Earlier this week the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) released its final football classifications for 2024 and 2025.
Last month, the FHSAA Board voted 9-4 to get rid of the Suburban-Metro playoff system, which was just implemented two years ago, and go back to an eight-classification format, 1A-7A, plus rural, which is based on enrollment.
The board also voted 9-4 to require schools to play district games.
A few days before Christmas, the FHSAA released its initial football classifications for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons.
Following an appeals process, which gave schools until Jan. 12, the next two years are set for classifications, district assignments and regions.
Perhaps the biggest change from the initial release is Suwannee (Live Oak), but only because the Bulldogs moved up a classification.
The Bulldogs, who made the Class 2S playoffs the past two seasons, were initially put in 2A-Region 3 with Florida High (Tallahassee), Gadsden County (Havana) and Taylor County (Perry).
However, Suwannee appealed to move up, noting its enrollment numbers had increased since October.
They will now compete in 3A-District 2 (Region 1) with Baker County (Glen St. Mary), Godby (Tallahassee) and Wakulla.
“There’s some usual suspects in there for us that we’ve seen many times for us over the years,” Suwannee football coach Kyler Hall told the Lake City Reporter. “I kind of figured with Baker being that far away (from Wakulla and Godby) they were going to put us as the middle team. There’s no real complaints from us. We were happy it kind of panned out that way.”
Eastside, which won its second straight district title this past season, is also in 3A and will compete in District 3 with Dunnellon, North Marion (Citra), South Sumter (Bushnell) and The Villages.
Buchholz, which has been to three straight state semifinal games including this year’s home loss to eventual state champion Lakeland, is grouped with Bartram Trail (St. Johns), Nease (Ponte Vedra) and Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine) in 6A-District 3 (Region 1).
Columbia (Lake City) and Gainesville are in Class 4A.
The Tigers, who made back-to-back 3S playoff appearances, are in 4A-District 3 (Region 1) with Clay (Green Cove Springs), Ridgeview (Orange Park), and 3S state runner-up St. Augustine, while GHS is in 4A-District 5 (Region 2) with Lecanto, Leesburg and Vanguard (Ocala).
Class 2A-District 5 (Region 2) was altered a bit as Crescent City dropped out and Santa Fe (Alachua) moved in to join 2S state runner-up Bradford (Starke), Keystone Heights, which made the 2S playoffs in coach Steve Reynolds’ first year, and Newberry, which lost at Hawthorne in 1R regional semifinals.
Although no teams dropped out of Class 1A-District 4 (Region 1), the one team that moved in raised some eyebrows.
One of the biggest complaints that I’ve often heard since I began covering high school sports in the early ‘90s is that public schools shouldn’t have to play private schools in the postseason.
I do agree with that.
I also agree that the FHSAA might have been on to something with the previous format because it was creating a competitive balance. It wasn’t a perfect system, but I did see improvements.
Heavyweight Trinity Catholic (Ocala) has moved into 1A-District 4 to join Fort White, P.K. Yonge, Union County (Lake Butler) and Williston.
The Celtics have been to the last two Class 1S state title games and finished as state runners-up each time.
Williston went undefeated in the regular season and suffered its only loss, 34-16, at home to eventual state champion Hawthorne in the 1R-Region 4 Final.
Fort White lost at Union County in the regional semifinals on Nov. 17 and the Tigers lost to eventual state runner-up Madison County in the regional final.
Madison County remained in the rural classification, setting up a potential rematch with two-time defending state champion Hawthorne, which defeated the Cowboys, 22-13, in December’s 1R title game.
Trenton and Chiefland are also in the Hornets’ region (1R-Region 4), while Branford and Dixie County (Cross City) are in 1R-Region 3 with the state runners-up.
Meanwhile, St. Francis Catholic Academy, an FHSAA independent, has joined rival Oak Hall in the Sunshine State Athletic Association (SSAA), which is approaching 100 members this upcoming football season. Bell and Bronson are also heading to the SSAA.
“Saint Francis Catholic Academy football made the decision to join the SSAA as a team as it furthered our continued growth and commitment as a program to becoming one of the preeminent destinations for student-athletes within Alachua County to come in and excel at,” said St. Francis Catholic football coach James Langham. “When I took over this program two seasons ago, I said on day one that we would work towards rejoining league play in season three and through the hard work and grind that our boys have put in, here we are officially within the SSAA going into season three with a great opportunity to make a run for a championship in front of us.”
Langham has the same sentiment as several coaches about the FHSAA’s new format, along with an alternative that allows his program the opportunity to be successful.
“The SSAA strives to create equal competition and promotes stability, and this is why it continues to grow as more teams become disenfranchised with the way the FHSAA has been mismanaged and very unstable on the football side of things the past few years,” Langham said. “I couldn’t be more happy and proud of the steps we have taken to get here as a team and now I look ahead to league play in the fall in pursuit of history.”
The FHSAA also announced that the remaining fall sports classifications will be released soon.