the time to type the same team names into the thread?
D.  OK, cool. 

Multiple choice response:
A. Aren't we all swamped?
B. Was that text sent this morning?
C. So, the guy who runs the website had time to text you, but not the time to type the same team names into the thread?
D.  OK, cool. 

After watching them play us, I believe Rockledge also has trouble sustaining offense vs good defense.  They hardly moved the ball on us all game until the final game winning drive.  That was aided by 2 penalties of the 15-yard variety and a great or lucky play (depending on who you were rooting for) by the QB to avoid a sack and convert a crucial 4th down near the redzone to keep the drive alive.  Against good defensive teams I think they will struggle.  Their annual rivalry at years end vs Cocoa won't be close.  Just advising as a friend to not catch the same ailment apparently Darter has for APK.

I texted him last night telling him he forgot his picks and he said oh Shit, perspective is never gonna let me live this down. I said don’t worry about it. Just give me your picks and I’ll post them. I promised him you wouldn’t bring it up, so please delete this post 

And then he doesn't even get his picks in?  

And then he doesn't even get his picks in?  

And then he doesn't even get his picks in?  

Sumner got beat by Durant last night.   28-27.

Sumner got beat by Durant last night.   28-27.

Sumner got beat by Durant last night.   28-27.

Weird, phone seemed to be working fine 2 hours later when you started the thread between CMD vs CC?

My phone went dead which is why I stopped updating abruptly.
but the score was 14-6 Aquinas at the half. 
 
21-6 aquinas leading into the fourth. Miramars defense gave sta fits the first half but couldn’t capitalize on good field position in the first half. & both sta fumbles were recovered by the home team. 
 
4th quarter sta put the nail int coffin with a touchdown from the 20 yard line which put them up 28-6. Added a field goal soon after which made it 31-6. With 1 min left in the game Miramar was trying to put a final score on the board & ended up throwing a pick 6 right to a sta defender which made it 38-6. 
 
great game in the first half vs a national ranked opp miramar offense jus couldn’t get going after that first drive TD. The defense kept them in it as long as they could.

Good:  Palm Harbor U. 5-1 (6-0 if they could defend a hail mary), Tarpon Springs (4-1)
Bad:  MNW (wtf), Lakewood (wtf), Kissimmee Osceola (injuries+tough schedule)

I would change to a promotion/relegation system for all team sports based on the previous 4 years of MaxPreps rankings. 
Top 32 in 7A - no districts, all teams make playoffs, required to schedule 70% against other 7A teams
Next 32 in 6A - no districts, all teams make playoffs, required to schedule 70% against other 6A teams
Next 64 in 5A - 8 districts of 8 teams, 32 teams in the playoffs (District Champs and Wildcards based on North/South)
Next 64 in 4A - 8 districts of 8 teams, 32 teams in the playoffs (District Champs and Wildcards based on North/South)
Next 128 in 3A - 16 districts of 8 teams, 32 teams in the playoffs (District Champs and Wildcards based on North/South)
Next 128 in 2A - 16 districts of 8 teams, 32 teams in the playoffs (District Champs and Wildcards based on North/South)
Rural Division (with a small caveat that the best rural schools will temporarily move up and switch with the worst "rural" school who just happens to be too big to Rural Division
If we need more classifications, they will be 128 team classes.
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Individual Sports (Swimming, Golf, Cross Country, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Track and Field)
- State would be divided up into areas based on geography. School size would not matter, best 4 athletes move on. There would be requires for Area, Super Areas, and maybe Super Super Area before the state championships.
- Individual Sports that have a team element (Track and Field) would be required to have athletes compete in all events. No longer can you win a state championship in Track because you have 2 athletes that enter 5 events each and are just better. You need depth and variety. So if your school only does hurdles, long jump, and triple jump, well you better start recruiting those hallways for a javelin throw an a kid who can run 3200m.
- Wrestling already does this, but weightlifting, swimming, and track would add it.
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Assuming I was wealthy enough to fund all this, I am providing travel and food reimbursement for any school (team sport) traveling over 2 hours for a mandatory game. If the trip requires an overnight stay, we are paying for the rooms for the limited roster. 
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Coaches caught actively recruiting are done in the state forever.
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Find a way to have a single location for all state championships. I know Orlando is centralized, but I want all sports state champions (baseball, football, basketball, etc) in one city. Some city that could use the financial boost, but also handle the rush. 
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Baseball playoffs would be 1 game a week until regional finals, which would be best of 3.
Additionally, regional finals games would be played at semi-neutral fields/courts where there would be several games of different classifications played at the same time.

How old are you? either you’re way too old to be here or way too young. No inbetween
I do have another theory But i fear I may be kicked off the board if I say. 

For the sake of argument, if Manatee and Buchholz both go undefeated, then strength of schedule would be the deciding variable for seeding purposes.  At this point, Buchholz has had the stronger schedule to date, and likely will have the higher strength of schedule rating based on opponents for the rest of the season.
But remember that the 4 remaining teams are re-seeded after the regional finals, so #1 hosts #4, and #2 hosts #3.  So as long as you are one of the 2 highest ranked teams after the regional finals, you will host a state semifinal, with the state final in Tallahassee.
My conclusion is that an 8-2 (or worse) team can never overcome a 10-0 for the #1 overall seed, regardless of their respective strength of schedules.  A 9-1 team could conceivably overcome a 10-0 team for the overall #1 seed with a significant enough differential in their strength of schedules (although it did not happen last year in the 8 classifications where that was possible). 
So your best bet is going undefeated and hope everyone else loses at least one game.  The computer does not care that Venice or Lakeland are really good teams, it looks objectively at the fact that they lost multiple games.
And transparency would be wonderful. 

Jambun, Personal Foul .....No more "french fries" for you !

My point was that through the regular season, Apopka did not play like a team that was the best in 8A. Yes, one of the losses was to American Heritage Plantation by a small margin and that team went on to win a state title by a dominant amount. But they also lost, convincingly, to West Orange during the regular season. And they lost on the final play of the game to a good, but not state caliber Edgewater in the final regular season game. In short, none but the most rabid Apopka faithful would have thought they were going to win a state championship. Even though a lot of talent was on the roster, the team was not playing like a championship team. 
Lakeland most certainly has not sunk to the nadir Apopka sunk to in 2014. Well, guess what? The playoffs came and the team woke up. They drilled West Orange 42-0 in the second round then went on the road and beat a very loaded First Coast team 64-48 at their place. 
Lakeland was in the game almost to the end of both their losses. The talent is clearly there. If the kids and the staff really want to win it all, they can if they have right attitude. There is only so much advantage home field confers. And most officiating crews, even if they have a bias towards the home team, don't systematically "steal" the game for the home team. I hope that Lakeland's staff is not sowing the seeds of doubt in the players the way you are on this message board. For if they are, there season will most certainly end sometime during the playoffs. From what I have seen of them so far, it  does not have to be their destiny to exit early.