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Good teams in tough districts miss the postseason thanks to the FHSAA's emphasis on regions.
By JOHN C. COTEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 6, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Haines City was 7-3 this football season, ended Lakeland's state-record winning streak at 60, and beat four postseason teams -- Lake Gibson, Auburndale, South Sumter and the Dreadnaughts -- by a combined 68-29 score with two shutouts.
But the Hornets will not be going to the Class 5A playoffs.
St. Petersburg did not win a district game and finished last, and lost all five of its games to postseason teams by a 140-14 margin, failing to score in four of those games.
But the Green Devils will be going to the Class 5A playoffs.
There's either something wrong with that picture, or it's just an unavoidable side effect of the FHSAA's region-based playoff format.
Paul McLaughlin, the FHSAA's Director of Athletics for football said it's probably a little bit of both.
In a perfect world, McLaughlin said each class would just take the top 32 teams and seed them into a playoff bracket.
But because the FHSAA takes travel into consideration, it breaks the state into regions. And quite frankly, he said, some regions are better than others.
So Haines City, which plays in a strong district and region, can go 7-3 and not make the top eight in its region (six district champions and runners-up, plus two at-large picks), while St. Petersburg, which plays in a region where four of 13 teams had one win or less, qualifies.
Sometimes the system's flaws show up. But considering just one (St. Petersburg) of the 48 at-large teams in all six classes has a losing record, McLaughlin thinks the system is a good one.
"If that's the case, then that's a pretty good reason to stay with what we're doing," he said. "But there are a few 7-3 teams that are home, and that is a sore point."
The most apparent cure would be to eliminate the district runner-up spot, where 10 teams with losing records snagged playoff spots that could have gone to teams mired in tough districts. Three of those 10 -- Miami High in 6A, Auburndale in 4A and Tampa Catholic in 2A -- won just twice.
And in Auburndale's case, the Bloodhounds have lost their last five games and qualified at 2-8. Without a district runner-up berth, six other teams in that region with better records could have had a playoff spot, including Springstead (6-4) or Plant (5-5).
Each region could then have three district champions and five wild cards. That would eliminate, however, the importance of most district games and award teams that play soft non-district schedules, since at-large bids are awarded based on overall record.
Pinellas Park's James Adams thinks that would be a shame.
"If there's no playoffs (on the line) and you come to that last district game, you'll lose a bunch of kids that quit or are demoralized," said Adams, whose team qualified as a runner-up with a 3-7 record. "This keeps them on focus. It's just luck of the draw (with what district you end up in). And St. Pete was predicted to lose to Dixie (last week in a game for the final at-large spot) and they won. That's just kids finding a way to win for the playoffs.
"The first part of our season was a nightmare with injuries. But we made changes, and what kept this team intact was the playoffs. Personally, I think it helped keep our team together and we finished up real good. They're all fired up now."
Adams' view is shared by the majority of coaches, according to McLaughlin, but not all. Tampa Catholic coach Jim Guderian doesn't think his Marauders, who are 2-7 but have lost their last five games by a 306-33 margin, belong.
"We don't deserve to be in the playoffs," Guderian said. "I don't think any team with losing records should be in the playoffs. But we're going to go out and practice hard and consider this a bonus game."
McLaughlin admits the number of teams that qualified with losing records is a concern, but since that accounts for just 11 out of 192 playoff teams, it doesn't mean that the current system is severely flawed.
"We were kicking that around at lunchtime, having district runners-up getting in with two wins," he said. "I don't know what the answer would be. But this is a much more equitable situation for schools now than before."
"But that's not to say it can't be tweaked to make it better."