The Florida High School Athletic Association will push the start of the football playoffs back a week due to the barrage of weather-related issues, including a couple hurricanes, that schools around the state have endured this season.

High school athletes in Florida can now profit off their name, image and likeness after the State Board of Education voted to usher in the new era in the athletics on Wednesday morning.

High school athletes in Florida can now profit off their name, image and likeness after the State Board of Education voted to usher in the new era in the athletics on Wednesday morning.

The Florida High School Athletic Association is warning schools of potential name, image and likeness issues on the still yet-to-be implemented bylaw change.

The obituary has been published, the eulogy written and the epitaph chiseled on the headstone. High school sports died on Tuesday in Gainesville. Cause of death: name, image and likeness. Sounds extreme, doesn’t it?

The athlete who brought the first NIL deal to the FHSAA nearly two years ago was Bartram Trail star and reigning All-News4JAX player of the year, Ryann Frechette.

High school athletes will now make a profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) after the Florida High School Athletic Association approved the change on Tuesday.

The landscape in high school sports changed significantly on Tuesday morning as the Florida High School Athletic Association voted unanimously to approve name, image and likeness and create an open championship division in major team sports.

On Tuesday, the FHSAA’s board will vote on a number of proposals, but two are the clear-cut headliners. The chance for athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness and the addition of a championship division in all major team sports will go up for a board vote.

The Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled its softball playoff bracket on Saturday morning, with state championship contenders Baldwin, Middleburg and University Christian all earning No. 1 seeds in their regions.

The Florida High School Athletic Association’s first foray into the murky waters of the name, image and likeness debate got underway Monday with more questions and concerns about high school athletes being able to profit much like those in college.

The Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled its initial name, image and likeness proposal on Friday, a first step in becoming the latest state to allow athletes here to profit long before they reach college.

The Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled the girls basketball postseason bracket on Sunday and 21 local teams are dancing.

The Florida High School Athletic Association has finalized its district and classification assignments for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 football seasons, with very few teams moving from their initial positions that were released last month.

The Florida High School Athletic Association has begun taking input on name, image and likeness in the state as it explores allowing athletes to have earning power long before they get to college.

The Florida High School Athletic Association released its new classification and district assignments for football on Friday morning, unveiling some new twists for area teams.

In a winding and confusing two-hour virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted to get rid of the Suburban-Metro playoff system and go back to an eight-classification, enrollment-based format for the coming years, the latest shift in the ever-changing landscape of sports here.

The Florida High School Athletic Association is poised to debate and vote on another new playoff system, one that would end the two-year cycle of Suburban-Metro and create an Open classification for the top teams in the state.

Seeing many prognostications of a close game, Jamie Rodgers let his Bradford football team know about it. And he let them know it again and again throughout the week, driving home the point.

The high school playoff field is set.

The Georgia High School Association made two major changes during its fall meeting on Monday morning, including the approval that allows athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, a seismic change in the Peach State.

The high school football state championship games are heading to Tallahassee and the campus of Florida A&M.

Hurricane Idalia is throwing the high school football schedule for a loop.

The Florida High School Athletic Association’s outgoing board of directors held its final meeting on Tuesday before sweeping changes signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis go into effect next month push them out to begin a new era in high school athletics in the state.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation that shakes up the Florida High School Athletic Association’s board structure and gives control to the state, further eases restrictions on athletes in virtual and charter schools, and allows pregame remarks like prayer and state series games.

A bill that gives high school athletes greater options than ever in choosing where they want to play cleared the Florida Legislature and now awaits the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis, another blow for the embattled Florida High School Athletic Association.

Facing blowback, the director of Florida’s high school sports governing body is backing away from using an eligibility form that requires female athletes to disclose their menstrual history.

Facing blowback, the director of Florida’s high school sports governing body is backing away from using an eligibility form that requires female athletes to disclose their menstrual history.

The Florida High School Athletic Association's 16-member board of directors, made up of 14 men and 2 women, will vote on whether or not to make high school athletes report on their menstrual cycle.

The boys high school soccer playoff field is set as 20 area programs make their way to the postseason.

The girls high school basketball playoff brackets out and area teams are ready to roll.

The road to the high school football state playoffs is set.

High school athletes in Georgia will now have to compete in sports based on their gender assigned at birth, the state’s governing body of athletics unanimously voted on Wednesday afternoon.

The Florida High School Athletic Association will go forward with the biggest change to the high school football playoff structure ever, again voting to proceed with the Metro and Suburban overhaul this year on Monday.

The Florida High School Athletic Association gave a bit more clarity to the state’s new Metro/Suburban on Wednesday afternoon, providing a guide for appeals and giving teams an idea of when they can begin scheduling.

With the Florida High School Athletic Association board of directors voting to change the structure of football in the state, how will teams be placed when new classes and districts are unveiled?

A breakdown on what the changes are, how we got here and what to expect from the Florida High School Athletic Association's vote to change the high school football structure.

Big change is on the way for high school football.

Big changes, possibly the biggest ever for high school football in the state, could be on the way as early as Monday.

Major changes to the Florida High School Athletic Association football structure set to be voted on later this month don’t have the backing of executive director George Tomyn.

The Florida High School Athletic Association is mulling a makeover for the sport, which includes big changes in the regular season and playoffs across the state in what could be the biggest shift in years.

The Florida High School Athletic Association voted on a series of changes Monday, including the creation of a state wrestling tournament for girls starting next March.

Orange Park Junior High School was granted the Fred E. Rozelle Sportsmanship award, announced by the Florida High School Athletic Association.

To South Florida athletes like Jazz Jennings and Oliver Echevarria, denying kids access to something they love is heartbreaking.

The biggest item for debate this week at the final Florida High School Athletic Association board meeting of the academic year lasted nearly 30 minutes and didn’t give girls wrestling fans around the state a clear answer on where things stood for their sport entering the summer.

A proposal to bar middle schoolers from playing on varsity high school teams was shot down by the Florida High School Athletic Association board of directors on Tuesday morning, while two other emerging sports also found resolutions that will boost female sports in the state.

An item on the FHSAA agenda for Tuesday has the potential to shake things up for high school programs who use middle school athletes on their varsity teams.

The high school state track and field meet is coming back to town.

The bill would require the Florida High School Athletic Association to give each team an opportunity to address the crowd over a public announcement system for no more than two minutes each. It would apply to public and private schools, and Republican Rep. Webster Barnaby said that could include prayer. “I recall the first day that when all of us sat in that House, we opened the House of Representatives with what?” Barnaby said. AdDemocratic Rep. Susan Valdes, a former Hillsborough County School Board member, said even at graduations, students sometimes veer away from their approved speeches. Under the bill language, the association “may not control, monitor, or review the content of the opening remarks and may not control the school's choice of speaker.”The bill has one more House committee stop.

Trinity Christian players celebrate after winning the Class 3A state title with a 25-22 win over Chaminade Madonna on Wednesday night. One of those moving down, however, is powerhouse Trinity Christian. That is a significant move because Trinity joins a region that includes another heavyweight in University Christian. 2021 area football classificationsArea teams in BOLD moved up in classification; area teams in italics moved down in classificationDistrict 1-8ABartram Trail, Creekside, Mandarin, Oakleaf, Sandalwood. AdRegion 1-2AAucilla Christian, FAMU, Munroe, North Florida Christian, North Florida Educational, Rocky Bayou Christian, St. Francis, St. John Paul II, St. Joseph, Trinity Christian, University Christian.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida High School Athletic Association is moving ahead with reclassification, unanimously voting Monday morning to a one-year cycle in reshuffling schools. The delay this time was due to enrollment numbers that have varied sharply for schools during the pandemic. With reclassification approved for this year, schools will now be placed in classification based on enrollment numbers from roughly six months ago. During the FHSAA’s last reclassification cycle in 2018, fall sports programs learned of their new districts in mid-December of that year. Among those forms that were returned, Johns said that 127 schools were in favor of a one-year reclassification.

The FHSAA board voted on Monday morning to reconvene March 8 and vote then on what classifications should look like for the 2021-22 school year. For fall team sports like football and volleyball, programs know where they’ll be placed at for the upcoming two years no later than mid-December. Will there be districts in 2021 for a sport like football, or will districts be eliminated like they were last year? In recent years, the FHSAA had aAdThe FHSAA also revealed that net income for fall sports fell significantly last year. By comparison, the FHSAA had no less than $1,029,613 in any of the previous four fall seasons.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s October and the high school football playoff field is already set. The Florida High School Athletic Association released its postseason brackets on Wednesday morning, giving fans and schools a look at the bracket much earlier than a normal year. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FHSAA was forced to adjust region alignments and thin out the playoff field this season. Districts went by the wayside in 2020 and teams earned a playoff spot just by saying that they wanted to play in them. Even though things will look quite a bit different in 2020, the brackets are set just seven days into October.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The high school state playoff chase usually goes down to the final week of the regular season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Florida High School Athletic Association was forced to shake up its postseason format this season. Wolfson last went in 2006 and Fernandina Beach last reached the state playoffs in 2007. The Golden Eagles have played in postseason bowl games and had excellent seasons when only the district champions qualified for the playoffs. If they do know they haven’t said anything to me, so it has been nice,” he said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida High School Athletic Association has released new region assignments for high school football teams, with few changes and no area schools moving up or down in classification. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FHSAA was forced to shake up its postseason format this season. After all of that reshuffling and many teams in South Florida opting out, what’s left are very similar looking region assignments and a much different looking playoff format. In Classes 5A-8A, only 16 teams per region make the tournament. Five area regions are affected by those numbers, which means play-in games will be needed to determine final playoff teams in those.

High school football season officially kicks off in Florida and in Georgia on Friday, a welcome sight after six months of COVID-19 cancellations and postponements. Below is a crash course primer on the 2020 high school football season to get fans caught up. Trinity Christian: Capacity limited to 50%. University Christian: Capacity limited to 50%, which is roughly 700 fans. Receivers Marcus Burke (Trinity Christian) and Patrick Bryant III (Atlantic Coast).

The Falcons held the first practice of fall in St. Johns County with a 7 a.m. start time, shaking off a humid morning and a brief rain shower to squeeze in a long-awaited practice thats been months in the making. We came out here with a challenge and an intensity to compete.The Falcons have the only new coach among St. Johns Countys six public schools. Clay, Duval, St. Johns and Union counties have pushed kickoffs back there to Sept. 11. Flagler County will start practices on Sept. 5. Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Nassau and Putnam counties will all start their regular seasons on Sept. 4.

Since then, school districts have been tailoring starts to what works best for them. Duval County opted to allow its teams to play football games the week after, Sept. 11, to better allow for more practice time. All joking aside, we have a date to practice, we have a date to play and they said that we can play. Allen said thats the path he preferred and he was grateful that the school district heard his concerns. Im glad that my school district agreed with it and was on board with that, the recommendation of the SMAC.

I suggest allowing practices to start in counties where its permitted on Aug. 24 but push higher risk regular season games back in football until later in September. How about penciling in Sept. 25 as Week 1 for high school football here? That regular season assumes a football team can play a week of double games under a Monday-Friday or Monday-Saturday alignment. Imagine if regular season football games were still scheduled to kick off on Friday? I think many coaches will be content with a semblance of a regular season.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The Florida High School Athletic Association board of directors voted to allow sports to begin on Aug. 24. The item, tabbed Option 1 on the agenda, allows schools to begin practices that day and decide by Sept. 18 if they plan on competing in state series playoffs. The vote passed 11-5 and puts and end to a wild back and forth that has consumed high school sports conversation all summer. Games will be able to start Sept. 4, a week earlier than initially proposed during the last FHSAA board meeting on July 23.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The governor wants high school sports back. The medical professionals who advise the states governing body of high school athletics still dont think its safe to do so yet. The initial option three would push the start of the regular season to late November, with regular season games starting in mid-December. Going against the SMAC report didnt sit right with several board members and the FHSAA was widely panned for going against medical advice. Everybody including us, every single member of the sports medicine advisory committee wants nothing more than to get back to sports.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The Florida High School Athletic Association will meet on Friday to determine the path for the 2020-21 sports season. If that decision were up to players, parents and coaches, it would likely be a no-brainer to start sooner rather than later. A petition on Change.org was on a roll, gathering more than 17,500 signatures as of 7 p.m. Tuesday night. Ron DeSantis has been drumming up support for high school and college athletics in the state to play this season. In a second emergency board of directors vote just three days later, it voted to push back the start of practices until Aug. 24.

The FHSAA will vote on the specifics of the fall sports season at the meeting at 10 a.m. in Gainesville. The Association has decided to livestream the meeting, FHSAA public relations specialist Ashton Moseley said in an email. Executive director George Tomyn told the Sentinel last Friday that the normal board meetings are, by protocol, not streamed or broadcast. That came after two emergency board of directors votes that were publicly streamed to audiences in the thousands. The second vote three days later changed that and said that sports practices couldnt begin until at least Aug. 24.

FHSAA will not broadcast Friday's votePublished: August 8, 2020, 10:49 pmThe Florida High School Athletic Association is prepared to decide on the fate of the Fall sports season and few will be around to see or hear it.

The decision to not furnish a stream the event has incensed those in the media, coaches, parents and athletic directors. Two meetings of the FHSAA fall sports task force committee were livestreamed and both emergency board of directors meetings were livestreamed. My request was denied with no further explanation.Several area athletic directors have expressed interest in attending, but have been told that space was extremely limited due to social distancing restrictions. Next week, the FHSAA will get further input after the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee meets. That committee, referred to as the SMAC, provided a report that wound up swaying board members during a second emergency board meeting.

University Christian coach David Penland III (left) has three state titles and an 88-27 record in nine seasons. That must mean high school football season, pandemic style, is right around the corner. The Bakers Sports high school football media day typically serves as the launching point of the season. Basically, were just trying to find out are we going to play, are we not going to play, said Trinity Christian coach Verlon Dorminey. A lot of questions that no one can answer.St. Augustine High School football coach Brian Braddock said that pandemic has forced a hard reset of priorities across the board.

Fall sports practice, which was approved to begin July 27, will now start no earlier than Aug. 24. It voted Monday night 10-5 to keep the start date at July 27, an unrealistic target for the bulk of the state. Locally, Alachua, Clay, Columbia, Flagler, Nassau and St. Johns have all pushed their fall sports practice start dates back. It is a serious overreach on our part when we start telling each school district how they should deal with their student population, he said. FHSAA board president elect Lauren Otero said that 359 of 396 public schools across 47 of the states 67 districts have pushed back start dates.

It comes with a warning from its own Sports Medicine Advisory Committee that provided plenty of dialogue throughout the night. The breakthrough in a slog of a night came on the backside of the calendar after three separate motions for an Aug. 10 start date were shot down. Schools would have to declare their intentions on whether they would participate in the state series playoffs by a set date. If they elect not to participate in the state series for instance, a program in hard-hit Miami-Dade County they could then play through the end of state series playoffs to essentially have a fuller season. Executive director George Tomyn was publicly against that plan and the FHSAA largely held to the original calendar start date of July 27 for when teams could begin practice.

On Monday, the FHSAA decided to give school districts the option to begin practicing July 27. That goes against the recommendation of the states own 10-member Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, which wants to push back sports that it considers higher risk. This comes as other states like California, Georgia and Texas, hotbeds for high school football, made major changes to their seasons. Texas announced on Tuesday that it was postponing the start dates of its largest classifications mainly its major metro area schools by a month. Lets have school start and two or three weeks after, we will reevaluate.According to the Florida medical committee, it recommended the state would need to show a 28-day decrease in COVID-19 cases before games could be held.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. High school athletics across the area remain in much different places in their return to sports during a global pandemic. The official start date for high school sports practice in Florida remains July 27, although that seems to be an extreme best case scenario as districts around the area are in much different places of what they feel comfortable doing. She said that Duval is in a holding pattern at this point as the county awaits word from the Florida High School Athletic Association on the start date for fall sports. The FHSAA Fall Sports Task Force has held three meetings in the past month and suggested to explore the idea of moving the start date back to no earlier than Aug. 10. We were told were doing a good job, following CDC guidelines, following protocol, said First Coast High School football coach and athletic director Marty Lee.

The FHSAA Fall Sports Task Force spent Thursday evening discussing options for a high school season as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and a start date to the season closes in. No substantial recommendations emerged from the meeting other than to look a little closer at an Aug. 10 start date of practice. An FHSAA board of directors meeting is expected by the end of the month to discuss suggestions of the task force. Harrisons plan that the task force voted to explore in greater detail included four options or divisions for schools to begin play in. A fourth division would have practice start after Sept. 7 and a regular season start date of Sept. 28 or beyond.

The calendar remains unchanged fall practices begin in 26 days and kickoff classics on Aug. 14 but the task force knows that changes are coming. As opposed to the state having one start date for all, allowing each area to decide what is best for them to start, Harrison said. And then our staff can then work to put them to pair them up.A rough draft proposal of the recommendation that passed the FHSAA Fall Sports Task Force on Wednesday. The plan too adjust the high school sports season will get a deeper look by the task force. (FHSAA)The regular season start dates for the first three options are Aug. 31, Sept. 14 and Sept. 21.

Are games this fall going to be played in front of fans or at all? Has the FHSAA considered scrapping state championships or thought about pushing fall sports to another spot on the calendar? Schools need to hear from the FHSAA, even if dates or protocols change during the pandemic, during an unprecedented time. Were looking for something that schools and districts can have a plan for, whatever their plan is, Talley said. Something like that, other than just were going to start on July 27 and having no Plan A or Plan B.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Two growing high school sports for girls got the green light and the state added a much-needed break for football programs during a lengthy Florida High School Athletic Association board meeting on Tuesday. Girls wrestling will become a sanctioned sport, complete with its own state championship tournament beginning in the 2021-22 school year. The addition of that was approved as a recognized spring sport for girls to start in the 2021-22 school year. Currently, five area girls teams compete in sand volleyball in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference. That allows football players to participate in both varsity and junior varsity games per week.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The Georgia High School Association has taken its first major step toward resuming high school sports and plans to take things as slow as needed to make sure it gets things right, executive director Robin Hines said on Tuesday. Hines said that from the beginning of the pandemic when spring sports were canceled, he targeted a potential return date of June 1 to coincide with the new school year. We didnt know that was it, but that was out target date, Hines said. High school sports have been on hold since the coronavirus outbreak in March. The Florida High School Athletic Association hasnt released any substantial updates since it announced the cancellation of all spring sports on April 20.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – As a three-year legal battle continues over the issue, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran wants the Florida High School Athletic Association to reconsider policies that prevented Christian schools from offering a prayer over the stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 state championship football game. “Policies that are overbroad or restrictive may deny students their constitutional right to private religious expression. Cambridge Christian filed the lawsuit against the athletic association, arguing that the decision blocking the use of the loudspeaker for the prayer violated First Amendment rights. The 2015 game that led to the lawsuit involved Cambridge Christian and Jacksonville’s University Christian School. “The state must not censor private religious speech of its students, even where that speech is given at a state-sponsored event or on public property.”

Cambridge Christian School of Tampa argues in the lawsuit that the decision blocking the use of the loudspeaker for the prayer violated First Amendment rights. "We cannot say whether these claims will ultimately succeed, but Cambridge Christian has plausibly alleged enough to enter the courtroom and be heard." The case stems from a December 2015 football championship game between Cambridge Christian and University Christian School at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. Cambridge Christian filed the lawsuit in federal court in Tampa, but Honeywell rejected the arguments that the association had violated First Amendment rights. But the appeals court reversed the dismissal, saying the constitutional arguments and facts of the case should receive closer scrutiny.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - We all found out the high school football playoff brackets last Sunday when the Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled its field. Of course, it's all for fun, but how would a 32-team field look? I gave our Super 10 the top seeds in the News4Jax playoff bracket and used RPI for spots 11-32. In the instance of RPI ties, I used the opponent's winning percentage as the first tiebreaker. RPI, or ratings percentage index, multiplied a team's winning percentage (.35), an opponent's winning percentage (.35) and an opponent's opponent's winning percentage (.30) to come up with an RPI.

The Florida High School Athletic Association released its Week 10 playoff RPI ratings on Tuesday afternoon with only minor changes. Trinity closes its season at Raines on Friday and will lock up a playoff spot with a victory. 5 seed in the playoff bracket since Lee (.607) will win the district with a victory over one-win Gainesville. In 1-8A, Mandarin (.593) is in ninth place in RPI, just .03 behind a playoff spot and No. Week 10 Playoff RPI standings (*indicate team has clinched district title, top four seed in playoffs)Region 1-8A: 2.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Mandarin High School will host the girls flag football state championships next year. Area presence in flag football has steadily grown over the years. Ten years ago, there were 23 area programs that fielded flag football teams. "Mandarin High School is extremely thrilled to get the opportunity to host the 2020 FHSAA Flag Football State Championships", said Mandarin athletic director Brian Rado. "We are excited to showcase our facility and the top players in the state for the sport of flag football."

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled the first glance of its new-look RPI playoff system on Tuesday. In good position for playoff berths at this point: Bolles, Bartram Trail and University Christian, and non-traditional playoff programs like Baldwin and Westside. The top six teams in each region in Classes 1A-4A make the playoffs, and the top eight in Classes 5A-8A make the playoffs. If anything, this was a glimpse of how the new strength of schedule factors in to the playoff rankings. RPI, or Ratings Percentage Index, uses a team's winning percentage (.35), an opponent's winning percentage (.35) and an opponents' opponent's winning percentage (.30) to determine the RPI.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA - The high school state track and field championships are moving from Jacksonville. The Florida High School Athletic Association announced on Friday that the University of Florida will host the event for the next three years. The state track meet had been held at the University of North Florida for the past two years and six of the last eight. IMG Academy hosted the state meet in 2016-17. The 2020 event will be May 13-16 at the James G. Pressly Stadium, Percy Beard Track.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - With Friday night lights only a few weeks away, some school districts around the state are scrambling with high school football schedules as they're facing a shortage of referees and officials. Yes, we are aware of the possibility of FHSAA football officials associations going on strike in several areas around the state over their pay rates. He said the FHSAA wants to assure high school sports officials that it is working on making changes for the 2020-21 school year. As of late Tuesday afternoon, Clay County, Nassau County and St. Johns County school districts had replied, saying they have not been affected and schedules are good to go. The Bradford County School District said its schedule is unaffected, but said it is aware of the situation and recognizes the shortage.