EXCLUSIVE: FHSAA Classification Task Force Committee proposes changes to classification system to help address competitive balance

[Joshua Wilson]

Committee endorses adding an Open Division playoff bracket for team sports while also eliminating Metro-Suburban classifications for football to help achieve competitive balance in the state

Yes, some big changes could be on the horizon soon if they come to fruition. Still, there is a long way to go, but this may start to address some of the concerns some of you have had about football (and maybe other sports). 

https://floridahsfootball.com/2023/10/04/exclusive-fhsaa-classification-task-force-committee-proposes-changes-to-classification-system-to-help-address-competitive-balance/

 

[nolebull813]

If they aren’t trying to cut classes, then it’s all a smoke screen 

[nolebull813]

They won’t be happy until their is 10 plus classes 

[nolebull813]

Wow the committee is made of all public school people. There is no private school representation. This is like the wolf watching the chicken coop. This dysfunction is surreal 

[Joshua Wilson]

26 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

Wow the committee is made of all public school people. There is no private school representation. This is like the wolf watching the chicken coop. This dysfunction is surreal 

There was private school representation. I just didn't have everyone's name down. Was going on memory of who's names I could remember from being in the meeting and who I knew. A few people I did not know.

[Joshua Wilson]

27 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

Wow the committee is made of all public school people. There is no private school representation. This is like the wolf watching the chicken coop. This dysfunction is surreal 

Plus if you read the article fully, you see I pointed out notable names... not every single person. 

[nolebull813]

8 minutes ago, Joshua Wilson said:

Plus if you read the article fully, you see I pointed out notable names... not every single person. 

Every listed represents public schools only 

[Beek]

This is my uneducated understanding of what I think I read. Please help me with clarification. 

1. Fhsaa will assign districts in 7 classes and 1 rural

2. teams in each district are not required to play each other

3. Fhsaa will use power rankings between the teams in each district to determine which 2 teams will play for the district championship.

4. teams would only schedule 9 games and have to wait to see who their week 11 opponent will be, then scramble to get a game if they arent chosen for playoffs. How is that going to look?

If what I understand above is correct, These are my assumptions or questions about this;

1. scheduling one or 2 top tier teams and loosing to them will keep your rankings high as opposed to playing  middle of the road teams and beating them. 

2. Teams with a weak schedule, could go 10-0 and not be considered for playoffs

3. teams with an average schedule could go 10-0 and not make the playoffs, where a team could schedule all top 10 type teams and loose to them and have a better shot?

4. how does this create parity?

5. Are the districts going to be announced early enough, so when scheduling is to be done this can be taken into account. As I was already working on my next season schedule. That way teams have a choice on who they play in and out of district, if they so choose?

6. this basically does away with independents. I would only think SSAC teams would opt out. 

7. What happens if a team plays other teams in their district and beats them, but ends up with a lower power ranking. who then is the contender, head to head or power ranking?

I may have more questions, but this is my understanding as I read it. I could have read it wrong as well. Thanks for helping me understand. 

 

 

 

[nolebull813]

This is horrible. This means there will be even more blowouts and less competition in the regular season

[Joshua Wilson]

46 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

Every listed represents public schools only 

Ummm... wrong again NoleBull... Aucilla Christian is a private school. May want to read that article again.

[Joshua Wilson]

34 minutes ago, Beek said:

This is my uneducated understanding of what I think I read. Please help me with clarification. 

1. Fhsaa will assign districts in 7 classes and 1 rural

2. teams in each district are not required to play each other

3. Fhsaa will use power rankings between the teams in each district to determine which 2 teams will play for the district championship.

4. teams would only schedule 9 games and have to wait to see who their week 11 opponent will be, then scramble to get a game if they arent chosen for playoffs. How is that going to look?

If what I understand above is correct, These are my assumptions or questions about this;

1. scheduling one or 2 top tier teams and loosing to them will keep your rankings high as opposed to playing  middle of the road teams and beating them. 

2. Teams with a weak schedule, could go 10-0 and not be considered for playoffs

3. teams with an average schedule could go 10-0 and not make the playoffs, where a team could schedule all top 10 type teams and loose to them and have a better shot?

4. how does this create parity?

5. Are the districts going to be announced early enough, so when scheduling is to be done this can be taken into account. As I was already working on my next season schedule. That way teams have a choice on who they play in and out of district, if they so choose?

6. this basically does away with independents. I would only think SSAC teams would opt out. 

7. What happens if a team plays other teams in their district and beats them, but ends up with a lower power ranking. who then is the contender, head to head or power ranking?

I may have more questions, but this is my understanding as I read it. I could have read it wrong as well. Thanks for helping me understand. 

 

 

 

Let me try to unpack this here: 

PART 1:

1. Yes on that 7 classes plus rural - would bring it back to 8 classes total in football like there was before.

2. That is part of the proposal

3. FHSAA power rankings would be used, but the classification committee would like to address some issues using the power ranking. I think this came about after the first rankings for football came out last week. 

4. Week 11 is left open so in case you are one of two teams to make the district championship game then you won't have to scramble in that case. The idea would also be you would have several teams on a list that you would schedule Week 11 if you didn't get selected for the district championship game.

PART 2: 

1. If the committee asks for changes in power ranking formula this thought might become moot.

2. That is possible, but not sure if it would happen, but again playing an easy schedule all the way though is never the idea (usually)

3. Again if changes are made to the power ranking then this could be moot.

4. Where like type teams are more likely to schedule each other. If you have a great season then that is great, but if you feel it is unsafe to play a team or two in a district, the only option right now is to go independent. There is no choice to remain state series eligible in case your program does improve.

5. That is why they want a plan ready to be voted upon in November because FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon would like to see football assignments be released before the Christmas holiday liked they use to be years ago when it was time for reclassification to come up.

6. Very well could eliminate most independents. Also my understanding is the SSAA wants schools to either fully commit with them on a 10-game regular season next year plus playoffs. We could see some smaller private schools soon totally ditch their FHSAA membership and just be with the SSAA going forward instead of what we have now. Again that is what I am hearing and have not been able to independently verify this information yet.

7. Power ranking should account for that (I would hope), but that is a good question nonetheless.

[DarterBlue2]

1. Why have districts if you are not mandated to play against all your district rivals?

2. Why not just have regions instead with a mandate that a team must play a minimum of say, 5 teams in your region?

3. Since the district championship is going to be determined by a game between the two highest ranked teams based on some kind of power ranking, it's imperative that the formula to come up with the ranking makes sense from a statistical standpoint, and that it's made public to ensure that there is no controversy over the district winner.

4. I know it's early yet, and nothing has been finalized, but I can't help but think that this is only going to further complicate the entire process surrounding how high school football is administered in the state and is likely to lead to many controversial results. 

[SportsFan]

1 hour ago, DarterBlue2 said:

1. Why have districts if you are not mandated to play against all your district rivals?

2. Why not just have regions instead with a mandate that a team must play a minimum of say, 5 teams in your region.

 

That would be more effective especially since a lot of teams struggle to find games as it is and the power rankings don't reward teams for losing to good teams 

[SportsFan]

By the current power rankings the FHSAA was dumb enough to use your better off beating 10 teams the level of Crescent City and Interlachen and Palatka then playing and losing close games to someone like Bolles or Trinity Christian but the reality is most good teams can only get the last two to play them while only average teams can even get the first three to agree to schedule them 

So in reality the current system rewards a team who's just bad enough to get easy wins added to the schedule

[DarterBlue2]

2 minutes ago, SportsFan said:

That would be more effective especially since a lot of teams struggle to find games as it is and the power rankings don't reward teams for losing to good teams 

Exactly!

[SportsFan]

It amazes me that the FHSAA can have a crappy system for years, finally figure out something that actually is a step in the right direction then decide

"Hey you know what we should do? We should remove the very thing that's an improvement and then add 3 more things to make it worse!" 

Then we can call it progress and rely on the aspect that is guaranteed to get voted down (open division) and keep everything else which will just take us back to three years ago when we had a system that had Miami Central and STA sharing a classification with rural teams like Baker County all because they have similar enrollment numbers 

Nice thinking FHSAA! No wonder the rest of the country laughs at Florida! I get you can't fix the transfer problem but how can you botch this!!

[SportsFan]

Because get this the open division has been discussed and always gets shot down because the committee is afraid their team will have a tougher path to win a championship and we don't even get the entire state represented on the committee and often times have people speaking for counties and coaches and it's clear as day they never once spoke to the coaches in certain counties and they are only speaking for themselves!

The open division will get thrown out but the rest probably passes which means we basically just bringing back the same failed system from 3 years ago but somehow making it worse than it was then!

[SportsFan]

Like is there anything in this proposal that says for them to change it back to student population that they have to approve the open division aspect of it? Or do they leave the FHSAA committee with the power to drop that aspect and approve everything else?

[DarterBlue2]

28 minutes ago, SportsFan said:

It amazes me that the FHSAA can have a crappy system for years, finally figure out something that actually is a step in the right direction then decide

"Hey you know what we should do? We should remove the very thing that's an improvement and then add 3 more things to make it worse!" 

Then we can call it progress and rely on the aspect that is guaranteed to get voted down (open division) and keep everything else which will just take us back to three years ago when we had a system that had Miami Central and STA sharing a classification with rural teams like Baker County all because they have similar enrollment numbers 

Nice thinking FHSAA! No wonder the rest of the country laughs at Florida! I get you can't fix the transfer problem but how can you botch this!!

It seems that my generation has clearly failed the country's youth. 

[Longtime Observer]

The district championship games and "Open division" selections figure to be absolute debacles if they can't come up with a reasonable and transparent way of ranking teams. Given what we've seen with the last couple of rankings "systems", there is no reason to have the slightest bit of confidence in the FHSAA.

[Hwy17]

41 minutes ago, Longtime Observer said:

The district championship games and "Open division" selections figure to be absolute debacles if they can't come up with a reasonable and transparent way of ranking teams. Given what we've seen with the last couple of rankings "systems", there is no reason to have the slightest bit of confidence in the FHSAA.

Agreed 

[Jambun82]

7 hours ago, DarterBlue2 said:

It seems that my generation has clearly failed the country's youth. 

You are a member of the baby-boom generation, correct DarterBlue2? (I guess that I should not expect an answer since you are too good to talk to me, or answer my questions anymore.) 

[DarterBlue2]

4 hours ago, Jambun82 said:

You are a member of the baby-boom generation, correct DarterBlue2? (I guess that I should not expect an answer since you are too good to talk to me, or answer my questions anymore.) 

Si.

[181pl]

This is very simple. Either separate the private schools from the public schools (not banning them from playing each other just classification wise) or you go with six large open classes based on population. Private school populations, double if it’s an all boys are all girls school.

 If you’re going to go public private, you do 4 public school classes and 3 private school classes. I would do an open private class with the top 25 or 30 teams. Just make two regions and the top 8 in each region qualify. I would also do 2 traditional private school classes, one for standard Catholic school type teams, and another one for tiny Christian school type teams.

[Hwy17]

Here's how I would do it. Using the traditional approach, create 7 classes based on population. Following the traditional approach, create 4 regions in each class. Then, assign a weighted power ranking to each team based on the prior 4 seasons.  The highest ranked team in each region moves up 1 class and the lowest ranked team goes down one class.  Then make the districts. Repeat process ever year but no one plays up or down more than one class than what they would otherwise be in.