Memo to FHSAA: Don’t go overboard on Open Division
With five playoff-bound high school football teams ranked top-25 nationally, Florida is more than ready for an Open division made up of powerhouses that have dominated the sport — and to different degrees other sports.
But the Florida High School Athletic Association is poised to go way overboard when its newly appointed 13-seat board of directors meets Nov. 6 and considers a proposal to create 32-team Open divisions for all team-bracket sports starting with the next school year.
The push to separate juggernauts who can stack their rosters with transfers thanks to Florida’s wide-open schoolchoice policies — particularly in football and boys basketball — is valid. The Open concept is working in California and Arizona and needs to be approved for Florida.
But stacking the top-ranked 32 teams into one bracket to slug it out for just one of the nine proposed state championships would not achieve the competitive balance the FHSAA for years has been struggling to improve.
Consider that 17 of the top 32 teams in current MaxPreps football rankings have never won a state championship. That includes two in the top eight: local unbeatens Lake Mary (7-0) and Edgewater (8-0).
Edgewater was a state runner-up three consecutive years (2002-04).
Lake Mary reached the third round of the playoffs for the first time last season, losing to eventual Class 4 Metro runner-up Apopka.
Both teams would merit Open division status this year — at least so far with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
But a 32-team plan would be throwing some mere mortals to the wolves.
Five of today’s top 16 have not won an FHSAA football title.
Just four ranked from 17 to 32 have claimed a championship.
Venice is the only one of that foursome to have earned a title since 2005.
Unless good but not great programs accumulate more talent and climb into the top 16 (which could happen in this transfer-portal era), they shouldn’t be lumped in with the super powers.
Arizona has pulled just eight of its 251 football teams into its Open playoffs since 2019. It has six other state-championship brackets.
The California Interscholastic Federation, which launched its Open division in 2008, has 1,024 high school football teams. It had an eight-team Open class until it expanded to 10 for the first time last season.
I’m assuming the FHSAA classification task force that endorsed the proposal settled on 32 rather than eight or 16 to make it a fiveround playoff series that matches up with the other classes.
Open play with 16 teams makes more sense but doesn’t match up.
The other troubling issue is having a championship trophy for only one of the best 32 (or 16).
Oviedo volleyball coach and athletic director Jen Darty, who was on the task force, expressed that concern.
“It would be an absolutely incredible tournament. If it was every team playing for one championship, we would get after it. Let’s go!” Darty said. “But if all of the top teams are battling it out for one [Open] championship and then you’re going to have six or seven teams win other championships below that. …. Something about that doesn’t seem right.”
She is right.
I have the solution for both concerns:
The FHSAA should have four championship classifications within a 16-team Open Division.
Here’s how that could look for football, based on MaxPreps’ rankings going into this week’s games. The 16 highest-ranked teams are divided into four classes based on enrollment. They’re listed with their current win-loss record, and student count (from 2021-22 for this example):
CLASS 4O
No. 8 Lake Mary (7-0) 2,705 students
12 Miami Columbus (7-1) 1,740* 14 Treasure Coast (5-2) 3,064 16 Sanford Seminole (6-2) 4,037 (all boys enrollment is doubled for classification)
CLASS 3O
2 St. Thomas Aquinas (7-1) 2,058 7 Edgewater (8-0) 2,065 9 Buchholz (7-0) 2,338 13 Lakeland (7-2) 2,034
CLASS 2O
3 American Heritage Plantation (5-1) 1,560
5 Miami Norland (7-0) 1,590 10 Mainland (7-0) 1,959 11 Homestead (5-1) 2,015
CLASS 1O
1 Chaminade-Madonna (7-0) 548 4 Cocoa (6-1) 985
6 Miami Central (3-3) 1,306 15 Clearwater Central Catholic (8-0) 563
Yes, this means four Open teams would win state championships with just two playoff wins. But look at the rankings. There will be four worthy champions.
And then it gets more interesting.
The four Open champions would get byes to Sunshine Showdown semifinals in Round 4 of the playoffs. Picture that as two neutral-site epic doubleheaders.
The winners play in the best of the best Sunshine Showdown championship game, played alongside finals for the Rural division and four other classifications.
That adds up to 10 championship games — counting the four Round 3 Open Class finals.
I would switch to using the standard MaxPreps rankings because they are far more accurate than the FHSAA power rankings.
Proof of that is Miami Central, No. 17 in one national ranking. The Rockets, winners of four consecutive state titles and nine since 2010, are No. 47 on the FHSAA list because they had losses to Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, 39-38 (on the road); Chaminade-Madonna, 31-28; and Miami Norland, 29-26.
Those three teams are a combined 23-0 going into Friday night games. Gorman was No. 1 nationally in the MaxPreps and SBLive rankings. Chaminade is No. 2 by MaxPreps. Norland, which reportedly gained 20 transfer starters prior to this season, was as high as 15.
Central joins three Broward County dynasty programs atop the Open conversation.
Chaminade rolled to its fifth state title in its seventh consecutive finals appearance last season.
St. Thomas Aquinas has won four straight and owns the state record with 14 championships.
American Heritage has won five titles since 2013.
The Open tournament I’m proposing would allow all four of those schools — and other power programs like Edgewater, Lake Mary, Seminole, Apopka, Lakeland, Mainland and others — to continue chasing state titles and then face each other to see who really is No. 1.