Dr. D

Circling back to competitive balance, one of the purported factors in support for the Metro-Suburban reclassification was the history of lopsided matchups in state championship games. Last year's 7 championship games (excluding 1R-1M which was not reclassified) were decided by 2,6,18,21,28,28, and 35 points. It will be interesting to see if this year's matchups are more closely contested. Good luck to all!

2022 State Championships Gene Cox Stadium, Dec. 8-10, 2022 (Classes 1M, 1R, 1S & 2S) DRV PNK Stadium, Dec.15-17, 2022 (Classes 2M, 3M, 4M, 3S & 4S)

Championship Brackets State Championship Matchup Date Time Class 4M Apopka vs. Columbus (Miami) Dec. 17 7 p.m. Class 3M Homestead vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) Dec. 15 7 p.m. Class 2M American Heritage (Plantation) vs. Miami Central Dec. 16 7 p.m. Class 1M Clearwater Central Catholic vs. Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood) Dec. 8 7 p.m. Class 1R Northview (Century) vs. Hawthorne Dec. 10 7 p.m. Class 4S Venice vs. Lakeland Dec. 17 1 p.m. Class 3S Mainland (Daytona Beach) vs. Lake Wales Dec. 16 1 p.m. Class 2S Cocoa vs. Florida High (Tallahassee) Dec. 9 7 p.m. Class 1S Trinity Catholic (Ocala) vs. First Baptist (Naples) Dec. 10 1 p.m.

Travel would definitely be a very big concern. California is made up of 10 Sections, so the travel is reduced, although can still be significant. There are several iterations of this model that could be employed. One way would be to use the current Region set-up and apply the power rankings to populate the Regional brackets, regardless of class. Lakeland, Clearwater Central Catholic, Lake Wales, and Tampa Catholic might be in the same Regional bracket, for example. Then the Regional winners would advance to the state semifinals as they do now. Some states allow the state association to move teams up or down on the seed line (within reason) to mitigate travel. You could force teams to opt-in or opt-out of the State playoffs on the front end and relegate the opt-outers to some sort of regional series. Obviously, a hypothetical discussion, but talking about things is the only way to possibly create movement, as opposed to the status quo. Rotary telephones were great in the 1990s, but we moved on. Same with student enrollment.

Maybe it's time to think outside the box. Florida could be bold and adapt the model utilized by California to seed its Sectional playoff brackets. (Note: California uses CalPreps rankings, but Florida could use the FHSAA Power Rankings or any other ranking system.) The top 16 teams in the end-of-regular season rankings would be placed in the Division 1 ("Super 16") bracket. The next 32 highest ranked teams (teams #17-48) would be placed in the Division 2 bracket, the next 32 highest ranked teams (teams #49-80) would be placed in the Division 3 bracket, and so on for however many playoff levels you wish to have. Seeding within the brackets is also based on the computer ranking, This year's first-round "Super 16" matchups, based on the end-of-regular season FHSAA Power Rankings would look like this (focus on the concept, not the specific teams): #1 Miami Central vs. #16 Cardinal Newman; #8 American Heritage vs. #9 Lakeland; #4 Trinity Christian vs. #13 Jones; #5 Bartram Trail vs. #12 Clearwater Central Catholic; #2 Edgewater vs. #15 Seminole; #7 Columbus vs. #10 University Christian; #3 STA vs. #14 Cardinal Gibbons; #6 Chaminade-Madonna vs. #11 Pine Forest; So teams are essentially classified for the playoffs AFTER the season, not before, based solely on their in-season performance that year. School enrollment and population density have no bearing. Sort of annual promotion/relegation taken to the extreme. Such a system would seemingly promote more "competitive balance" at all playoff levels, since teams would be grouped with others of similar strength in that given year. (I know this would never fly with the FHSAA, but we've eventually got to move on from this 1990s paradigm of school enrollment as a prominent factor in the classification process.)

Seriously, the CIF uses a committee to identify the two teams to play in the California Open Division Championship (St. John Bosco vs. San Mateo Serra). Surely Florida could do the same, either through the FHSAA, media, coaches, or some combination thereof. Select the two top teams, regardless of classification, after the classification championships are completed and play on the following Saturday. One game, maybe not a true state champion, but pretty darn close. By the way, California plays 15 championship games, with roughly 2100 teams competing. So they give out a lot of trophies too.

Maybe Florida could copy California and have an "Open Division" championship game after all the classification championships have been decided. A committee of 7 prominent posters from this site could identify the top 2 teams in the state, regardless of classification, and have them meet at a neutral site for the overall "state championship".

Initially teams in the 8 regions (= Florida "districts") are seeded #1 - #4 based on their region records, head-to-head. In the first round, #1 plays #4 in adjacent region, #2 plays #3, etc. After the first round, you would play a team from a non-adjacent region. The brackets are predetermined by region and region seed, so there is no overall seeding per se. If the two "best" teams happen to be in the same region, it allows the possibility they could meet in the state finals, rather than in the Florida Regional finals. Confused?

To answer your question, having lived in Georgia, it is a somewhat confusing but interesting system. Each class has 8 regions (think "districts") with 6-8 teams per region. Round-robin play with top 4 teams advancing based on region record. So 32-team bracket. One team from each region is placed in each of the four 8-team sub-brackets, cross-seeded with the adjacent region. Bottom line is all 4 teams from a single region could conceivably qualify for the state semifinals (as could 2 teams from the same region qualify for the finals). As this is not easily explained in words, view brackets on GHSAA website if you want a visual.

You are conflating 2 variables. The seeding is different this year because it is the first year that the FHSAA did not award automatic top-4 seeds to all district winners. The seeding is more accurate this year for the simple reason that there are no more "undeserving" district winners with a top-4 seeds. They are now seeded 5, 6, 7, or 8 where they belong. With more accurate seeding, one would expect a higher proportion of higher seeds advancing compared to last year. You can't say definitively whether the FHSAA Power Rankings were any more accurate than last year's RPI would have been in the same circumstances. The use of the word "Maybe" in the topic line is about the best you can say. At least we agree on the transparency issue, or lack thereof.

The driving force behind the change to the Metro-Suburban classification was promoting "competitive balance". One way to evaluate this claim is to see how many regional finalists this year were regional finalists last year as well. "Repeat" regional finalists: 4M: 3/8; 3M: 4/8; 2M: 4/8; 1M: 4/8; Total Metro repeaters: 15 out of 32 4S: 2/8; 3S: 0/8; 2S: 3/8; 1S: 5/8; Total Suburban repeaters: 10 out of 32 Overall, 39 out of 64 regional finalists this year are new compared to last year. Suburban supporters would say that reclassification gave more teams a chance to qualify and advance in the playoffs. Metro supporters would say that only the same handful of teams in each classification are true title contenders, and the other 25-30 teams in the classification are just along for the ride, so what was the point? Guess it depends which side of the fence you are on....

Having seen the transformation of Choctaw from 0-8 in 2020 (the year prior to Coach Beasley's arrival) to where they are now, it's like FIU becoming the Georgia Bulldogs in two years. As has been said of Poinciana, with the right head coach (and staff) and the right culture, almost anything is possible.

And I'm guessing you're not too upset about Columbia hosting Choctawhatchee rather than making a return trip to Pensacola on Friday...

Choctawhatchee over Pine Forest has to be high on the list.

This is the policy as stated in the FHSAA Administrative Procedures "3.1.4 Noisemakers. Whistles, or artificial noisemaking devises that mimic or simulate a game whistle, air horns, and all other artificial or mechanical noisemaking devises, are prohibited in all Florida High School State Championship Series events." So apparently noisemakers not prohibited during the regular season, but prohibited in the playoffs. No mention of enforcement protocol or penalties if the policy is violated. So I guess anything goes...