Dr. D

Local paper says that Thompson does not plan to coach anywhere this year. Intel seems to confirm that he is leaving for "personal reasons". In any event, this opening should attract a lot of interest as it is probably the most desirable position in the panhandle.

My favorite part of this move is the young man's honesty in his X announcement, "I have decided to attend Lakeland Senior High School this coming spring and fall". Leaves a way out to go to yet another school in 2026 if things don't work out this year. I don't blame the young man; he is just doing what the system allows; wish him the best. Now somebody convince me that this type of activity is good for Florida high school football at large.

An example is a player who transferred to Somerset-Canyons after playing the first two games of the 2024 regular season with Palm Beach Central. According to the FHSAA, a student may participate in a sport at his/her new school if the student participated in that same sport at another school during that school year, if the student meets one of the following criteria: (a) Dependent children of active-duty military personnel whose move resulted from military orders. (b) Children who have been relocated due to a foster care placement in a different school zone. (c) Children who move due to a court-ordered change in custody due to separation or divorce, or the serious illness or death of a custodial parent. (d) Authorized for good cause in district, private or charter school board policy. I suspect the bar for "good cause" is pretty low. If a parent applies for a transfer for his/her son, it seems unlikely that anyone in a position of authority is going to seriously question the parent's motivation.

Student eligibility is described in Bylaw 9 of the FHSAA Handbook. In the scenario described here, a transfer student can participate in a sport at his new school as long as he didn't participate in that sport at his old school during that school year. Assuming the student meets all the administrative requirements for school transfer, he is eligible to participate in the sport (in this case, basketball) on the 6th day of attendance at the new school. There are a lot of variables discussed in Bylaw 9, but the scenario described here seems to comply with FHSAA rules for transfer and eligibility.

This is not a home-grown team. They were 25-45 in the 7 years prior to this year, when they suddenly make it all the way to the 2A state championship game. A review of their roster shows they added stud players from Godby, Leon, Camden County, Tampa area, etc. And it doesn't take a ton of studs to make a difference at the 2A level. Now maybe these players were just exercising "school choice" (and good for them). And maybe their coach has figured out how to make his program "attractive" to out-of-zone players. That just seems to be how it goes these days.

Clewiston makes sense. Franklin County makes sense from a competitive standpoint, but from a geographic standpoint, they are over 150 miles from the nearest SSAA school. I guess that's okay if you don't mind long bus trips. Maybe you are right, and there are other Rural schools coming who just haven't been announced yet.

Tell that to Fort Meade. 2-7 regular season, and then win 4 straight to claim the championship. I'm sure the players, school, and community are proud of their accomplishment. And memories for a lifetime. Although I realize that may not be a popular stance, but I'd err on the side of the kids.

What has flown largely under the radar is this year's FHSAA's Rural Florida Invitational Tournament, in which any Rural team that did not qualify for the playoffs was "invited" to participate in their own tournament. Fort Meade beat Dixie County for the first RFIT championship. Interestingly, this season was the first year of a two-year trial. More info is in Josh's article here: https://floridahsfootball.com/2024/08/01/2024-storylines-to-follow-rural-classification-taking-on-new-playoff-format-in-test/ I would not be surprised at all if the FHSAA extends this format to all classifications in 2026 to create a more "inclusive" set of opportunities for all teams, "got a team -- you're in the playoffs, regardless of record". Maybe the FHSAA is responding to the very threat which you discussed in this thread - teams withdrawing from the FHSAA. Not to mention more games = more $$$. Then Florida can lay claim to 16 "state" champions.

Better, but still only gets you to 5-6 teams per district (under the current classification sizes). Still believe that the sweet spot is 6-8 teams per district, or 2 districts per region. Very common among states in the Southeast, with the notable exception of Florida.

If your goal is fair and equitable competition for all teams -- you're screwed by the current environment. If you believe in some kind of Darwinian "survival of the fittest" competition, the current system is right for you.

Under School Choice laws and Controlled Open Enrollment, essentially every transfer is considered a bona fide move by the state of Florida. So the FHSAA will never be able to impose limitations or restrictions based on transfer movement. The best they can hope for is to make adjustments based on results after the fact (e.g. Open/Championship proposal for 2026).

As a proponent of "like vs. like", I applaud the move by these schools. But this represents a 1% net loss to the FHSAA of the 460 schools playing football (2 of the 7 already play in the SSAC). So doubtful this even registers on the FHSAA's radar, as the loss of revenue is miniscule and new teams will be coming in. I'm afraid it will take a loss of 10 times as many to get the FHSAA's attention and for them to ask the question, why? Maybe this is the tipping point, and others will follow in significant numbers. Or not. Time will tell.

Agree 100% with the above sentiment. I think the reason there is not more discontent with the FHSAA Rankings is that it is human nature when you don't understand something complicated to say, "okay, whatever" and press on. And since no one really knows what factors are considered and how they are weighted, it is hard to direct your discontent at a particular factor or set of factors. What accounts for the difference in a ranking of 17.723 vs. 16.897? Who knows? At least when the FHSAA used an RPI-type of rankings, we knew the weighting of the various factors, and the calculations could be verified independently. I would argue that the problem is with using any computer rankings at all -- let's just go to 6-8 team districts and settle it on the field.

I got my start in football playing Pop Warner for the Rowland Heights Red Devils, about 20 miles SE of Pasadena. Terrible scenes coming out of southern California. Thoughts and prayers to all who may have family or friends in that area.

The FHSAA Football Advisory Committee held its annual meeting this morning. This committee is made up of 8 coaches who represent the 4 regions of the FHSAA, and meets once a year, presumably to represent the interests of the coaches, and to present recommendations for change. Recommendations are passed up to the Athletic Directors Advisory Committee, and then up to the FHSAA Board of Directors for action. Unfortunately, a link was not made available for public viewing of the meeting. Information on the committee's makeup and agenda for this meeting are available here: https://fhsaa.com/sports/2020/3/11/Sport_Committees.aspx To give you the Reader's Digest summary, it appears the coaches' most pressing issues are knee pads and drone usage. Apparently, there is general satisfaction among this group with the state of high school football in Florida. So get ready for ridiculously small districts and top-secret computer rankings for the foreseeable future. The various ideas/suggestions on this board for improving Florida high school football apparently have not registered with the powers-that-be. But let's keep the conversations going in 2025.