Monday, the Florida High School Athletic Association made a decision that could have ripple effects on high school football in the state for years to come.
By a 9-7 vote of the Board of Directors, the governing body of high school sports in the Sunshine State voted to go from eight separate classifications to three - Metro, Suburban and Rural.
Each of the first two groups, Metro and Suburban, will be broken down into four classes - 1A through 4A - while Rural will be one single class. Now, here’s where things get interesting.
The Metro classification will consist of 228 schools from the eight most populous counties in the state: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, Hillsborough and Pinellas in the Tampa Bay area, Orange and Seminole in the Orlando area and Duval County, which is home to the city of Jacksonville.
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234 schools from the state’s other 59 counties will be in the Suburban classification while 33 schools, mostly from counties in the panhandle, will take part in the Rural classification.
Why is this taking place? Well, while some counties in other parts of the state may claim that it has to do with now being the time for change, but it could comes down to one thing: South Florida dominance.
Over the last 10 seasons (2012 to 2021), 63 of the 70 championships won in Classes 2A through 8A were won by schools in counties in what’s now called the Metro classification – with over 40 of those championships coming from Miami-Dade and Broward.
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Quite frankly, it seems as if schools in Central Florida - like former powerhouse Lakeland - were tired of getting beat yearly by schools in recent seasons from South Florida or Tampa in the state playoffs.
Now, schools in central and southwest Florida can have their own shot at playing for titles while Miami-Dade and Broward will likely continue their domination that includes 18 of 21 possible championships won the last three seasons.
It seems, on the surface, like the state is trying to isolate schools from large metropolitan areas like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. But, in the end it could just be a way to make high school football matter again not just in those areas but all over the Sunshine State.
