District champs won’t worry about counting

There's only one path worth traveling when it comes to reaching the high school football state playoffs in the mind of Lake Nona coach Anthony Paradiso.

“I’ve got the mentality that if we don’t win the district we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs,” Paradiso said.

His Lions (4-1) and Harmony (4-2), two teams sitting on the bubble in Florida’s revised football playoff formula, meet tonight in a Class 7A, District 5 showdown that should help shape the postseason picture.

The league’s leading teams — East River (3-0 in district play), Lake Nona (2-0) and Harmony (3-1) — don’t rate high within their region in the Florida High School Athletic Association’s new points system, which takes into account wins, losses and strength of schedule. Only the district champ is guaranteed one of the eight available region playoff berths.

For years the FHSAA advanced two teams from each district to postseason play, but runners-up no longer advance unless they accumulate enough points to do so.

District champs get one of the top four seeds within each region bracket in Classes 5A through 8A. The four remaining region berths go to teams with the top points totals.