The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) voted to expand football playoffs and also make major postseason changes in baseball and basketball last week during its final meeting of the 2024-25 school year.
Football
The board unanimously decided (12-0) to expand the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT) in football by adding two additional divisions, with 12 teams invited per division.
What is the FIT? The FIT is a postseason football tournament like the FHSAA State Championship Tournament, but it is for teams that didn’t qualify for the state tournament because of power rankings.
The decision to expand the FIT is important as it affords opportunities to programs that may have just missed the cut for the postseason but are still worthy of a playoff experience. It will allow for a more inclusive postseason, especially for programs that are improving but are not consistent state championship playoff contenders. This is a big deal for mid-tier teams, especially those in tough districts, because they still have something to play for late in the season.
Last season, the FIT had only one division, the Rural classification, with 12 teams in the tournament. With these new changes, it will expand to include Class 1A and 2A schools with their own brackets, with 12 teams in each division, for a total of 36 teams competing in the FIT.
The FIT will be split into three distinct divisions. Rural will have its own bracket, as it has since FIT’s inception in 2023, and Class 1A and 2A will have their own for the first time. These divisions are designed to invite the top 12 teams in each classification (by FHSAA or MaxPreps ranking) that did not qualify for the traditional playoff bracket.
The rule changes would afford student-athletes at schools like The First Academy TFA (1A) a second chance at a playoff run if the team doesn’t make the traditional 1A state championship playoff cut. Another program that could benefit is Cocoa High School, which is a 2A school.
Basketball
The board also voted 9-3 to implement a 35-second shot clock for postseason basketball play beginning in the 2026-27 school year. Schools do have the option of using a shot clock during the regular season.
This past March, during the FHSAA boys basketball state championships, the shot clock was used for a handful of games as long as both schools agreed.
While the shot clock will prepare kids for the next level, costs such as a set of two shot clocks (one for each end of the court), associated equipment, and having someone operate them are a concern.
“I certainly understand that the implementation and economics of a shot clock might be challenging, but from a basketball standpoint, it is nothing but good for the game,” Scott Williams, Apopka’s boys basketball coach, said about the ruling. “I really think that it’s long overdue, and we’ve been excited about the possibility here for the last couple of years.”
Baseball
The FHSAA also tweaked the high school baseball playoffs. In 2025, the FHSAA experimented with a best-of-three format for all three regional rounds of the playoffs, but the board voted 10-1 last week to revert to the prior format.
Next year, the first round of the regional section of the state tournament will be a single game. The semifinal and regional final rounds will be best-of-three series, setting up single-game matchups in the Final Four and State Championship.
Bobby Brewer, former head coach of the Apopka baseball team and now Ocoee’s head coach, said the best-of-three series is great for baseball but agreed three rounds were just too much. Brewer said that two of the rounds is the best way to do it.
“If you continue with three-game series for any more than that, you are not only playing a lot of ballgames but putting a lot of stress on your pitcher’s bodies,” he said. “It has to balance out because I want it to be competitive, and I want the best teams to be there at the end of the day. But the kids need to be protected. So I think going through two best-of-three series and then you get to the Final Four is good. Once you’re a Final Four team you can take a deep breath and you can relax. Then you can throw your best and try to win.”
Brewer explained that when Florida used the single-game format throughout the state tournament, two good arms could bring you to the finals. He said a lot more strategy and preparation go into the matchup when you have three games.
Brewer said that the pitcher, especially in high school baseball, is the most important person on the field. So, in a one-game playoff format, one arm could be enough to dominate teams in the entire region—but not in a three-game series.
“I personally like it because of the fact that you’ve got to have a pitching staff now, Brewer said. “It’s a totally different way of doing things when you have the best of three. Those first two games are huge. If you’ve got the best pitchers, you can try to win it in two games. But if it’s not over with after two games, if it’s one to one — that last game is where you really see who’s got the best ball club.”
Out of 180 series spanning the eight classifications, 76 went to a decisive third game in 2025. That’s a total of 42%. Class 6A had the most Game 3s, led by 6A-Region 3, with five of its seven series playing a third game.
Brewer said three games drastically changes a team’s game plan.
“If you looked at the playoffs this year, a lot of the scores from those series, you see that if teams were tied, it was mostly because there was a blowout somewhere in the series,” Brewer said. “Because people are trying to save their pitchers, especially if you win the first one. All of a sudden, as a head coach, you have to start using more strategy than you would in a single game.”
In Apopka’s region, Class 7A Region 1, 57%, four of seven series, went to three games. The Hagerty Huskies played 10 playoff games in four rounds.
Hagerty defeated West Orange, Winter Park, and Spruce Creek in three games each, defeating West Orange 6-5, 0-4, 14-3 in the Regional Quarterfinal, Winter Park 4-0, 1-2, 5-2 in the Semifinal, and Spruce Creek 11-8, 1-6, 5-4 in the Final. But Hagerty fell in the Final Four to Jupiter 6-4 in the single-game series.
Starting next year, the tournament will go back to a one-game regional quarterfinal to be played on a Tuesday, followed by best-of-three regional semifinals on Friday and Saturday the same week.
The regional finals, also a best-of-three, will occur on Friday and Saturday of the following week, with a Saturday doubleheader, if necessary. Matchups from the Final Four and on will be single-series games.
All regional semifinal and final games will be hosted at the higher seed. This past year, the decisive game was played at the lower seed.
— Mainstreet Daily News sports director Mike Ridaught contributed to this story
