The SSAA Atlantic division has grown from 20 for 2025 to 52 and counting for 2026. With the exception of Okeechobee who would otherwise be 4A, most the schools in it are either rural, 1A or 2A and only a few 3A. The Atlantic division is for schools 800+ in size. I'm curious to know if there's enough interest from the large school independents and the SSAA to create a large school division? Let's say 1600 and up.
Interesting development… Alabama restructures football classifications:
"The Alabama High School Athletic Association’s Central Board of Control voted by a 13-2 margin to adopt a new model that establishes 6 classifications for public schools and 2 classifications for private schools. Under the new format, public and private schools will compete in separate classifications for regular season play and separate brackets for postseason championships, while still being allowed to play one another during the regular season."
Alabama joins Tennessee and Georgia in separating public and private schools in postseason play. Not saying this is the answer in Florida, but it shows a willingness of some states to address the competitive equity issue in their states. If the FHSAA continues its head-buried-in-the-sand approach to this issue, more schools will surely be seeking different opportunities outside the FHSAA.
All the FHSAA has to do is lock down the transfer madness and it will fix everything. These teams are downtrodden because they continually get raided by the all star teams. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. I have said time and again, the easiest way to fix the transfer chaos is to auto-bump schools into the open division if they get 5+ transfers into their team. "What about the legitimate transfers for moves???" Yes, this is a challenge but there are ways around that. Coaches who worry about getting bumped into the open division can simply tell kids that move they have to sit out a year. A "non-traditional" student athlete also counts as a transfer in every year. That would take care of system abusers like West Boca that have literally 30+ players on their team that don't even go to West Boca.