FHSAA overhauls classification and playoff structure in five sports

Baseball, softball, soccer, basketball and volleyball will advance to 2019-2020 postseason in a whole new way

By Ryan Kohn
| 9:00 a.m. November 1, 2018

Senior forward Johnnie Williams and the Booker High boys basketball program will take flight in a new FHSAA classification system, starting in 2019-2020.

Sarasota
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The Florida High School Athletic Association approved widespread changes to its classification and playoff systems of five sports on Monday.

Those sports — baseball, softball, basketball, soccer and volleyball — will now have seven classes instead of the current nine, determined by enrollment. Each class will be split into four regions, with four districts per region. Each district in a given class will have an even number of teams.

Breakdown of MaxPreps ranking system

Information via MaxPreps.com

"The system utilizes the huge number of game results stored in the MaxPreps database. Generally, the more a team wins the higher the ranking, but the system takes into account quality wins (against other highly ranked opponents) and strength of schedule. For example, a team’s ranking is hurt more by losing to a team that is ranked below them versus a team ranked ahead.

Other factors that will affect the rankings are times when MaxPreps has incomplete or inaccurate information. It will correct errors when they are reported. If MaxPreps is missing a score it encourages teams to report that score. If it is missing a game on the schedule, it also wants a correction request.

Playoff wins are weighed higher compared to a regular season game."

Eight teams from each region will make the playoffs. District tournaments will still take place, and the winners will get automatic playoff bids (seeds one through four, ordered via MaxPreps rankings), but regular-season district games will no longer be a requirement. The four at-large seeds in the region will be given to the highest teams in MaxPreps’ rankings, in order, regardless of the outcome of the district tournaments. Teams will be will be re-seeded before regional tournaments based on MaxPreps rankings as well. Higher-seeded teams will always host playoff games.

These changes differ from the changes proposed to the FHSAA in May, which suggested having six “divisions” instead of seven districts, and basing the classifications themselves on MaxPreps rankings.

The system will be in place starting in the 2019-2020 school year, and remain in place for two years, after which it will be re-evaluated.

FHSAA executive director George Tomyn said in a FHSAA-released video that after talking with schools across the state, the FHSAA thought infusing a “rankings” aspect into the new system was important because it allows for more competitive balance in each class. But they also heard from many schools who think enrollment is an important factor in classification that needed to remain, and so it did.

“Today, our Board of Directors passed what we think is a pretty neat classification process,” Tomyn said. “I’m proud of our staff, which has worked long and hard hours on this, and equally proud of our member schools, who gave us productive and positive input.”

Chad Sutton and the Cardinal Mooney volleyball program are excited for the changes coming to the FHSAA.

Coaches around the area seem to agree. Cardinal Mooney High volleyball coach Chad Sutton said he’s glad the FHSAA decided to keep enrollment a factor, because “if you want to provide competitive balance, at least at the start of a season, (teams) have to be working with the same number of students.” It will also change the way the playoffs are contested. Currently, if a region’s two best teams are in one district, they will play each other in a regional semifinal, when that matchup should be reserved for the regional finals. This helps the best match-ups be as important as they can be, Sutton said.

Sutton also said not having to schedule regular-season district games will give teams additional freedom.

“In our current district, we have five Tampa teams," Sutton said. "That’s a lot of travel for kids. The new system will open up possibilities to play more tournaments or 'home-and-aways' with bigger local teams. I’d like to be able to play Venice High twice a year, or Riverview High twice a year.”

The FHSAA will release classification, region and district memberships for fall sports once the current fall season has concluded, and will do the same for winter and spring sports. Booker High boys basketball coach Markus Black said he’s anxious to see how far the districts and regions expand, because he’s worried about lower seeds having to travel far and wide for playoff games.

Riverview High boys basketball coach BJ Ivey said he believes the system will increase the competition in the lower-enrollment classes, but is "not extremely comfortable" with the idea of MaxPreps rankings potentially determining his team's playoff hopes.

"I know it involves strength of schedule and win/loss record, but I don't know how it exactly will be calculated," Ivey said. "Will that entice people to play weaker schedules and load up on wins, or play a tough schedule and be more rewarded for losses? I don't know. I have some questions about it."

Those questions will remain until the system is seen in action. Luckily, fans and programs have less than a year to wait until then.

author

Ryan Kohn

Ryan Kohn is the sports editor for Sarasota and East County and a Missouri School of Journalism graduate. He was born and raised in Olney, Maryland. His biggest inspirations are Wright Thompson and Alex Ovechkin. His strongest belief is that mint chip ice cream is unbeatable.