FHSAA state basketball better with 2 fewer championships

COMMENTARY classifications was made for all the team-bracket sports that had nine championship classes for the past three school years: basketball, baseball, fastpitch softball and girls volleyball. Every tournament is better now because more teams are competing within each class for the 32 available region slots. Playoff brackets are no longer watered down, and the number of blowout mismatches is declining.

Not counting Class 1A, the rural division that did not change, the average margin of victory for the seven boys basketball championship games last week was 8.2 points. I counted zero differential for overtime games.

That’s actually up from the 7.1 average for the eight finals above 1A in 2019. But 8.2 is significantly smaller than the boys state tournament average victory margins were for every year from 2012 (20.7 points per game) through 2018 (18.0).

This was the first time in nine years that at least one boys basketball final wasn’t won by 21 points or more.

The biggest championship game spreads last week were Miramar’s 66-51 win against cold-shooting Seminole in Class 7A and Orlando Christian Prep’s 58-44 win over Impact Christian of Jacksonville in 2A. That 7A final was a six-point game going into the fourth quarter, and OCP was down by one going into the final quarter of its championship contest.

There were three overtime games in the semifinal rounds — including Oak Ridge’s 61-55 loss to Miramar.

The average margin of victory was also tighter for this season’s 24 region finals across the top six classes (9.2 points) compared to a year ago, when three region finals were decided by 33 points or more.

District tournaments were mostly terrific, at least in Central Florida, because every district now has at least six teams. The FHSAA revision rid the system of two- and three-team leagues, where weak teams got a free pass to the region playoffs.

Not everybody agrees, but I like that district runners-up are no longer guaranteed a regional berth. It was fantastic to see five teams from Class 7A, District 3, labeled the “District of Death,” qualify for region play and slug it out.

I liken it to the NCAA Tournament, where lowmajor conferences are assured of getting their tournament champ into the Big Dance while the high majors get multiple teams into the mix.

The aspect of the new FHSAA format that still concerns coaches is using MaxPreps power rankings to determine the wild-card berths and seeding for the district, region and state tournaments. Coaches are bothered by the lack of transparency because MaxPreps hasn’t revealed its ratings recipe. And its track record as a prognosticator isn’t great.

Teams seeded No. 1 for Class 7A district tournaments via FHSAA ratings generated by MaxPreps won only seven of those 16 championships. But I believe that was more a sign of parity than a problem.

The seeding “upsets” in 7A included Lake Nona over Oak Ridge in District 5, Windermere over Kissimmee Osceola in District 6, Timber Creek over Oviedo in District 4, and third seed Dr. Phillips beating No. 2 Apopka and No. 3 Ocoee to win District 3. Those weren’t shocking results. And when you look across all classes, 67 of the 96 district tournaments were won by the top seed and 95% were won by either No. 1 or 2.

Still, critics will note that the only boys basketball state title teams that were ranked No. 1 in their class going into the region rounds were Bartow and OCP. Class 7A champ Miramar, 5A winner Tallahassee Rickards, 4A champ Fort Lauderdale Stranahan and 3A champ Boca Raton St. Andrew’s all were rated No. 4 going into the round of 32 for each bracket.

You could chalk that up to parity created by shifting to seven classes.

Or you could make the argument that the rankings are unreliable and urge the FHSAA to come up with some other seeding system and quit accepting checks from MaxPreps, a California-based company that touts itself as “America’s Source for High School Sports.”

I say let’s be thankful for the dramatic playoffs we witnessed this year in Central Florida and an entertaining state tournament. If there’s a better seeding source than MaxPreps for sports aside from football, I haven’t seen it.

Give the FHSAA at least another year or two to crunch the numbers and discuss potential improvements.

I like that I saw fewer games last week in Lakeland, but better basketball.