FHSAA looks to revamp playoffs

One year after shaking up high school football with a revamped playoff system, the Florida High School Athletic Association is thinking outside the box again.

This time the state governing body is pitching a revolutionary new plan for other team sports, one designed to achieve competitive balance and reduce the blowouts that have occurred at recent state tournaments.

FHSAA staffers have come to the conclusion that nine championship classifications is too many and aligning teams based solely on the enrollment of their school is too simplistic in an age where school choice options and transfers annually produce powerhouse programs on campuses of various sizes.

Changes in the association’s draft proposal would be significant. The FHSAA would replace enrollment counts with power rankings and cut classifications from nine to seven for baseball, boys and girls basketball, softball and girls volleyball. Boys and girls soccer will have six classes, up from five. That expansion was already planned based on the growing number of teams in that sport.

Districts and district tournaments would be eliminated, meaning schools would create their own regular-season schedules without any mandatory games.

The top 64 teams, based on power ratings from the previous two or three seasons (to be decided) would go to Division I for the 2019-20 school year — no matter how big or

small their school is. That would yield a “best of the best” super division and the marquee matchups proponents believe will bring big crowds back to state tournaments.

If the proposal had been in place for this year’s boys basketball playoffs, all seven of the teams that won state championships above Class 1A would have been Division 1. That includes all three area title teams — Blanche Ely (8A), University School (5A) and Westminster Academy (4A).

“I think it’ll be really good for some matchups. Some new rivalries will be formed,” said Westminster Academy coach Ehren Wallhoff, who has led the Lions to the last two Class 4A state titles. “My only concern would be how they come up with the rankings, who plays who, what’s the format.

“The question is: ‘Does it get us to a true state champion?’ If it does, great. It could be exciting for Broward and Dade because normally our teams do well — or even Palm Beach — at the state level, obviously because of the level of talent we have down here.”

Division 2 would have teams rated 65 through 128 and all would make a second-tier 64-line playoff bracket.

The remaining schools below D1 and D2 and above the 1A rural division, which is preserved for small-town schools with 600 students or less, would be divided evenly across Divisions 3-6. There would be roughly 115 to 130 teams in those groupings depending on the sport.

The highest-rated 64 in each division would advance to region play.

While Division 1 would feature the state’s best and have an NCAA Tournament-type vibe, the quality of play in the lower levels would be significantly lower. If Divisions 3-6 each had 122 schools, the 495th best team in the state would be the favorite to win the Division 6 state title.

“Being a state champion, you’re the best in your classification,” Jupiter basketball coach John Andersen said. “I don’t like that they would arrange it by team skill. If you’re the 495th best team, you probably shouldn’t be a state champion.”

A school could conceivably play boys basketball in Division 1, girls hoops in D4, and its other five major team sports spread across D2, D3, D5 and D6. But all seven squads could schedule the same opponents in the regular season.

In baseball, the idea is met with intrigue, but it still avoids what many coaches felt the primary concern for their postseason was how teams used to be able to ride one arm to the state final, which the FHSAA decided to change earlier in June with a condensed postseason schedule. The desire for a best two-out-of-three series somewhere in regional rounds remains among baseball coaches.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction, but not the answer,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Troy Cameron said. “Three-game series would be a better resolution because the better team would advance more times than not.”

The FHSAA, which currently has just over 700 member schools, has used enrollment numbers to classify teams since the 1930s. But lopsided playoff scores have made it obvious that school size doesn’t dictate how strong or weak a team might be.

University School won its basketball state final by 40 points. Orlando Christian Prep cruised to its seventh state championship in the past 11 years with a 47-point semifinal laugher and an 18-point championship game victory.

American Heritage-Delray won its Class 2A boys state soccer final, 4-0, while girls soccer had two other, 4-0, title-game results and one 6-0 final.

The imbalance is not as prevalent in some sports. There was a, 15-0, softball state semifinal last month, but most of the final four games were competitive; as was the case in baseball.

The association modeled its studies on MaxPreps power ratings but said this week that it could look at other ranking systems or create its own — as it did for football. The formula will factor in wins, losses and strength of schedule.

FHSAA staffers are making the rounds this spring and summer to explain the plan and take questions from member schools. As with football, there is no shortage of questions and concerns.

The measure is scheduled to go to the association’s board of directors for discussion in September and come back for a vote by the board October. It would go into effect for the school year after next.