Last season, the Florida High School Athletic Association introduced a big shake-up for prep football with a new playoff system. The move to a points-based method was well-received, and the FHSAA voted Monday to approve a series of tweaks to the rulebook to improve it.
The most talked-about change came for schools in classes 1A through 4A, as the board of directors approved to bump the regional playoff field up from four teams to six for the upcoming 2018 season. The top two seeded teams will receive a first-round bye week. That move will not affect football in the Plant City area, however, as Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest are all Class 7A schools.
Area schools will be affected by the other moves, though.
The FHSAA approved a five-point increase for losses taken to opponents in all four tiered categories, meaning a Category 1 loss is now worth at least 35 points, Category 2 losses net 30 points, Category 3 losses net 25 points and Category 4 losses net 20 points. Coupled with the bonus a team can earn from playing a team that made the playoffs in the last two seasons, a Category 1 loss can be now worth up to 38 points.
There will also be changes to the way in which future games are rescheduled. Hurricane Irma magnified the need for clear-cut rescheduling rules early last season, as the storm killed two weeks of football throughout the state and left many schools to make impromptu decisions on whether to cancel or make up games. Though the new rules will likely not be defined and implemented until around August, the FHSAA’s goal is to make sure all programs are prepared for any similar scheduling emergencies in the future.
Another change coming to the game affects the play clock. The National Federation of State High School Associations’s football rules committee proposed the idea to allow states to institute a 40-second play clock, scrapping the current 25-second clock in all instances except during kickoffs and following penalties. The FHSAA’s Athletic Director Advisory Committee voted to approve switching to the extended clock if the NFHS implements the new rule.
Plant City-area coaches view the playoff system and recent changes positively. Durant head coach Mike Gottman had nothing but praise for the system Monday afternoon.
“It was kind of a feeling out process with the whole new system. I had said long ago that I felt like you needed to be good if you’re gonna go to the playoffs,” Gottman said. “I made the comment that I didn’t want to be in the playoffs if I didn’t have a good team … I’m for it. I think it’s fair.”
Strawberry Crest head coach Ron Hawn said that, while the new playoff system and rules are a clear improvement over what was previously in place, the FHSAA still has a ways to go before it’s truly fair and beneficial for all teams.
“You want to give everybody a chance to compete and have a positive experience in football,” Hawn said.
Hawn said scrapping districts would be the best way to ensure scheduling is done fairly to let every team compete at the highest level they can. He would like to see the top eight teams from each region make the cut, and believes Florida will eventually get rid of all districts and move to that regional format, as was done with classes 1A through 4A.
“Districts lock you into a schedule that can be beneficial, or not … our district is OK because it’s a pretty tough district,” Hawn said. “Not top-heavy like others. But there are others where that’s not the case. It’s not equal.”
The FHSAA also officially expanded golf season to have 16 contests.