The Florida High School Athletic Association is splitting high school football across the state into Metro and Suburban classifications. Monday’s vote in-favor of the split for the 2022 and 2023 season was 9-7.
The Metro Division will have four championships classes for teams in the state’s most densely populated counties — Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, Orange, Pinellas and Seminole.
The Suburban Division will cover the 59 other counties with four championships, plus the addition of a 1A Rural Division for schools with less than 600 students. That means nine state championship trophies will be handed-out this year.
Student enrollment numbers still will be used under the new plan. The 2021 enrollment numbers will be used for the upcoming season.
The split comes even though outgoing FHSAA executive director George Tomyn didn’t support it.
Related: Tomyn says “no” to split
In January, the FHSAA’s Athletic Advisory Director Committee voted 8-7 in favor of the Metro/Suburban plan. The actual motion the ADAC voted on was to not endorse the split.
The split is meant to add balance to the high school football landscape. Last year, six of the eight state championships went to Metro teams.
- 7A – St. Thomas Aquinas
- 6A – Jesuit
- 5A – Miami Central
- 4A – Cardinal Gibbons
- 3A – Chaminade-Madonna
- 2A – Trinity Christian Academy (Jacksonville)
All six of those teams finished the season ranked in the High School Football America 100 national rankings, powered by NFL Play Football.
Related: High School Football America 100
The only state champs from the suburban areas in 2021 were Venice (8A) and Madison County (1A).
