FHSAA Classification Proposal for Sports Outside of Football

[Joshua Wilson]

10 hours ago, badbird said:

sent you a message but here it is for all.  Josh basically said it above

 

1A stays the same

2A-7A teams divided evenly with rest of teams off enrollment  (so we go from 9 classes to 7)

4 regions 4 districts in each region and districts divided evenly (so big districts)

district tournament seeded using maxpreps, don't have to play teams in district in regular season so that helps with travel 

4 district champs plus top 4 highest rank advance to playoffs.  Seeded in playoffs using maxpreps top 4 spots are district champs 5-8 wild cards.

 

not sure how many classes soccer will have because it only had 5 so i don't see them going to 7

 

that's the latest proposal

Things are still fresh on this I even had to digest this a bit myself and listen to more discussion.

Badbird, as you put it is correct...

They are considering removing the 1A name off of Rural and just calling it the Rural Class.

1A would start with the current 2A and it would be 1A-6A

The teams would be divided evenly based on each individual sport using enrollment meaning the cutoffs are going to be different. That means your Boys Basketball program could be in Class 6A for example but in softball might be in Class 5A. 

I am trying to push to get them to change football to what we are all calling 6 + 1 (6 + Rural) but keeping the points system intact because my rationale is simple. If you are saying other major team sports have too many classes, you have to say the same for football which has few teams than any of the other sports they are working with outside of soccer. 

And yes soccer will go up to 6 classes but it will not have the Rural component. 

[badbird]

thx.  I wonder why they are considering increasing soccer.  Less seems better for competition

[WhatsUpDoc]

So I’m curious I have a “hunch” all this is going to lead 5A-7A combing into a 32 team class then so on. Is this true on the “hunch” I’m seeing here? If so I pray many schools break away from FHSAA and start their own leagues because if they believe for one sec a small rural 5A school can compete with larger 7A schools they are very blinded to the word fair playing field!!!!

[OldSchoolLion]

1 hour ago, WhatsUpDoc said:

So I’m curious I have a “hunch” all this is going to lead 5A-7A combing into a 32 team class then so on. Is this true on the “hunch” I’m seeing here? If so I pray many schools break away from FHSAA and start their own leagues because if they believe for one sec a small rural 5A school can compete with larger 7A schools they are very blinded to the word fair playing field!!!!

...just some perspective.  Back in the 1970's, North Florida was a heck of a lot more rural than it was now, and the Panhandle schools gave the rest of the state all if could handle, regardless of class.  Even when playing schools in the same class, the difference in access to talent pools was huge and worked against the north FL schools.  For instance, one 4A final was Miami Carol City vs Choctawhatchee.  How did they do it?  ..by being mean and nasty. 

The vast majority of 5A schools today are in the vicinity of highly populated areas with access to a substantial talent pool.  Amongst the more "rural" 5A schools might be Wakulla.  Wakulla County has about 30,000 people.  For some around the South, 30,000 is a good-sized county.  Georgia has about 100 counties with less than 30,000 people.  And some of them routinely take on schools from the big city during the regular season.  5AWakulla with 1500 kids competing against current 7A Lincoln with 2100 kids....I don't see that being an insurmountable barrier to win.  Wakulla could likely beat many of the Miami teams in 7AR4 now.     

It's all relative.  Tift County in Georgia has about 40,000 people...about the size of Levy County in FL.  They have a school with 2100 kids.  They play in 7A with Atlanta schools that have over 3500 kids.  Coach Buddy Goins, who coached Miami Springs many years ago, had a team in the early 90's that went undefeated and gave eventual champion Southridge it's toughest game of the playoffs.  They had less than 30 kids.  Talk about nasty kids.    

At some point, the kids and coaches just need to buck up and get nasty if they want to win.  

  

[WhatsUpDoc]

You forget there are still high schools in a county where that high school is the only high school and they are on the bottom of 5A population bracket. They don’t get the luxury of transfersike others in the same classification!!! You cannot just shove them to the side and expect to feed into others. With the current transfer policies and laws many 5A schools have talent at the 4A and below because the larger schools are in fact pulling from them. Where is the fair play in all of this? None. Do nothing t get me wrong I understand why the school choice law was created because private school recruit because they are allowed to due to a loophole. 

It’s not about bucking up. When a school has the luxury to get 6’4” WRs every year while the rural schools don’t where is the fairness? You are saying that small colleges like Southeastern University football needs to buck up and be forced to play Florida Gators!!!!!! I call it BS!!!!

Because a county has 30k ppl doesn’t mean crap. Lakeland has what 500k or more but they only have what 3 high schools!!! Look at Tampa they have a few million ppl. What you are not getting is even though there are  30k counties they don’t have the luxury to get the players in each year like other schools in the larger cities. It usually takes 10 years to get a good group of players!!! That’s a fact!!

[OldSchoolLion]

8 hours ago, WhatsUpDoc said:

You forget there are still high schools in a county where that high school is the only high school and they are on the bottom of 5A population bracket. They don’t get the luxury of transfersike others in the same classification!!! You cannot just shove them to the side and expect to feed into others. With the current transfer policies and laws many 5A schools have talent at the 4A and below because the larger schools are in fact pulling from them. Where is the fair play in all of this? None. Do nothing t get me wrong I understand why the school choice law was created because private school recruit because they are allowed to due to a loophole. 

It’s not about bucking up. When a school has the luxury to get 6’4” WRs every year while the rural schools don’t where is the fairness? You are saying that small colleges like Southeastern University football needs to buck up and be forced to play Florida Gators!!!!!! I call it BS!!!!

Because a county has 30k ppl doesn’t mean crap. Lakeland has what 500k or more but they only have what 3 high schools!!! Look at Tampa they have a few million ppl. What you are not getting is even though there are  30k counties they don’t have the luxury to get the players in each year like other schools in the larger cities. It usually takes 10 years to get a good group of players!!! That’s a fact!!

In years past, there were numerous schools in "rural" north FL that put out multiple good/great teams year after year...Woodham played in title games in 82, 84 and 85.  Milton was a 3A power throughout the 1980's.  I could go on and on.  Those coaches figured out how to take average kids and make them good. 

What schools in 6A/7A are getting a substantial number of high-caliber(future FBS) transfers every year?  When Venice beat ST Thomas in the playoffs, they had four 3-star players on that team.  Sorry, but comparing a 5A vs 7A matchup to a Southeastern U vs the Gators...not even a close comparison.  The disparities are not that great.  Look through the list of current 6A and 7A teams.  There are a lot of really weak 6A and 7A programs in some of the more urbanized areas of the state.  

There were huge talent disparities in the dinosaur days that had to be overcome.  I agree transfers have added a new dimension to the game, but to think that the challenges of "rural" teams is that much greater than in the past.  I can tell many stories.       

[OldSchoolLion]

In 2012, Mark Guandolo took Cypress Bay to the 8A finals and lost an epic game to Apopka.  That team had four three-star players, despite being an 8A school in talent-rich Broward County.  Back in 2003, Guandolo won a title at Chaminade with a team that some thought was one of the best in state regardless of classification.  There was only one kid I know of off that that team went on to play at a D1 school.  Guandolo did it again in 2005 with another team that was not loaded with superstars.

There are some who probably thought the guy simply reloaded with transfers.  That coach knew how to get the best out of "B+" players.   

  

[badbird]

7 hours ago, WhatsUpDoc said:

You forget there are still high schools in a county where that high school is the only high school and they are on the bottom of 5A population bracket. They don’t get the luxury of transfersike others in the same classification!!! You cannot just shove them to the side and expect to feed into others. With the current transfer policies and laws many 5A schools have talent at the 4A and below because the larger schools are in fact pulling from them. Where is the fair play in all of this? None. Do nothing t get me wrong I understand why the school choice law was created because private school recruit because they are allowed to due to a loophole. 

It’s not about bucking up. When a school has the luxury to get 6’4” WRs every year while the rural schools don’t where is the fairness? You are saying that small colleges like Southeastern University football needs to buck up and be forced to play Florida Gators!!!!!! I call it BS!!!!

Because a county has 30k ppl doesn’t mean crap. Lakeland has what 500k or more but they only have what 3 high schools!!! Look at Tampa they have a few million ppl. What you are not getting is even though there are  30k counties they don’t have the luxury to get the players in each year like other schools in the larger cities. It usually takes 10 years to get a good group of players!!! That’s a fact!!

have your school drop out and join its own conference