While your position is well-argued, reality is not totally consistent with your conclusions.  Here are the teams that would have made the Open Division bracket in 2024 had it been in effect: Nease Cardinal Newman Venice Jones Gadsden County C-M West Boca Raton AH-P And in 2025: DeLand Cardinal Mooney Vero Beach Buchholz Miami NW Mandarin Carrollwood Day Bolles So in the past 2 years: no STA, no Miami Central, no Raines, no Lakeland, no Edgewater, no Armwood, no Lake Mary, and so on. The variable that cannot be accounted for is the use of MaxPreps rankings to select the Open bracket teams.  At this point, there is no human element involved in selection, no selection committee, no "eyeball" test, no historical element of success, and no "these are the teams that I think should be in the Open Division" in the opinion of various members of this board. All we know is MaxPreps uses W-L record, strength of schedule, margin of victory, and who knows what other variables in some weighted formula to magically produce a numerical value.  Will a team with a 9-1 record whose only loss is to an out-of-state powerhouse be pushed out of the Open Division by a 10-0 team who pounded a bunch of cupcakes? I don't think the entire playoff system in Florida is going to implode into a pile of rubbish with the advent of the Open Division, although you may be correct in the end.  I think there are enough good teams in Florida to keep things interesting.  I'll give it a year to see what actually transpires before drawing any conclusions.

You're absolutely right on all accounts. 

I like the idea of the open division, but only if they cut the classes substantially.    Think about this garbage. They have 7-8 freaking classes, and at the end of the season they essentially take the best team from each class and put them in one epic open bracket.    sounds great, until you realize you now have 6 other playoff brackets that all now become obsolete because the best teams were removed making them fake brackets.    Imagine if Raines, Central and MNW were all removed from their class. Or Lakeland and STA. You would have some fake winners bragging they won a championship over teams from the same class that were thrown in the open.    how pissed would you be to be the number 1 team in a class, get thrown into an all star bracket with teams double your size and strength, you lose and watch a dud team from your same class breeze through your class bracket to win the title. Lol. 

Durant  

Yes, seems to be more in line with their schedules of old. Much more manageable, all local schools and allows for them to be competitive in at least half of the games. They will still struggle against Vero, FP Central, John Carroll and probably Jensen Beach, but maybe the embarrassing losses are gone for them. I really like Coach Jones and the culture he built there, and it was a shame to see them fall apart like they did. His offensive scheme - while successful for a time, just doesn’t fall in line with today’s athletes goals. He (like Apopka before him) tried to throw in some spread offense, but most of his athletes had already fled (I would guess back to Central, Vero, and elsewhere.) Hopefully this schedule will allow him to reset the program on an upward trend.