Coaches endorse adding 32 more berths
The high school football playoffs will expand this year for the state’s smaller classifications should athletic directors sign off next week on policy changes endorsed by a coaches committee.
The measure would add two additional playoff teams per region for Classes 1A through 4A. That would advance six teams from each of the four regions within those classifications — expanding the playoffs from 16 teams to 24 for those four classes.
The change would give small schools five playoff rounds, matching the 32-team brackets for 5A-8A. The regional quarterfinal rounds would serve as a bye week for the top two seeds in each small-school region.
That’s just one of several proposed changes to the Florida High School Athletic Association football playoffs as voted on Wednesday by the Football Advisory Committee.
The committee, made up of seven coaches elected by peers from different parts of the state, endorsed several key changes to the new playoff format at its meeting Wednesday in Gainesville.
Also affirmed was an increase in playoff points teams will receive for losses and bonus points for playing opponents from higher classifications.
The committee also asked FHSAA staff to urge the association’s board of directors once again to raise the roster limit for playoff games beyond the current cap of 60. That is a plea coaches have made for a number of years to no avail.
The athletic director’s advisory committee and the FHSAA board will review the recommendations before changes are finalized but most of the procedural recommendations that were favored on Wednesday are expected to be seen in the 2018 season.
A.D.’s meet at FHSAA headquarters in Gainesville next Wednesday. The board meets on Jan. 29.
Class 2A Foundation Academy, 3A’s Trinity Prep and Pierson Taylor, and 4A’s The Villages and Mount Dora are among area programs that would have played in the postseason had there been six berths per region in 2017.
“That’s better, but now you’ve got regions with nine teams in them, and until you make the region teams play each other, the regions don’t really mean anything,” Foundation coach Brad Lord said. “But it’s a good move to go to six [playoff ] teams and give extra points for playing up in classification.”
A proposal that would have required 1A-4A teams to schedule three in-region opponents via random draw was denied by a 7-0 vote.
Foundation, which resides in a 14-team region, had trouble filling out its 2017 schedule. Lord said the change made in playoff points means he’s much more willing to return to scheduling the likes of 8A neighbor West Orange.
The committee increased the amount of points each team is given for losses by five points in each of the formula’s four categories. A loss to a Category 1 team that finishes no worse than 8-2 is now worth 35 points instead of 30, matching the same number of points earned for wins against a Category 4 team that finishes 2-8.
The move was made to add balance to the points system and encourage teams to play tough foes.
The recommendation for playing larger schools will award points in one-point increments per class, and be capped at a maximum of three points. Foundation would earn one bonus point for playing 3A The First Academy and no more than three extra points for playing up against West Orange. The coaches committee asked that staff come up with a tier-system that would also factor in winloss records of the higherclassification opponents.
Endorsed unanimously, the measure would not be instituted until 2019, when new schedules are made.
Ongoing discussions will be had next week among ADs regarding how to handle postponed and interrupted games.
The coaches committee debated those situations at length. A shell of a proposal was approved that would require schools to either complete the game the next day, lock in a rescheduled date, or agree that the result of a partial game stands as complete and notify the FHSAA quickly.
The AD committee will also be presented with the idea of seeding the North and South halves of each bracket rather than seeding within regions. That would seed 16 teams on each side of a big-school bracket with No. 1 hosting No. 16, No. 2 hosting No. 15, etc., in the first round. That change would likely increase travel but was recommended as a means to have the best teams not meet until deeper into the playoffs.
Frank Beasley, the FHSAA administrator who authored the revised playoff format, told coaches he can discuss the pros, cons and concerns on cross-bracketing with athletic directors.
Among the proposals shot down by the football committee was one that would have brought back districts for 1A-4A.