FHSAA athletic director’s advisory committee endorses last week’s playoff football recommendations

The Florida High School Athletic Association held its athletic director’s advisory committee meeting Wednesday, one week after the football coaches advisory committee voted on changes to the current playoff format.

There were five agenda items that were approved last week, though only two of them needed approval from Wednesday’s AD advisory committee meeting.

The other three approved measures from last week were procedures, not policies, which only required approval from the football coaches advisory committee. Procedures are either endorsed or not endorsed through the AD advisory committee and FHSAA Board of Directors, but are approved in-house through the football coaches advisory committee.

Among the two items that were needing approval on Wednesday from the athletic directors were lower classes (1A-4A) increasing the playoff field per region to six teams rather than the current format of four teams per region, and increasing the playoff roster size from 60 to 70 players.

The FHSAA AD advisory committee approved the playoff expansion to six teams in each region for Class 1A-4A, with the top two seeds in each region receiving a bye. That begins in 2019.

However, the committee did not expand the playoff roster size. That item was not heard, and the FHSAA tweeted it can’t be until next year since the board denied it, according to policy 19.2.4.

Two football agenda items that were approved last week — increasing the number of playoff points earned for a loss by five points in each category and clearing up the language involving postponed/interrupted games —was endorsed Wednesday.

The bonus points system for all teams playing opponents in larger classes with a cap of three points was not endorsed, though the athletic directors recommended going to a tiered bonus point system.

Clearing up the language for postponed or interrupted games forces teams to make decisions involving rescheduled games almost immediately, rather than waiting the entire season.

In addition to the football discussion, other sports were discussed. Golf’s advisory committee recommended making the season a 16-contest regular season, which the FHSAA ADAC approved unanimously. There were no recommendations for volleyball, and cross-country’s attempt to move the minimum number of required meets from five to four was denied.

It was also announced the FHSAA will reveal the 2018 state golf championship venue in the next month or two.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 5:17 PM with the headline "FHSAA athletic director’s advisory committee endorses last week’s playoff football recommendations."