State committee votes for new classification system
The Florida High School Athletic Association’s Athletic Directors Advisory Committee voted 9-1 to support a new classification system for baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and girls volleyball on Wednesday.
The FHSAA Board of Directors will put this system to a final vote on Oct. 29.
The new system would reduce the state to six classes plus a rural classification, according to a press release from the FHSAA. It would go into effect for the 2019-2020 school year.
In this proposal, a program’s class will still be determined by student enrollment. Class 1A will remain a rural classification and the playoff system will not change, but the rest of the state’s teams will be sorted into Classes 2A-7A.
All classes will be divided into four regions, but the biggest changes come for Classes 2A-7A. Those six classes will be further divided into four equally sized districts per region.
District opponents will not have to play each other during the regular season but will have to play a district championship tournament.
Teams will be seeded for the district tournament by their end-of-season MaxPreps rankings.
“Talking to my coaches that it would impact, they found this one more appealing than the original plan they put forth with no districts and regional play,” Cypress Bay athletic director Scott Selvidge said. “I know a lot of my coaches and a lot of my parents and kids really like the idea of having an opportunity to win a district championship.”
District champions will get an automatic berth into the playoffs and will be the top four seeds in the regional playoffs. Four more teams from each region will receive at-large bids determined by MaxPreps rankings.
“I think it’s going to give an opportunity for more teams to be able to compete in the state tournament after being knocked out by their district if they’re better than another team from another district,” Boca Raton girls basketball coach Nhu Nguyen said. “But my concern is going to be how will MaxPreps measure the atlarge bid if a team has a stronger schedule compared to a team that has a weaker schedule but a better record.”