I agree that this is totally inappropriate.   The game officials should go out of their way to 'avoid the appearance of impropriety.'  A subtle nod of the head prior to the game would about as far as they should go.  Calling kids by name (even if they know the kid's name) and 'high-fiving' a kid clearly crosses the line.  The officials should have been smarter than that.  

Just read the agenda and I was right about the LM game.  It really did have a bad look.

Playoff refs are supposed to be from neutral associations. At least some of the refs at the Lake Mary/Venice games knew at least some of the Lake Mary players. Chatting with and high fiving LM players before the game. Several refs stayed after the game and were milling around the Lake Mary side. I personally have never seen this and have been going to HS games for decades. The penalties were very slanted at Venice in the game.  I think there was 1 late game penalty against LM other than an unsportsmanlike call that went against both teams. I am not saying there was problems. But several of us noticed in the stands. I dont even know if his proposal had to do with this game. But, it was weirdly obvious at that game. 

These are the 8 teams that would have qualified for the Open Division had the plan been in effect this season:  DeLand, Cardinal Mooney, Vero Beach, Buchholz, Miami NW, Mandarin, Carrollwood Day, Bolles.  Which brackets would have been devastated had these teams not participated in their assigned classification?  You could argue 2A, but the fact is that 7 out of the 8 state champions came from outside these eight teams.  Now if the "undisputed top 8 teams" were placed in the Open Division, you might have an argument; but this is the FHSAA, so - nah, you got nothing to worry about.

If they took the undisputed top 8 teams in the state and put them in one open bracket it will still be a disaster because there are too many classes. Which means you will have one awesome bracket who rivals any in the country. And 6 or 7 of the most embarrassing jokes ever. Think about that. They water down the playoff system with way too many classes. And then the solution they come up with is essentially taking the top ranked team from most those classes and putting them in one class making the rest a bunch of JV jokes.    It’s so crazy to me that with all the numbers, data, history, and live results that they can make the product worse!