FHSAA officially approves Open Division criteria starting in 2026-27

The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) board of directors have officially decided what the criteria will be for the newly created and anticipated Open Division for the upcoming 2026-27 school year.

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The FHSAA’s board voted unanimously, 10-0, that the top eight ranked teams will be moved into a separate Open Division postseason bracket. Among the sports that will partake in this format are football, boys & girls basketball, girls volleyball, baseball, softball, boys & girls soccer, lacrosse and girls flag football.

When it comes to high school football, the MaxPreps rankings will be used strictly to decide the top eight teams, with no human element whatsoever involved with the final decision on whom those teams will be.

How the FHSAA plans on dividing up the eight Open Division teams is into two brackets in two separate pools. Instead of the proposed North/South scenario, there will Pool A with seeds 1, 4, 5 and 8 and Pool B consisting of 2, 3, 7 and 8. Per the board meeting, all quarterfinal games will be held at the lower seeds, with the host schools keeping all of the profits from the contests.

Now based on what the FHSAA rankings were for high school football, the following teams would’ve qualified for the Open Division after the state finals:

1. DeLand
2. Sarasota Cardinal Mooney
3. Vero Beach
4. Gainesville F.W. Buchholz
5. Miami Northwestern
6. Jacksonville Mandarin
7. Tampa Carrollwood Day
8. Jacksonville Bolles

Also mentioned at the board meeting in Gainesville Tuesday morning was that the Open Division state championship game would be held down in Miami, with hopes that the semifinal contests could be hosted at The Villages Charter School, which has long been rumored as a potential site of future FHSAA football state championships.

FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon hinted back in December 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 the 2026-27 season.

California’s CIF, which is one of four states that utilizes a Open Division playoff bracket, 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.

In a recent 2026 season prediction for the FHSAA’s 17-time state champion Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas, Rivals has projected the Raiders to winning the state’s first-ever Open Division title come December.