FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2000
FHSAA Board of Directors votes to end football season one week earlier beginning in 2001
GAINESVILLE – Citing the need to move the FHSAA Florida Football Finals state championship games away from the Christmas holidays, the Florida High School Activities Association Board of Directors voted today to set those state championship games one week earlier effective with the 2001 season.
The FHSAA Florida Football Finals, originally scheduled for Dec. 13-15, 2001, now will be held Dec. 6-8 of that year. More importantly, the dates move up from Dec. 19-21, 2002 – just four days prior to Christmas – to Dec. 12-14 of that year.
The Board of Directors did not decide on the means by which the season will be ended one week earlier. Several options exist including:
• The elimination of the open date;
• A reduction in the permissible number of regular season games from 10 to 9;
• A reduction of the FHSAA State Football Series from five weeks to four weeks by the elimination of the advancement of the district runner-up; and
• Beginning the season one week earlier.
A decision on which option to take will not be made until the Board's November 2000 meeting. The FHSAA Office will survey member schools that play football in the interim to ascertain their preference.
"Everyone is in agreement that the state championship games need to be moved away from the Christmas holidays," Commissioner Robert W. Hughes said. "Everyone is not in agreement on how this should be accomplished. For years we have floundered on this issue because we have not committed ourselves to making this tough decision. Today, the Board of Directors has made that commitment. Now, working together with our member schools, the Florida Athletic Coaches Association and the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, we have six months to reach a consensus agreement on how to accomplish it."
The Board of Directors, in its regular bi-monthly business meeting, also took the following action:
1) Approved a three-year extension to Hughes' existing contract as Commissioner. The extended contract will retain Hughes' services as Commissioner through Jan. 14, 2005.
2) Approved a proposed maximum fee scale increase for registered contest officials to be phased in over a two-year period beginning with next school year. The fee increase will result in an estimated increased cost to member schools of anywhere from $800 for schools with limited athletic programs to $1,200 for schools with full athletic programs once it is fully phased in.
3) Approved the format for a new regional tournament round to be added to the FHSAA State Golf Series effective with the upcoming 2000 season. Under the format, district tournaments will be held on the Monday and Tuesday of Week 17 (Oct. 23-24, 2000). The new regional tournaments will be held on the Monday and Tuesday of Week 18 (Oct. 30-31, 2000). The FHSAA Florida Golf Finals will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of Week 19 (Nov. 6-7, 2000). Every two districts will comprise one of the eight regional complexes. The four lowest scoring teams and the four lowest scoring individual golfers from all remaining teams will advance from each district tournament to the regional tournament. The first and second place teams and the top two individual golfers, regardless of whether they also are members of a qualifying team, from each regional tournament will advance to the Florida Finals.
4) Adopted a proposed "Categorization of Sports Policy" that will serve as the guidelines to be followed in considering the addition of sports to the FHSAA program. According to the policy, sports will be categorized as either club, recognized or sanctioned. Club sports will receive no regulation from the FHSAA. Recognized sports will receive limited regulation, and sanctioned sports will be fully regulated. Recognized sports may be eligible for the implementation of an invitational state championship series. Sanctioned sports will be eligible for the conduct of an official state championship series.
5) Adopted a proposed change to the "Classification Policy" that will change the grades from which students will be counted for determining member schools' enrollments. Effective with reclassification for the 2001-02 school year, schools will be classified on the basis of their enrollments in the 9th, 10th and 11th grades, rather than the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. The policy also includes a formula to be used in computing enrollments for schools that may not have any one or more of the 9th, 10th and 11th grades at the time the enrollments are reported to the FHSAA Office.
6) Adopted an expanded "Physical Evaluation Form" that sets the minimum requirements for all physical examinations of student-athletes. A school or school district that wishes to develop its own form may do so provided that all information and examinations required by the FHSAA form are required on the school or school district's form as well.
7) Adopted a new "Consent and Release Certificate" to be used by member schools in securing the consent of parents and/or guardians of students who wish to participate in interscholastic athletic competition. A school or school district that wishes to develop its own consent and release form may do so provided that all verbiage on the FHSAA form is included on the school or school district's form as well.
8) Authorized Hughes to seek from the National Federation of State High School Associations approval for the FHSAA to experiment with a change in the coaching box for basketball during the 2000-01 season. The experimental change would expand the current six-foot high school coaching box to that of the college game – from the 28-foot line to the baseline.
The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletics in the state of Florida. It has a membership of 615 middle, junior and senior high schools. The FHSAA Board of Directors is the executive authority of the Association. It is authorized both by the Association's Bylaws and by Florida Statute to adopt guidelines, regulations, policies and procedures governing interscholastic athletic competitions in which member schools compete. I also is exclusively charged with establishing terms and conditions for the conduct of any competition that leads up to the crowning of an official state high school champion in interscholastic athletics.
The FHSAA Board of Directors' next meeting is scheduled for June 15-16, 2000 at the Wyndham Westshore Hotel in Tampa.
Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org
