OPINION: Time for the FHSAA to cut a classification in football

[Joshua Wilson]

I have issued the rare opinion column on FloridaHSFootball.com

 

It is time for the FHSAA to cut a classification in football.

 

I have come up with a plan I think could work for the entire state and it is something I will be presenting on the website this coming week.

 

I will also be welcoming your feedback and opinion. Share your thoughts now if you want to!

 

LINK: http://floridahsfootball.com/2014/06/07/opinion-time-fhsaa-cut-classification-football/

[nolebull813]

So are you going to talk specifically to the people who make the decisions?

[nolebull813]

.

[Tigerfan1]

i think 8 classafactions are fine the way it is, I dont understand why you want to change it

[TheJayManson]

i think 8 classafactions are fine the way it is, I dont understand why you want to change it

I think his reasoning is partially in an attempt to try and curb the latest trend of schools who are becoming independant due to unfair positioning in a district or class and the FHSAA not allowing teams to move down to a classification that would give them chance to be more competitive. I believe their are enough schools currently independant that could form up their own classification with roughly 80 teams.

[Tigerfan1]

But are you taking in to account the size of the schools are all 80 the same size,  I doubt you could get them to form a class of there own when you have a disparity in size of schools.

[peezy28]

Keep 1A (Let small school North Teams have their own exclusive league and championship as they already do and call it Florida North or something because to truly be a rural class team like Frostproof, Ft. Meade, and Pahokee would have to be included which they never will because of distance ) break up the remaining classifications by simply combining

 

2A+3A = 1A - The majority of the teams in these classes are overwhelmingly private schools as is.  You could even call it Florida Small Private class and push all the small public schoolsinto the Florida Rural or class above which would give a southern base for rural teams without private schools included.  Isn't 3A population lower than the highest Rural?

 

4A and 5A = 2A - the talent difference is slim to none here.  Your best 4A can compete and beat the best in 5A on any given day.  The teams that never win state in 4A are not getting over that hump anyday soon with the top 6 teams in 4A never changing so just lump them together.

 

6A-7A =3A - Combine these 2 and change the high attendance.  These 2 are Florida's 2 most competitive classifications.  I do not see a disparagement of talent or teams between the 2. 

8A =4A Take all the big schools (not necessarily the best) and lump them here.  Include some of the higher end 7A schools like Plant, East Lake Palm Harbor etc.  

 

There we have 5 classes possibly 1 for all small private schools and 1 for small public.

 

It will never happen though but just my thoughts.

[Joshua Wilson]

Jay is right that part of it is that we need to curb something with these teams going independent or we are going to end up having such further enrollment disparity that it will send even more teams running for the hills. 

 

It is an issue that needs to be looked at and I am just sad that most want to stick to status quo, which is not the answer.

[Tigerfan1]

The only way to level the playing field is to separate public and private in all classifications . Most of the problems are coming from the private schools located in high population areas (2A and 3A) being put into a district with teams from smaller areas. That's why you are seeing teams go independent, Schools like Oak Hall and St Francis know that they cant compete with schools like NFC or OTC because they dont accept students that cant pay there way. I have a feeling that these guys will be lobbying for there on league at some point, 

I Agree the FHSA needs to look at this but i don't think cutting the classifications down to 7 will fix the problem. You cant take just a percentage and fix the problems you need to look at each school or district independently and see how they form there teams.

 

At least that's how i see it in the northern part of the state, I cant speak for the south   

[TheJayManson]

The size of the schools that are independent does have some variance as I know of schools that would be 1A that are independent as well as schools that would be 3A or 4A... The problem is that the amount of independent schools has been steadily growing in the last few years as a result of many teams that were redistricted and reclassified in the latest change and were put into a district that would be unfair to them competitively. For example when I started playing high school football at my alma mater we were a 1A school, we were then moved up to 2A which wasn't too big of a change as we still had a few teams from our old district move up with us. However last year, after I graduated we were placed in 3A with quite a few schools bigger than us and would not have been fair to us competitively. My school along with another school that moved up with us appealed to the FHSAA but were rejected in trying to move back down to 2A so both teams then dropped from the district and became independent.

[peezy28]

What is your school J?

[TheJayManson]

I attended Saint Stephens Episcopal School in Bradenton Florida where I played Varsity football from 10th through 12th grade

[STARaiders2014]

8 classes is fine with me. Technically we have 8 classes here in NC. We have 1A-4A but come playoff time we split them 1A, 1AA, 2A, 2AA etc etc. We do it based on attendance of course although it was really done for the $$, but it is exciting! 8 classes to me is good