FHSAA returns football classes to prior format, open division playoffs to be discussed
The Metro-Suburban era for Florida high school football is over after only two seasons.
The Florida High School Athletic Association’s Board of Directors voted this week in a 9-4 vote to do away with the current alignment that condensed all South Florida teams into four Metropolitan divisions.
The FHSAA will return football to an eight classification format (used prior to the 2022 season) that will divide its member schools into seven classifications (7A-1A) and a Rural classification beginning with the 2024-25 season.
The FHSAA also voted to maintain teams’ requirement to play district games for the upcoming season.
But one of the biggest topics of discussion was postponed to a later date.
The Board did not vote on the proposed “Open Division” playoff format which would have an undetermined amount of the state’s top-ranked teams - regardless of classification - taken from their respective classifications and placed into an overall state championship tournament.
FHSAA executive director Craig Damon had previously recommended eight-team Open divisions be implemented for 15 sports including football. That decision was tabled for possible future discussion by board president Monica Colucci, a Miami-Dade school board representative, as she advised that the Board focus on regular-season football policy for the time being.
For the moment the move back to the previous alignment figures to be a welcome decision for South Florida schools who felt it prevented several of the state’s top teams from having a chance to win state championships.
Even before the state’s Metro-Suburban realignment, at least five Dade and Broward teams advanced to the finals in the three previous seasons with that number peaking with seven state champions from the area in 2019. Since 2010, at least four teams from Dade or Broward have advanced to the state finals each year.
Miami-Dade and Broward teams have dominated the state football finals for several years, winning multiple state championships as they did again this season, bringing home three of the possible four state titles in the Metro classes. However, in Class 3M, Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas and Homestead faced each other for the championship.
Last season, two finals were contested between Dade and Broward teams when Aquinas beat Homestead in Class 3M and Miami Central beat Plantation American Heritage in 2M.
The Open Division playoffs could prompt more such matchups should South Florida teams end up among the top teams qualifying for an overall championship.
A motion could be made for the Open Division format at the Board’s next meeting on Feb. 26. For now, the vote for required district games allows the state to begin classifying all teams into the new alignment and scheduling for the next two seasons to begin.
