FIT Tournament

[Hwy17]

On 11/7/2025 at 2:12 PM, nolebull813 said:

This FIT thing is an embarrassment to competition. It’s the villain. It runs counter to what every coach in the country should be teaching their kids. 
 

I know the positives are extra games and practices for the younger kids to springboard into next year and giving the seniors one last ride before they hang it up forever, but this is not the way. 
 

Play a bowl game with a local team and then move on 

Looking around the area, I see Bradenton Southeast finished 8-2 but didn't make the playoffs.  I see River Ridge finished 7-3 and didn't make the playoffs.  Neither are in the FIT either.  Me personally,  I'd rather see a bowl game with a match-up between 2 teams like this than some tournament that puts a 1 win team in.   Also why I'd rather have a 12 game regular season with fewer teams making the playoffs, but with bowl games for everyone else. Like college football does.

[Floridaatlantic1]

I did not

like the suburban plan because it was not fair to non suburban (unless your rig the rules to make Lakeland and Lee county a suburb schools ) metro schools who did not cheat and made huge enrollment differences in same divisions.   I always have said promotion /demotion is only way to get similar schools competing against similar schools.  Let cheater schools both open enrollment and private beat each other up.  New open division should have been 32 teams and that would be a good start 

[nolebull813]

38 minutes ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

I did not

like the suburban plan because it was not fair to non suburban (unless your rig the rules to make Lakeland and Lee county a suburb schools ) metro schools who did not cheat and made huge enrollment differences in same divisions.   I always have said promotion /demotion is only way to get similar schools competing against similar schools.  Let cheater schools both open enrollment and private beat each other up.  New open division should have been 32 teams and that would be a good start 

If you took the 32 best teams, that would make the rest of playoff brackets look like Vermont or New Hampshire. They would start to resemble SSAA brackets 

[Floridaatlantic1]

Only the top bracket would be a state championship.  The rest would be schools having a competitive shot to play other similar schools for a region crown or whatever you want to call it.  The same 12 teams win all 7 of state championships anyway. The rest of the schools who don’t cheat would have a much better season and playoffs and if they have an amazing season.  They can play with the big boys. It’s about the experience for the students athletes.  Who has fun watching chamanade drilling a 2a public school that does not recruit. 60-0. 

[SoftballGuy]

4 hours ago, nolebull813 said:

If you took the 32 best teams, that would make the rest of playoff brackets look like Vermont or New Hampshire. They would start to resemble SSAA brackets 

Quit making a mountain out of a nolehill 

The reality of it is that the current postseason and classification structure needs a complete overhaul because we will currently see a lot of blowouts in the title games this year using an outdated format 

Until we have a state association with some progressive thinking instead of treating athletics like its still the 1970s the longer we will continue to watch boring garbage games in the finals 

[SoftballGuy]

5 hours ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

I did not

like the suburban plan because it was not fair to non suburban (unless your rig the rules to make Lakeland and Lee county a suburb schools ) metro schools who did not cheat and made huge enrollment differences in same divisions.   I always have said promotion /demotion is only way to get similar schools competing against similar schools.  Let cheater schools both open enrollment and private beat each other up.  New open division should have been 32 teams and that would be a good start 

In 2013 Riverside/lee was the worst public in Duval county. 3 years later they were in the final 4

 

1 coach and the inside track to transfers and they suddenly were contenders. How many rural schools are building a transfer all star team in their area overnight? The current school choice system has it set where even one good coach who could recruit talent can instantly make a bottom feeder in a metro area into a contender. Miami Central was an average program prior to 2010 now they are one of the most successful programs in state history after a 15 year window.

Name me a rural school who changed their program course like that in 15 years

 

And since when has enrollment mattered? Madison County regularly beats teams 3 or 4 times their size. Chaminade Madonna, Trinity Christian,  Bolles,  Booker T Washington,  Cocoa 

 

All schools with less than 1k students who would beat most schools with 3k kids almost every season. Enrollment don't mean squat when the current rules let schools get dozens of transfers from a city of half a million or more people 

[KeemD321]

Looks like Palm Bay backed out of the FIT bracket and the team they were gonna play Hallandale has a bye week and BTW also has a bye week as well due to the team they were matched up against backing out as well

[Nulli Secundus]

20 hours ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

I did not

like the suburban plan because it was not fair to non suburban (unless your rig the rules to make Lakeland and Lee county a suburb schools ) metro schools who did not cheat and made huge enrollment differences in same divisions.   I always have said promotion /demotion is only way to get similar schools competing against similar schools.  Let cheater schools both open enrollment and private beat each other up.  New open division should have been 32 teams and that would be a good start 

Did someone from Lakeland or Polk County throw a flaming bag of **** at your door or TP your house?  Perhaps a Publix opened near you. Wait, someone gave you an anchor as a gag gift wrapped in orange and black.  You talk about Lakeland more than me and I'm a Lakeland graduate.  This is hilarious!  I decided to see how much comedy you've provided about Lakeland/Polk County over the years.  I'll throw your post from today onto the pile of compost you've amassed; 26 and counting.  At the time of my response you had a grand total of 261 posts on this site.  That means 10% of your responses have been about Polk County.  Please keep those broken records coming

 

 

26) FIT Tournament - 11/11/25

25) final classifications? - 2/2/24

24) Does the FHSAA punish cheaters? - 2/9/24

23) Does the FHSAA punish cheaters? - 2/12/24

22) Does the FHSAA punish cheaters? - 2/15/24

21) Lakeland is the reason we have super teams in Florida - 12/20/23

20) I am so Glad we did Metro-suburban switch because it created so much parity - 12/4/23

19) Polk County Fun fact - 12/7/22

18) Polk County Fun fact - 12/7/22

17) Polk County Fun fact - 12/8/22

16) Polk County Fun fact - 12/13/22

15) Comparison of 6 teams in 3S - 8/4/22

14) Comparison of 6 teams in 3S - 7/19/22

13) Comparison of 6 teams in 3S - 7/19/22

12) Is this true? - 7/20/22

11) County Polk is a coward - 6/19/22

10) Another Head Football coach at Lake Gibson is fired - 4/6/22

9) Get rid of districts - 3/28/22

8) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 3/7/22

7) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 3/3/22

6) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 3/3/22

5) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 3/1/22

4) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 3/1/22

3) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 2/28/22

2) Metro vs Non Metro - 1/24/22

1) Metro/Suburban Plan voted on. PASSED - 1/21/22

 

[THAT S--T WAS FUNNY]

Bro came with receipts! 

[Floridaatlantic1]

Lakeland rep started the downfall of fhsaa and its power because they got caught cheating.  Then when suburban metro split came about.  How does Lakeland  and Lee county end up in suburban. A late switch to wording in the meeting to switch population to some density bullcrap.  So Lakeland can avoid the dade/ broward crowd.  So the reason I talk about Lakeland is they always recruited and cheated and then they gamed the system after losing to st Thomas a few too many times. 

[nolebull813]

Only something like a FIT tournament could start tearing us apart. SMH.

[PinellasFB]

23 hours ago, Hwy17 said:

Looking around the area, I see Bradenton Southeast finished 8-2 but didn't make the playoffs.  I see River Ridge finished 7-3 and didn't make the playoffs.  Neither are in the FIT either.  Me personally,  I'd rather see a bowl game with a match-up between 2 teams like this than some tournament that puts a 1 win team in.   Also why I'd rather have a 12 game regular season with fewer teams making the playoffs, but with bowl games for everyone else. Like college football does.

12 games is too much.  10 games is too much for these students, honestly.  I wish the season were 8 or 9 games + post season.  This NIT is going to stress us (Palm Harbor) to no end academically if we win vs Chiles tomorrow and have to travel to Jax the following week on a school night.  My son says pretty much hardly any non-senior player wants to win this game and extend the season so you can see how much of a reward the NIT is for the players.

[Nulli Secundus]

8 hours ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

Lakeland rep started the downfall of fhsaa and its power because they got caught cheating.

Naw.  Kelli Stargel originally started her crusade to get the rules changed when a player left a private school (Lakeland Christian) and went to a public school (Kathleen) but was denied eligibility to play because the player had ties to the coach.  The Dreadnaught program made more sense politically because of their notoriety and headline making ability and became the face of what everyone sees today.  The former rep that you like to reference that covered Polk and Lake counties isn't even from Lakeland.  Just an elected official that needs to live in the district that he or she represents.  Born in Tampa, raised in Pasco.

8 hours ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

Then when suburban metro split came about.  How does Lakeland  and Lee county end up in suburban. A late switch to wording in the meeting to switch population to some density bullcrap.  So Lakeland can avoid the dade/ broward crowd.

No Polk delegation on the FHSAA BOD when Metro Suburban came about so that's a fail.  Also, you like to throw Lee in the fire too even though they voted against it.

Thanks to @Dr. D in Metro/Suburban question for the quick info. Lord knows I didn't feel like searching the FHSAA site.  A lot has been said and implied on this site about the motivation of the Board of Directors who voted on this proposal.  To be accurate, these are the "home" counties of the Board members who voted in February 2022:

For (9):

1. Citrus
2. St. Johns
3. Highlands
4. Okaloosa
5. Brevard
6. Leon
7. Leon
8. Leon
9. Palm Beach

Against (7):

1. Jefferson
2. Marion
3. Miami-Dade
4. Pinellas
5. Lee
6. Lee
7. Palm Beach

8 hours ago, Floridaatlantic1 said:

So the reason I talk about Lakeland is they always recruited and cheated and then they gamed the system after losing to st Thomas a few too many times. 

Oh, post #27 FIT Tournament 

[Hwy17]

9 hours ago, PinellasFB said:

12 games is too much.  10 games is too much for these students, honestly.  I wish the season were 8 or 9 games + post season.  This NIT is going to stress us (Palm Harbor) to no end academically if we win vs Chiles tomorrow and have to travel to Jax the following week on a school night.  My son says pretty much hardly any non-senior player wants to win this game and extend the season so you can see how much of a reward the NIT is for the players.

Make the Kickoff classic game count as a regular season game, now you got an 11 game season with no real change. Add one more regular season game. Shorten the playoffs by two weeks with fewer teams in the playoffs. Those who had a .500 or better season play a bowl game.  Even at that, every season teams have early season cancelations because of weather, so they have to make them up. Get rid of district play and use a straight computer formula (Laz is best) then making up games is optional. 

[SoftballGuy]

1 hour ago, Hwy17 said:

Make the Kickoff classic game count as a regular season game, now you got an 11 game season with no real change. Add one more regular season game. Shorten the playoffs by two weeks with fewer teams in the playoffs. Those who had a .500 or better season play a bowl game.  Even at that, every season teams have early season cancelations because of weather, so they have to make them up. Get rid of district play and use a straight computer formula (Laz is best) then making up games is optional. 

That would reward teams who play crap schedules just like the current format rewards record far too much in formula 

[Hwy17]

1 hour ago, SoftballGuy said:

That would reward teams who play crap schedules just like the current format rewards record far too much in formula 

All evidence suggests it would not. The computer rankings, Maxpreps,  Laz, etc. factor in strength of schedule. Just look at the two teams I mentioned earlier who got left out despite having better w/l records. Also instead of 8 teams per region (32 total)making the playoffs,  only 3 teams per region (12 total) would.  Would you like some real examples?

 

[PinellasFB]

1 hour ago, Hwy17 said:

All evidence suggests it would not. The computer rankings, Maxpreps,  Laz, etc. factor in strength of schedule. Just look at the two teams I mentioned earlier who got left out despite having better w/l records. Also instead of 8 teams per region (32 total)making the playoffs,  only 3 teams per region (12 total) would.  Would you like some real examples?

 

They've definitely made some adjustments to the formula this year and seem to have incorporated (secretly) some form of margin of victory, based upon the results I'm seeing.  The rankings are much better this year than last year even if they still have big room for improvement.

[SoftballGuy]

3 hours ago, Hwy17 said:

All evidence suggests it would not. The computer rankings, Maxpreps,  Laz, etc. factor in strength of schedule. Just look at the two teams I mentioned earlier who got left out despite having better w/l records. Also instead of 8 teams per region (32 total)making the playoffs,  only 3 teams per region (12 total) would.  Would you like some real examples?

 

The fact that 2 weeks ago St Augustine was behind Choctawhatchee in the power rankings despite the same record and St Augustine having a significantly better sos

[Hwy17]

7 hours ago, SoftballGuy said:

The fact that 2 weeks ago St Augustine was behind Choctawhatchee in the power rankings despite the same record and St Augustine having a significantly better sos

In this case we would be talking about seeding. What you wouldn't see would be a team like Labelle that goes 10-0 but plays a bunch of teams with losing records qualifying for the playoffs.  

[SoftballGuy]

2 hours ago, Hwy17 said:

In this case we would be talking about seeding. What you wouldn't see would be a team like Labelle that goes 10-0 but plays a bunch of teams with losing records qualifying for the playoffs.  

But the result of said seeding shows that the formula and whatever is used puts way too much weight on record.  Like I agree a team shouldn't have sos weighted so high that a team goes up more for losing than winning.

 

However under no realistic circumstances should between 2 undefeated teams the team with the LOWER SOS be rated higher 

[SoftballGuy]

Also the other issue i have with the current formula comes from the fact that teams who start higher in the preseason have the higher floor and ceiling. Let's say one team went 10-1 last year and another went 5-6. Even if both teams finish with the same record and have similar sos, the team who went 10-1 the prior year would finish significantly higher because their formula weighs the previous season finish into the results 

[Hwy17]

5 hours ago, SoftballGuy said:

But the result of said seeding shows that the formula and whatever is used puts way too much weight on record.  Like I agree a team shouldn't have sos weighted so high that a team goes up more for losing than winning.

 

However under no realistic circumstances should between 2 undefeated teams the team with the LOWER SOS be rated higher 

 

5 hours ago, SoftballGuy said:

Also the other issue i have with the current formula comes from the fact that teams who start higher in the preseason have the higher floor and ceiling. Let's say one team went 10-1 last year and another went 5-6. Even if both teams finish with the same record and have similar sos, the team who went 10-1 the prior year would finish significantly higher because their formula weighs the previous season finish into the results 

I don't disagree with that assessment.  People don't seem to want larger districts which would solve some of this.  I'd be open to  combining districts so there's 3 districts per region and only district Champs make the playoffs again.  Here's the thing about that,  say you got a district with 8 teams but 5 aren't too good.  That district champ SOS is hurt but those were required game. And they got in when the 2nd place team in another district was arguably better. So it's not perfect no matter which system is used. Better maybe,  but not perfect.  

Remember a few years ago when FHSAA used RPI? Lakeland running clocked a district opponent and their RPI went down while that opponent's went up. Go figure that.

[PinellasFB]

On 11/11/2025 at 7:45 AM, Hwy17 said:

Looking around the area, I see Bradenton Southeast finished 8-2 but didn't make the playoffs.  I see River Ridge finished 7-3 and didn't make the playoffs.  Neither are in the FIT either.  Me personally,  I'd rather see a bowl game with a match-up between 2 teams like this than some tournament that puts a 1 win team in.   Also why I'd rather have a 12 game regular season with fewer teams making the playoffs, but with bowl games for everyone else. Like college football does.

yeah I think we all would prefer a single bowl game rather than a 4-round tournament for deserving teams that missed the playoffs

[SoftballGuy]

2 hours ago, Hwy17 said:

 

I don't disagree with that assessment.  People don't seem to want larger districts which would solve some of this.  I'd be open to  combining districts so there's 3 districts per region and only district Champs make the playoffs again.  Here's the thing about that,  say you got a district with 8 teams but 5 aren't too good.  That district champ SOS is hurt but those were required game. And they got in when the 2nd place team in another district was arguably better. So it's not perfect no matter which system is used. Better maybe,  but not perfect.  

Remember a few years ago when FHSAA used RPI? Lakeland running clocked a district opponent and their RPI went down while that opponent's went up. Go figure that.

Rpi wasn't a bad system it just needed to get some of the formula tweaked to get the right balance. It was better than the current formula 

[nolebull813]

3 hours ago, PinellasFB said:

yeah I think we all would prefer a single bowl game rather than a 4-round tournament for deserving teams that missed the playoffs

Toho and Gateway just played a bowl game. It can be done. The crazy thing is you need to have at least 5 wins to play in a bowl, but you are allowed to have 2 wins to play in the FIT, or 4 wins to play in the FHSAA playoffs.