This FIT thing is an embarrassment to competition. It’s the villain. It runs counter to what every coach in the country should be teaching their kids.    I know the positives are extra games and practices for the younger kids to springboard into next year and giving the seniors one last ride before they hang it up forever, but this is not the way.    Play a bowl game with a local team and then move on 

Count me in Brodie.  I will be there next Friday night at Isaac Bruce Field.

2-8 Pensacola has to travel 6 hours to play Dunnellon in the FIT tournament on a Thursday night.  What a great idea.  Maybe they should lawyer up and see if they can get a judge to eliminate them from the playoffs.

SLAM Tampa will be in 11-man next season.

Since we can’t get this year’s brackets totally ironed out, why not briefly look ahead to the upcoming Open Division bracket.  Unless amended by the FHSAA Board of Directors, the Open Division will debut in 2026 as a mandatory (not optional) bracket for the top 8 teams in the FHSAA rankings after the regular season.  If the Open Division was in effect this year, these would be the opening round matchups: #8 Bolles @ #1 DeLand #5 Miami NW @ #4 Buchholz #6 Mandarin @ #3 Vero Beach #7 Carrollwood Day @ #2 Cardinal Mooney Not terrible, but these are some of the teams left out (and their final ranking): Raines (#9); Armwood (#10); Edgewater (#12); Lakeland (#14); C-M (#15); STA (#17).  Once again, relying solely on computer rankings may not achieve the desired goals.