ADs considering a few rules changes ahead of ’20 season

The Florida High School Athletic Association will meet with its athletic directors advisory committee Wednesday morning in Gainesville to discuss potential changes for the 2020 football season.

Last month football coaches recommended two changes that involve postseason rankings and another that would allow more playing time for athletes on varsity and junior-varsity football rosters.

Up for recommendation is the reseeding of postseason brackets entering the state semifinal round, factoring head-tohead matchups when teams are ranked side by side in RPI rankings and allowing programs to apply for waivers to permit players to compete in up to six football quarters per week.

The football advisory committee — which included coaches Richard Pettus of The Villages, First Coast’s Marty Lee, Madison County’s Mike Coe, New Smyrna Beach’s John Wilkinson, Venice’s John Peacock and Keith Allen of The King’s Academy — voted unanimously to approve all three items.

Committee members, speaking on behalf of coaches in their respective sections of the state, felt the current geographical setup of Region 1 playing Region 2 and Region 3 playing Region 4 in state semifinals should change in favor of reseeding. That would mean that instead of having a North semifinal and South semifinal, as has been the norm for decades, the top seed would meet No. 4 and No. 2 would face No. 3.

“This would get us somewhat closer to getting the best two teams to the final game,” it was noted in the official meeting minutes posted on the FHSAA website.

When it comes to opposing teams finishing side by side in the final regularseason RPI region rankings —such as No. 5 and No. 6 — the committee deemed it necessary to factor in any head-to-head matchups before locking teams into those seeds.

District champions seeded No. 1 through No. 4 and at-large teams seeded No. 5 through No. 8 in each region would be evaluated separately.

“If the lower-ranked team beat the higher-ranked team during the regular season, they flip their rankings,” according to the FHSAA document.

The athletic directors committee historically has shied away from allowing student-athletes to play junior-varsity and varsity football games in the same week. The football committee is hopeful that adjusting that policy would allow smaller schools struggling to field sub-varsity teams to improve participation and development of players.

The football committee recommendation is to allow schools to apply to the FHSAA for permission to waive the onegame-per-week policy and allow studentathletes to participate in six quarters in a week.