A decision to expand the FHSAA football playoffs this year was met with mixed reviews from Osceola County coaches.
Under the new format, the 16 highest-ranked teams from Class 1A-3A and another 16 from 4A-7A who do not qualify for the playoffs will be invited to play in bracket-style events called the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT).
The tournaments will run concurrently with FHSAA playoffs, with the highest seeds hosting the first three rounds and The Villages hosting championship games Dec. 5-6.
The FHSAA experimented with a 12-team FIT made up of Rural teams last year.
In making the announcement, the FHSAA said the goal was to provide a championship experience to teams who “just missed earning a spot in the playoffs,” and that schools could opt out of the event.
The announcement was received with reviews ranging from positive to indifference from Osceola County coaches.
“We are in the middle of our season and contending for a district title, so I really haven’t given it a lot of thought yet,” St. Cloud coach Mike Short said. “Last year, we lost our last game of the season and it knocked us out of the playoffs. If this tournament had been in place last year, we probably would have been invited. Yet, there is a part of me that sort of thinks that this decision just continues the ‘everyone needs to get a trophy’ mentality.”
Osceola Coach Eric Pinellas says at best he sees only one benefit to the NIT. “If you had a young, up-and-coming team that just missed the playoffs, I could see the advantage to getting additional games. Extra reps for young players are never bad thing.”
But … “Things like this still play to modern concept of everyone gets a trophy mentality. What is the real value to winning this thing?” Pinellas asked. “It’s sort of like the winner of the college basketball NIT—what are you really playing for, to be the 70th best team in the country? Extra games in the season also are also extra opportunities for injuries.”
“They sort of just threw this at us last week with no warning and I haven’t had a lot of time to process it,” Harmony Coach Don Simon said. “I can sort of see the value of giving more teams some playoff atmosphere, but it also feels like a participation trophy thing. We have a big game coming up with Lake Nona this week and still have a chance to make the real playoffs, so I haven’t really given this a lot of thought.”
Bulldog assistant coach Eric Scrivens, who doubles as St. Cloud’s head wrestling coach, believes the additions to the playoff system could be detrimental to the winter sports like wrestling and basketball.
“Right now, if you make the playoffs, you’re taking up to a month of winter sports participation away from the multi-sport athletes. Under the current format, that affects athletes from more than 250 schools and now they are going to add 32 more schools to that list? I think it makes it hard for the dual-sport athlete.”
Poinciana, Gateway and Liberty would not be affected. In the last cycle they elected independent status for competitive reasons and are not eligible for the FHSAA Playoffs. The list of schools going that route has been growing, as less competitive teams have grown weary of being placed in “unwinnable” districts. Gateway’s one of them.
“We’re the only 5A school in the county and they had us in a far-flung district with some powerhouses,” Coach Marlin Roberts said. “In order to play a competitive schedule and find opponents closer to home we went independent. “
Roberts said the concept would make more sense if the FHSAA created an FIT-style tournament independents.
“It doesn’t matter if your school competes in district play in every other sport, if you go independent your football program no longer exists in the eyes of the FHSAA. This proposal does nothing to limit the large number of private schools that have left the FHSAA to join the Sunshine State Athletic Conference or to curtail the increasing number of teams that are going independent. It seems that creating an FIT for independent schools would serve the greater good and make those schools feel included in the process.”
