FHSAA may allow human input when it comes to new Open Division team selections

MIAMI, Fla.- The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is hosting its last set of football state finals that will be without the Open Division, which is set to begin in 2026-27.

Biggest question swirling around water coolers throughout the 2025 season was how will the state handle selecting which eight teams would belong in the elite bracket come next fall?

FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon hinted on Friday that the Gainesville-based association could be open to human input on exactly which high school football teams get selected into the Open Division for next season.

According to the latest set of Florida Power Rankings by the FHSAA as of Nov. 29, the top eight teams that would be in would be Buchholz, Miami Northwestern, Vero Beach, Cardinal Mooney, DeLand, Chaminade-Madonna, St. Thomas Aquinas and Raines. More recent rankings have Carrollwood Day included in the eight, which lost to Class 1A state champion Cardinal Newman, 42-19, in the state semifinals.

Throughout the course of the 2025 season, St. Thomas Aquinas was a team on the outside looking in when it came to the Top 10 teams in the state, per the FHSAA Power Rankings. At one point during the regular season, the now 17-time state championship program was ranked at No. 87. The Raiders are fresh off of winning a seventh consecutive state title, beating Lakeland on Thursday night, 29-0.

What remains to be seen is if the FHSAA decides to add the human element to their power rankings, which isn’t unprecedented when it comes to high school football, is what sort of committee would be selected in order to choose the Open Division’s eight teams?

Will it be a committee of former coaches? Current coaches? Media members that are covering games in-person? Remote media providing input? Whatever the FHSAA decides will be interesting as a official committee would be something several organizations around the country already implement in some sort of fashion.

One most alike to the state of Florida is California’s CIF, which uses a mix of data-driven formulas and human judgment for the high school football playoffs. For the CIF State Football Championship bowl games, a committee will select the top teams for the Open Division, which the guidelines include win-loss, schedule strength, and head-to-head, which obviously includes human input.

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