The Florida High School Athletic Association‘s board of directors listened to FHSAA football administrator Frank Beasley on Tuesday talk about his plan to revamp the state’s high school football playoff system for the 2017 season.
Beasley, who is a a former Florida high school football coach, outlined a plan that would eliminate districts for the state’s four lower classifications — 1A through 4A. Those playoff berths would be determined and seeded into a geographic region bracket by a points system that rewards teams for victories and strength of schedule based on all 10 regular-season games.
In Florida’s biggest classifications — Classes 5A through 8A — districts would be retained and 16 champions would be crowned. The champions in each district would advance to the playoffs and be seeded in the top four of their region based the points system. District runners-up would no longer automatically advance. Instead, four wild card teams in each region would qualify based on points to round out a 32-team bracket.
The unveiling of the plan on Tuesday means that the plan can go to the FHSAA’s athletic directors advisory committee in September. If all goes according to plan, the plan could be voted-on by October or November.
