[Congratulations Cocoa Tigers]

46 minutes ago, Perspective said:

I need a refresher . . .  does the FHSAA continue to publish a Power Ranking now that the regular season is over and the brackets have been set?   What purpose, if any, would it serve (other than to generate further debate as to the unknown factors that are used to create it)?

No further points updates.  Seedings are 'redone' at the Final Four but based on the final season rankings.

[There is something fishy]

2 minutes ago, Perspective said:

Thank you, Airek.   I've seen this explanation several times on messages boards, but I've never seen anything on FHSAA letterhead or coming from an FHSAA email address to substantiate this position.  

My old AD was an FHSAA board member and gave those details.  The local radio crew also got same response from FHSAA.  I also think I saw it somewhere in a minutes from one of the FHSAA sessions, but whatever.

I liked the old RPI cause I could math it out within 2-3 decimals with a little leg work.  This just feels like the BCS all over.

[Congratulations Cocoa Tigers]

Congrats to Cocoa for the (should be) undefeated season and well-deserved #1.  Go win a title.

[There is something fishy]

3 minutes ago, Perspective said:

I could not agree more. 

Has anyone, to your knowledge, requested this information from the FHSAA -- a coach, a media person, a fan, anyone?  If so, was it done in writing?   And most importantly, did the FHSAA respond in writing?

 

Been requested many times by quite a few but denied as it is Max Preps 'proprietary formula' with margin of victory removed for FHSAA ratings.

[Teams with an Undefeated regular season]

Also Cocoa is undefeated, I don't care what the record says.

[Final Playoff Seedings/ 1st Round Matchups.]

Sunday at 10am is the youtube show for release. 

[Cocoa Appeal Officially Denied]

7 hours ago, Perspective said:

So, a handful of questions/observations for those who know (or think they know) the answers:

1.  Based on my time down on the field and up in the pressbox, the clock operator takes his cues/instructions from the game officials down on the field.  In other words, the clock operator starts the clock when he's told and stops the clock when he's told.  It is my understanding that any one of the officials can "stop" the clock (technically, signal to the clock operator to stop the clock) by waving/crossing their arms over their head.  Is this correct?

2.  Once the clock has been stopped, who signals that the game clock should begin running again?  The referee?  The official who marks the ball ready to play?  I believe the signal is one arm up in the air and then rotating the arm in a circle.  When I watched the ten-minute video of the last 2 minutes of the game, I'm not sure I ever saw any of the officials do this.  I'm not defending the clock operator, but if he's never instructed to start the clock, perhaps it's not his fault that the clock didn't start when it should have?

3. On/after the second down kneel down play, a flag is thrown.  Apparently, the flag was against STA (presumably, a dead ball personal foul), but I never saw the white hat signal the penalty.  Did I just miss that?  In any event, my understanding is that penalty does not result in an automatic first down. 

4.  After the officials mark off the penalty against STA, you can see one of the Cocoa coaches say something to the guy holding the down marker (I'm guessing he said something to the effect of "hey, that's an automatic first down"), so the guy holding the down marker switched the down from "3" to "1."   But, just before the play is run, the side judge turns her (I think it is a 'she') head and tells the guy holding the down marker to change it back to third down, which he does just before the ball is snapped.   

5.  After the second down play, and after the penalty was assessed against STA, shouldn't the clock have been running?  Yeah, I know this is one of Cocoa's main complaints.  Simple question:  after a running play (when the clock would normally continue to run) and after a dead ball penalty against the defense, the clock should stop to enforce the penalty, right?  But, once, the ball is marked ready to play, shouldn't the clock start running again?  Or to be more precise, shouldn't one of the officials on the field signal that the clock should start running again?  If there was confusion on this issue, the officials should have gotten together and discussed it.  The clock was already stopped, so neither team would have been disadvantaged by a quick conference and then re-spotting the ball for play. 

6.  General observation:  you can never rely on the scoreboard to reflect the correct number of timeouts that a team has left.  I have seen too many people misinterpret a mandatory water break for a timeout and erroneously make the change on the scoreboard.  That said, as a coach, you should absolutely be able to rely upon what an official tells you.  The fact that the scoreboard shows one or more timeouts left is irrelevant, but if a ref tells you that your team or the other team has a certain number of timeouts remaining, you should be able to take that to the bank. 

1)  Clock operator does not act independently, only with direction from on-field officials.  They're looking for exactly what you described, the 'stop clock' signal or 'wind clock' symbol.

2) For a dead ball, the white hat signals the restart of the clock.  They'll do this as part of the ready for play signal or when appropriate.

3) I think most clips skipped the signal, but either way, it would be a 15-yard dead ball penalty.  Not an automatic first down or enough yardage for a first down.  I have a feeling there was a communication breakdown with the down marker, but nothing 'wrong' there.

4) See above.  Remember the chain gang are home team volunteers and could have been getting conflicting info from a variety of sources.  It is officials job to ensure it is correct.

5) 100% the clock should have been running.  In the Cocoa/STA game, if you look on that second down play, the referee signals ready for play, but never continues the action to start the clock.  That was VERY wrong.  Clock should have been started before the ready for play actually.  If you don't do that, then every defense will just go headhunting for a penalty.  The normal you'll see is signaling the penalty and then winding the clock right then, followed by shortly after giving the 'ready for play' signal which starts the play clock.  They gave an advantage and incentive to the defense to get a penalty, which paid off with an undeserved victory.  It is 100% officials job to ensure this DOESN'T happen and they didn't.  When I've seen similar in nearly same situations, ref wound the clock after announcing penalty, which hurt defense further, as it should, because otherwise you encourage dangerous, penalty-seeking play.

6) Never trust anything on the scoreboard besides the clock.  Everything else on the scoreboard is optional to put in, and often is done by a home-team volunteer, a.k.a. unofficial.  When you want to know timeouts, ask the official, they will tell you.  I can guarantee someone on Cocoa sideline looked at scoreboard, but I can also guarantee you someone asked the official.  Either way, the timeout shouldn't have mattered and was factored into the kneel-down decision.

Also, the 12 men on the field... STA lined up with 14, one ran off quickly, the 13th was possibly off, but real close and I doubt there's a definitive view of on/off out there, but the 12... GOOD LORD.  They did the whole play with 12, not one running off and close but literally 12 on the field.  You can watch the replay of that and Cocoa HC twitter shot to see it clear as day.  That's illegal participation, which while it wouldn't have been a first down, it would have been a replay of 4th with a winding clock, therefore Cocoa win.

 

In the end, where this really comes into play is the final rankings and what seeding Cocoa gets in the playoffs.  Will they miss a home playoff game or two because of this?  That's money for the program/school, prestige, community, etc. that they could miss out on when they earned the win.  No matter what FHSAA says, Cocoa won that fair & square and should be counted as having the win.  At the end of the season, we may revisit this depending on seeding.  I hope Cocoa isn't hurt by this and it just motivates them further.

[Merritt Island vs Miami Central]

2 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

They played a horrible schedule. Rockledge is overrated. Ducked Cocoa. I don’t think they beat a team ranked in the top 500 nationally. 
 

They got dusted by a bad Cairo team. 3 touchdowns. The game was a laugher from start to finish. Made it look like Florida teams don’t know what the hell they’re doing. 

I don’t care how MI is built. And I highly doubt they are 3rd in appearances. Can you post the link 

Didn’t duck Cocoa, they just had them in kickoff classic. Half the games they played were against teams in the top 100 in Florida. 
 

As for the Cairo game, it was by far their worst game played. Combined that with the worst officiating about ever and you get a loss. Also, I’ve never heard of a principal walking onto the field to talk to the white hat to ask for a fair game, but that happened during that game it was so bad. 
 

I looked and for some reason the FHSAA didn’t include it in the latest update to the results archive. They were tied for #2 until missing 2 years ago if I remember correctly. 
 

No matter what, those kids fought hard, DESERVED to be there, and shouldn’t be disparaged in any way. And again, it’s a team built just from kids from a little 35,000 population island, not hand-picked kids from all over south florida. 

[Merritt Island vs Miami Central]

7 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

The fact that Merritt Island can make a final is a travesty. it’s a black eye and stain on the FHSAA. Teams like this should be getting booted out in the 1st and 2nd round of a real playoff. Not playing freaking Sebring for the right to make state. The classes are WAAAAAAYYYYY too watered down. We need to consolidate and do it now!!! 

Saying what you said is a travesty. Those kids played a tough schedule, had to play 2 teams twice, didn’t lose to an in-state team until the final, and if you take out the 3 mins at end of the first half, it would of been a 2 score game. Also, that is a TEAM at MI, not a built squad. Don’t try to take anything away from them. 
 

Additionally, Merritt Island is 3rd in the state in playoff appearances. Brevard has some of the best, most consistent, and well-performing teams in the state, but always is overlooked cause we’re not ‘big.’ Brevard had the state’s top rusher, top kicker, and a heck of a lot of great kids. 

[State Championships are set]

I’d love to hear an explanation for why the 5A title game is at 1PM on a Friday. Also, why does it seem 5A gets shafted every year?

It can’t be for money because you’ve got a Miami team that would do well during an evening or Saturday game, Merritt Island travels very well, but you’re making that difficult. 
 

You can’t say it’s for the students; that’s exams time so the student body can’t go, and they can’t even live stream cause you know…exams. 
 

Why not Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, & 2 games Saturday? Why put Merritt Island, Central, and everyone that wants to attend or watch into a bind? 

[Playoff breakdown by county]

2 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

The fact that Sebring and Merritt Island can make a state semi final is a travesty and a mockery of HSFB. This is definitive proof that the classes are way too watered down and the FHSAA has to intervene. Something has got to be done. At some point someone has to call out the greed. I get consolidating classes will lessen the amount of playoff games as a whole and that where a chunk of the money gets laundered to the FHSAA big wigs. But come on. Do they really need the 2022 Maseratis and Mercedes? Can’t that meet in the middle. Get the old 2021, and cut the classes for more competitive playoffs. Sometimes you have to sacrifice 

I'm sorry did you just say the #1 seeded team in 5A shouldn't be in the playoffs?  A team with the second or third most playoff appearances in state history?  Right...

 

Also if anything they should split the private & public schools in playoffs.  Everyone should be going on the same rules (at least on paper).