Florida High School Athletic Association Executive Director George Tomyn isn’t a fan of a plan to overhaul Florida high school football.
On Friday, FloridaHSFootball.com reported that Tomyn, who will retire in June, will not back a plan would add a ninth classification by putting the state’s largest counties into a four classification Metro Division. The state’s remaining 59 counties would be placed into five classes for suburban and rural schools.
???#BREAKING???#FHSAA Executive Director to not endorse metro/suburban classification plan for football; endorses changes to playoff ranking system #flhsfb @FACACoach @FHS7v7A @JukeNJive65 @HSFBamerica @FDPlayBook @scorestream https://t.co/JmChfh1Koo
— FloridaHSFootball.com (@FlaHSFootball) February 18, 2022
Tomyn’s rejection of the plan came with the release of the FHSAA’s agenda for its February 27-28 Board of Directors meeting. The agenda included Tomyn’s recommendation that stated, “the Executive Director does not endorse the proposal as written and does endorse the continued work of the Athletic Directors Advisory Committee to review classification.”
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.
Tomyn’s opposition doesn’t kill the plan, which could still be voted on at the upcoming meeting. If the 16-member board approves it, the new alignment would go into effect in 2022.
The state’s most densely populated counties are: Duval, Seminole, Orange, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade.
During 2021, six of the eight state champions came from the metro areas:
- 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).
If the plan is approved, classifications would still be determined by school enrollments.
