Florida beginning an "Open" division 8-team playoff for football and other sports

[ROCK23]

The FHSAA approved a separate playoff in the state's biggest sports for the top 8 ranked teams, regardless of classification. In football, these teams will be decided by MaxPreps computer rankings.

Could this ever happen in Kentucky and would anyone ever want it to? How will this potentially affect the landscape of high school sports across the country and here in Kentucky? Personally, I don't think Kentucky has 8 schools in any sport competitive enough to compete for something like this, but could allow us to see matchups in football between schools that seemingly won't play each other otherwise. 

More details linked in this article:

https://www.maxpreps.com/news/rQ6piCjA2UKCTaYRUad-Hg/florida-approves-open-division-playoffs-for-football%2C-10-other-sports.htm

[DearToday]

I don’t think the state of Kentucky is big enough to make it worth it. 

[theguru]

From the article:

The board of directors voted 10-0 to move forward with an eight-team open division bracket for football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, boys and girls lacrosse and flag football beginning during the 2026-27 school year.

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And there is zero chance of this happening in Kentucky and like DT said, there are not nearly enough schools/teams in KY to even consider anything like this.

[rjs4470]

I think it could work in baseball, basketball, and soccer on the boys side and maybe the same corresponding sports on the girls side. Those sports are more competitive from top to bottom, and tend to have different state champs every year. But since those sports aren't classed, and we've already got the district and regional tourney's that lead up to a 16 team state tourney, it would really be kind of pointless. Sure, some teams suffer from being in a deep region, but for the most part those state tournaments as they are currently formatted are pretty competitive, and likely wouldn't be all that much better or even different in a tournament made of the top 8 based on rankings.  Football and volleyball though just don't have enough depth for this to work. 

[FootballGuy2121]

This could happen and be successful. The state won't consider it for financial reasons. A lawyer should have Tackett provide a open records request asking how much time was allocated to the entire multiplier discussion. 

It's just like they'll never class basketball because Tackett and his entire staff get to stay at the Hyatt for two weeks between the boys and girls state tournaments. 

[LongTimeReader]

Is IMG allowed to participate or are they still excluded to participate?

I don't think KY has enough teams to make this idea worth it in the Commonwealth. 

[rjs4470]

1 hour ago, FootballGuy2121 said:

This could happen and be successful. The state won't consider it for financial reasons. A lawyer should have Tackett provide a open records request asking how much time was allocated to the entire multiplier discussion. 

It's just like they'll never class basketball because Tackett and his entire staff get to stay at the Hyatt for two weeks between the boys and girls state tournaments. 

I don't think this would hurt financially. Based on what I've read, this isn't replacing the current state tourneys in Florida. The top 8 tourney would be in addition to the existing tournaments. You'd still have a State champ in each class, you'd just have an open (or whatever you want to call it) tournament. In Kentucky, for football, this would probably mean going back to 4 or 5 classes, which is certainly doable. For the other sports that aren't classed, I really don't see how it would work, or even be necessary. Which is why I think you'll never see it. Financially, it would probably help.

[Tkinslow]

Seems like you could cut back to 5 classes and then have a selection committee pick the 8 teams regardless of class to be in this playoff. That would give everyone that thinks they can compete with anyone in the state the opportunity and it would also give the schools not picked a better chance to win state in each class. Now this would never happen but it would be interesting.

[9068]

8 hours ago, DearToday said:

I don’t think the state of Kentucky is big enough to make it worth it. 

We have about 220 schools in 6 classes. I don't think there are eight teams so superior to others that they would do that. Trinity, X, Male, Manual, Boyle, maybe Owensboro, South Warren and?????

[DearToday]

2 hours ago, 9068 said:

We have about 220 schools in 6 classes. I don't think there are eight teams so superior to others that they would do that. Trinity, X, Male, Manual, Boyle, maybe Owensboro, South Warren and?????

Last year would’ve looked like this with the top 8 from Max Preps. 
 

1. Trinity v 8. Manual

3. Cal v 6. South Warren

 

2. Boyle v 7. Cov Cath

4. X v 5. Owensboro

 

 

So you’d have had a champion from that. Then your other champs would’ve probably been

 

1a: KCD

2A: LCA

3A: Murray

4A: Franklin/Corbin

5A: PC

6a: Douglass ?

[TH58]

8 hours ago, DearToday said:

Last year would’ve looked like this with the top 8 from Max Preps. 
 

1. Trinity v 8. Manual

3. Cal v 6. South Warren

 

2. Boyle v 7. Cov Cath

4. X v 5. Owensboro

 

 

So you’d have had a champion from that. Then your other champs would’ve probably been

 

1a: KCD

2A: LCA

3A: Murray

4A: Franklin/Corbin

5A: PC

6a: Douglass ?

That would be too many “champions” (7), in too small a state. 6 football classes, and 6 champions, for a state with fewer than 300 high schools playing football is already too many. 

[theguru]

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[gchs_uk9]

17 hours ago, DearToday said:

Last year would’ve looked like this with the top 8 from Max Preps. 
 

1. Trinity v 8. Manual

3. Cal v 6. South Warren

 

2. Boyle v 7. Cov Cath

4. X v 5. Owensboro

 

 

So you’d have had a champion from that. Then your other champs would’ve probably been

 

1a: KCD

2A: LCA

3A: Murray

4A: Franklin/Corbin

5A: PC

6a: Douglass ?

If you did something like this, I think you'd be better suited to drop to five classes, take the best 8 teams in the open division, then everyone else competes for the other five titles. That way you'd stay at six champions.

[4 Quarters]

So, one team could be a two time champion?