A New Era for High School Playoffs
The Florida High School Athletic Association has voted to adopt an Open Division format for a handful of sports, a move that will gather the eight highest‑ranked teams into a separate playoff bracket, irrespective of school size.
The model, borrowed from Arizona’s Interscholastic Association, which launched an Open Division in football back in 2019, will be applied to football, girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, lacrosse and flag football beginning next season.
For football, the eight qualifiers will be determined by the final MaxPreps rankings, ensuring that the best‑performing squads earn a spot, while the new structure promises matchups that have never been seen in the traditional classification system.
Smaller schools, long accustomed to competing in lower divisions, will now have a direct pathway to face larger programs, a prospect that could reshape regional rivalries and increase excitement across the state.
Looking Ahead
The FHSAA says it will monitor the experiment closely, planning to tweak the format after the first year based on feedback from coaches, athletes and fans.
Officials also hinted at a longer‑term vision of a national league that could give the most talented high school athletes a broader stage, a notion that has drawn attention from several state athletic bodies.