Football Classifications for 2026-2028

[Dr. D]

The latest from the FHSAA, for those who haven't seen:

https://fhsaa.com/news/2025/12/17/football-classifications-available-for-2026-27-2027-28.aspx

[gbrown977]

As of now, SSAA teams that are still showing up:

The Master's Academy 

Sneads

Wildwood 

Boca Raton Christian 

Cambridge Christian 

Umatilla

Faith Christian

[Dr. D]

The Rural class is at 24 teams and dropping, so the impact of the SSAA is obvious. 

[nolebull813]

I think 415 in 6 classes is disgusting. It’s the opposite of competitive competition. It’s a watered down waste. Small districts. Teams scrambling to schedule 6-8 games on their own. 2-3 win teams making the playoffs. Same quality teams all getting their special own class. 
 

There should be 4 classes for 415 teams. Thats 103-104 per class on average. Which comes out to 6-7 teams per district for 16 districts. What’s so horrible about that?????????

[nolebull813]

There should be 4 classes plus rural and have an open division for teams who have a certain amount of football transfers. Maybe 5-7 for that year. If you acquire 5-7 transfers from the day after the prior state championship games all the way to on or before the last regular season playing date then you enter the open. 
 

And the way they can classify the teams is by enrollment first, and then winning percentage to balance them out. So teams with the worst winning percentage the 2 years prior are eligible to move down and the teams with the highest can move up. 

[gatorman-uf]

Here's what I don't understand about people who say we need bigger classes. They often point to Georgia, Georgia's classes range from 79 (for the smallest schools) to 58 (for the largest schools). 
 

Actually, I am willing to bet that most states don't have classifications with 100 team classes. I think some of the answers are a little simpler, decrease the number of classes per region to 3 (especially if we are using a rating system instead of district champs/runner-ups). This accomplishes the goal of larger districts, ensures the best teams get in, and doesn't water it down.

This is where I make my promotion/relegation pitch, but I will save it for next week once the classifications/MaxPreps rankings are done for the year. 

[Dr. D]

You are correct that most states don’t have classifications with 100+ teams.  In fact, the Texas UIL is the only organization which has over 100 teams in its classifications (9- and 10-team districts are not uncommon in Texas).  California comes close, but is difficult to assess because each CIF Section (Southern, San Diego, Sac‑Joaquin, etc.) has its own number of teams and playoff divisions, which vary widely.  Even 80 teams per classification is well above the norm in the United States.  Anyone advocating for 100+ teams per classification in Florida envisions Florida being on the extreme high end among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

[i4football]

I Pretty sure 1981 - 1983 4A (which was the largest classification), had just over 100 teams.

[The Heartland Archives]

10 hours ago, gbrown977 said:

As of now, SSAA teams that are still showing up:

The Master's Academy 

Sneads

Wildwood 

Boca Raton Christian 

Cambridge Christian 

Umatilla

Faith Christian

I am an alum of Hardee HS in Wauchula. I see the FHSAA has Hardee listed in Class 3A, District 7 when they released their "finalized" list yesterday. I believe this is an erroneous listing, because as far as I am aware nobody from here has publicly announced we will be rejoining the FHSAA only one year after we left the FHSAA for the SSAA. We joined the SSAA last year and it does not make sense to rejoin the FHSAA only one year after leaving it, so I think this is obviously an erroneous listing. However, I do see the FHSAA removed DeSoto from Class 3A, District 7 after the SSAA officially announced yesterday that DeSoto will be joining the SSAA Atlantic League for next season.

[gbrown977]

2 hours ago, The Heartland Archives said:

I am an alum of Hardee HS in Wauchula. I see the FHSAA has Hardee listed in Class 3A, District 7 when they released their "finalized" list yesterday. I believe this is an erroneous listing, because as far as I am aware nobody from here has publicly announced we will be rejoining the FHSAA only one year after we left the FHSAA for the SSAA. We joined the SSAA last year and it does not make sense to rejoin the FHSAA only one year after leaving it, so I think this is obviously an erroneous listing. However, I do see the FHSAA removed DeSoto from Class 3A, District 7 after the SSAA officially announced yesterday that DeSoto will be joining the SSAA Atlantic League for next season.

Hardee is still with the SSAA, I missed them in the classification when I posted that.