Perspective

But if we're talking "population density," the I-4 corridor is more centrally located. 
As for your other question, Tropicana Field can indeed accommodate football.  Until last year, the annual Shrine Bowl (college all-star game) was played there.   The set-up is a little awkward and it's rather vacuous, but there is plenty of parking and it can be done. 
I'd rather see the game played at a cozier place like UCF's on campus stadium (or USF's once it is built).  I know the FHSAA has tried to stay away from 'college fields,' but I like the idea of playing all the games in one location (that needs to have artificial turf).  With nine games now being played, a Wednesday-Saturday format would work, especially if the Rural championship game was played elsewhere. 

But there's a whole 5-team district in the northern half of the state.  
Seriously, there are literally 5 teams in 1M north of I-4.   Every other team is from the Orlando GMA, Tampa Bay GMA or South Florida.  If a Tampa Bay team were to upset TCA, you could easily end up with a team from Tampa playing a team from South Florida (likely Chaminade) in Tallahassee. 
Snarky criticism aside, I'm guessing the FHSAA had to make a 2-year commitment to both Tallahassee and Ft. Lauderdale last year when they had to scramble after the Daytona fiasco.  They need to get back to Orlando.  

Article that discusses this issue:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/completely-unacceptable-famu-football-players-221653526.html

Honestly it should have stayed in Orlando or even Tampa. Centrally located and have lots of family oriented amenities 

Almost by definition, all of the teams are Metro.   The eight counties that make up Metro are:  Broward, Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Seminole.  So, if you're doing a Top 10 of South Florida teams (which is what this particular thread is), I'm not sure what you have other than teams in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach. 
If your point is that there aren't any other good teams in the state (or that there's few, if any teams, outside of South Florida that would crack into that Top 10 if the list were expanded to state wide), you may have a point . . . although I suspect there would be some argument there from folks who follow Lakeland, Buchholz, Niceville, Osceola and Venice. 
Personally, I think that the top 4S teams that I just mentioned could compete with the top 4M teams (Apopka, Seminole, Columbus, to name a few).  And while it's really not fair to 'compare' 3S with 3M or 2S with 2M (because the enrollment numbers for the four Metro classifications are not the same as for the four Suburban classifications), I think it's safe to say that the top teams in 2S (other than Cocoa) would have a difficult time beating the top teams in 2M (like Central, Bolles, Berkeley, CCC, TC, AHP, CG, Norland, etc.) and the top teams in 3S (other than, perhaps, Lincoln and, just to stay on CHF's good side, Columbia) would have a difficult time beating the top teams in 3M (like STA, Dillard, Jones, Armwood, TBT, Jesuit, etc.).  
So, while there may be a handful of really good teams in the Suburban group, the cream of the crop is definitely in Metro. 

My mistake didn't "SEE" South Florida. Still not a fan of the split, showing my prejudices. #oldfool

Almost by definition, all of the teams are Metro.   The eight counties that make up Metro are:  Broward, Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Seminole.  So, if you're doing a Top 10 of South Florida teams (which is what this particular thread is), I'm not sure what you have other than teams in Broward, Dade and Palm Beach. 
If your point is that there aren't any other good teams in the state (or that there's few, if any teams, outside of South Florida that would crack into that Top 10 if the list were expanded to state wide), you may have a point . . . although I suspect there would be some argument there from folks who follow Lakeland, Buchholz, Niceville, Osceola and Venice. 
Personally, I think that the top 4S teams that I just mentioned could compete with the top 4M teams (Apopka, Seminole, Columbus, to name a few).  And while it's really not fair to 'compare' 3S with 3M or 2S with 2M (because the enrollment numbers for the four Metro classifications are not the same as for the four Suburban classifications), I think it's safe to say that the top teams in 2S (other than Cocoa) would have a difficult time beating the top teams in 2M (like Central, Bolles, Berkeley, CCC, TC, AHP, CG, Norland, etc.) and the top teams in 3S (other than, perhaps, Lincoln and, just to stay on CHF's good side, Columbia) would have a difficult time beating the top teams in 3M (like STA, Dillard, Jones, Armwood, TBT, Jesuit, etc.).  
So, while there may be a handful of really good teams in the Suburban group, the cream of the crop is definitely in Metro. 

But there's a whole 5-team district in the northern half of the state.  
Seriously, there are literally 5 teams in 1M north of I-4.   Every other team is from the Orlando GMA, Tampa Bay GMA or South Florida.  If a Tampa Bay team were to upset TCA, you could easily end up with a team from Tampa playing a team from South Florida (likely Chaminade) in Tallahassee. 
Snarky criticism aside, I'm guessing the FHSAA had to make a 2-year commitment to both Tallahassee and Ft. Lauderdale last year when they had to scramble after the Daytona fiasco.  They need to get back to Orlando.  

Article that discusses this issue:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/completely-unacceptable-famu-football-players-221653526.html

Thanks for that because I wasn't going to dig for it.  Something doesn't smell right about that situation but I'll keep my personal opinions out until the REST of the story is revealed.  

Article that discusses this issue:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/completely-unacceptable-famu-football-players-221653526.html

I’m still here. Going on vacation for the entire month of September. If I make it back in one piece, I’ll try to catch up on the rankings. If not, I’ll be back in 2023.

I hear you.   Some schools just refuse to travel.   For some, it's about the economics - the money they make on a home game (even if they have to give a little of it away to entice an opponent to travel) vs. the money they don't make on a road game.  For others, it's just arrogance ("why should we travel and play you at your field?").   On the flip side, not every team can afford to travel.  No easy answers. 

I missed most of the first half, but from what I saw in the second half, the Columbia O-Line was having a very difficult time giving their QB time to set up and throw the ball.    The one time they did, the QB connected on a long bomb for a TD.  Other than that, I'm pretty sure #6 and #8 for the Bobcats spent more time in Columbia's backfield than Columbia's running backs did.  Speaking of Columbia's running backs, did they have any?  I know Columbia was trying to play catch-up in the second half, but I don't recall seeing a single running play (other than when the QB got flushed out of the pocket).  Did they try running the ball more in the first half?  In any event, and granted they were running downfield on a muddy field all second half, Buchholz's defense looked strong.  As did their O-line. 
The sequence with 4 minutes left in the game was bizarre.  Apparently, there was a disturbance out in the parking lot that resulting in the police using a taser.  (Do those things sound like gun fire from a distance?)   Somehow, the taser in the parking lot triggered a chain reaction, causing all the fans to leave the stadium and both teams to quickly leave the field.   Before leaving the field, however, all the Columbia players hit the dirt.   I haven't seen that many defenders lying on the ground at one time since the Florida/Miami game in 1971, when the Gators defense flopped to ground and gave up a meaningless TD at the end of the game in order to get the ball back one more time so that John Reaves could break Jim Plunkett's NCAA record for all-time passing yardage.  (Am I dating myself?).
Seriously, the saddest part of the night is when the announcers explained that the response from Columbia was practiced protocol in response to a shooting.   No politics here, but just terribly sad that players, coaches or fans have to worry about something like that happening on a Friday night at or near a high school football game. 

I hear you.   Some schools just refuse to travel.   For some, it's about the economics - the money they make on a home game (even if they have to give a little of it away to entice an opponent to travel) vs. the money they don't make on a road game.  For others, it's just arrogance ("why should we travel and play you at your field?").   On the flip side, not every team can afford to travel.  No easy answers. 

Last time I checked, those roads run in both directions.       Yeah, I know . . . a team north of Dade still has to agree to play the Dade team. 

I can't believe you would jinx your team like that. 

I hear you.   Some schools just refuse to travel.   For some, it's about the economics - the money they make on a home game (even if they have to give a little of it away to entice an opponent to travel) vs. the money they don't make on a road game.  For others, it's just arrogance ("why should we travel and play you at your field?").   On the flip side, not every team can afford to travel.  No easy answers. 

Yeah Columbia ran the ball a bit in the first half but it didn't have much success because just as the OL couldn't protect Tyler that well they also didn't create many running lanes as they struggled to block the 2 gator commits on the DL
 
 
So to explain what happened towards the end of the game, apparently what happened is a fight broke out near the Buchholz locker room on the home side and a officer on site used a taser to break the fight up, it resulted in all the fans in that area running and the first thought by the sideline was that it was a potential shooter which prompted the response
 
It may have been an overreaction but it's better to be safe than sorry but yes that was the practiced protocol but I'm not sure how often it's practiced because being on the sideline the movement was so chaotic and messy considering some just ran towards the endzone and others dropped to the ground, fortunately the situation was handled quickly and we were able to finish the game but I don't think it was necessary as they could have ended the game right then and I honestly thought they would because at that point nothing was gonna change with the game and I tuned out of the game when that happened and was just looking forward to getting out of there 

A Blast from the Past, the "Super Sophs"  John Reeves, Carlos Alvarez, and Mainland's own Touchdown Tommie Durrance (Another shameless "Homer" plug).

I missed most of the first half, but from what I saw in the second half, the Columbia O-Line was having a very difficult time giving their QB time to set up and throw the ball.    The one time they did, the QB connected on a long bomb for a TD.  Other than that, I'm pretty sure #6 and #8 for the Bobcats spent more time in Columbia's backfield than Columbia's running backs did.  Speaking of Columbia's running backs, did they have any?  I know Columbia was trying to play catch-up in the second half, but I don't recall seeing a single running play (other than when the QB got flushed out of the pocket).  Did they try running the ball more in the first half?  In any event, and granted they were running downfield on a muddy field all second half, Buchholz's defense looked strong.  As did their O-line. 
The sequence with 4 minutes left in the game was bizarre.  Apparently, there was a disturbance out in the parking lot that resulting in the police using a taser.  (Do those things sound like gun fire from a distance?)   Somehow, the taser in the parking lot triggered a chain reaction, causing all the fans to leave the stadium and both teams to quickly leave the field.   Before leaving the field, however, all the Columbia players hit the dirt.   I haven't seen that many defenders lying on the ground at one time since the Florida/Miami game in 1971, when the Gators defense flopped to ground and gave up a meaningless TD at the end of the game in order to get the ball back one more time so that John Reaves could break Jim Plunkett's NCAA record for all-time passing yardage.  (Am I dating myself?).
Seriously, the saddest part of the night is when the announcers explained that the response from Columbia was practiced protocol in response to a shooting.   No politics here, but just terribly sad that players, coaches or fans have to worry about something like that happening on a Friday night at or near a high school football game. 

I missed most of the first half, but from what I saw in the second half, the Columbia O-Line was having a very difficult time giving their QB time to set up and throw the ball.    The one time they did, the QB connected on a long bomb for a TD.  Other than that, I'm pretty sure #6 and #8 for the Bobcats spent more time in Columbia's backfield than Columbia's running backs did.  Speaking of Columbia's running backs, did they have any?  I know Columbia was trying to play catch-up in the second half, but I don't recall seeing a single running play (other than when the QB got flushed out of the pocket).  Did they try running the ball more in the first half?  In any event, and granted they were running downfield on a muddy field all second half, Buchholz's defense looked strong.  As did their O-line. 
The sequence with 4 minutes left in the game was bizarre.  Apparently, there was a disturbance out in the parking lot that resulting in the police using a taser.  (Do those things sound like gun fire from a distance?)   Somehow, the taser in the parking lot triggered a chain reaction, causing all the fans to leave the stadium and both teams to quickly leave the field.   Before leaving the field, however, all the Columbia players hit the dirt.   I haven't seen that many defenders lying on the ground at one time since the Florida/Miami game in 1971, when the Gators defense flopped to ground and gave up a meaningless TD at the end of the game in order to get the ball back one more time so that John Reaves could break Jim Plunkett's NCAA record for all-time passing yardage.  (Am I dating myself?).
Seriously, the saddest part of the night is when the announcers explained that the response from Columbia was practiced protocol in response to a shooting.   No politics here, but just terribly sad that players, coaches or fans have to worry about something like that happening on a Friday night at or near a high school football game. 

Lol you know what I thought about that after I typed it. But aye I still believe we’re gonna running clock that ass tonight lol. 
 
the creek boys say #DillardOnTheClock  so let’s get it lol

But to Skyway's point, who's going to disclose wrongdoings of a team they support? 

At this point, I really don't have a dog in the fight as far as high school football goes.  I certainly have no dog in this particular fight (i.e., whether a kid transferred to Lakeland or Osceola).    Like you, I'd love for us all to be honest about what goes on.   The way I read LakelandGator's post, he was telling the story of a QB was going to transfer and that the kid and his family were considering two possible options:  Lakeland and Osceola.  If I lived in the Lakeland/Winter Haven/Poinciana/Kissimmee area and had a kid who showed promise in football, and my kid was unhappy with his current school (for legit reasons), those two schools would certainly be high on my list as well. 
But then the post went a little further and implied that the kid and/or his family had visited both schools and spoken with both coaches.  This was done to deflect criticism that one of the schools was outwardly recruiting the kid.  But, in laying out the defense, I think LakelandGator inadvertently revealed knowledge of one of the secret truths that probably goes on every day across the state:  kids and their families privately/secretly have conversations with coaches from other schools when they are considering a transfer. 
Again, as I just said in my other post, I could make the argument that kids and their families should be allowed to reach out to coaches from other schools and discuss whether there is a mutual interest, a good fit, a similar philosophy, a need at a particular position, etc.     But, at present, that's not allowed.  The FHSAA considers this to be recruiting, just as if the coach had reached out to the kid or his parents. 
So, if this is the way it went down with this particular kid (i.e., he visited either or both schools and spoke with either or both coaches), who's going to step up and say "yeah, that's what happened" and run the risk that the kid is declared ineligible and "his team" gets hurt in the process?  Who's willing to be starkly honest about it? 
(Using my Jack Nicholson voice and paraphrasing just a bit):  "You want the truth, Skyway?  Can you handle the truth?"