JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The final high school football district assignments are set as the new Metro and Suburban divisions prepare for takeoff.
The Florida High School Athletic Association released finalized football districts Thursday morning, with two minor changes and two larger ones for area programs.
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Baldwin, which is on the outskirts of Duval County and was originally assigned to the Metro division, was placed in the Suburban class. The Indians join Baker County, Fernandina Beach, West Nassau and Yulee in District 5-2S. The district assignments are for football only and are in place for the next two seasons.
That’s a significant move for the Indians.
Under the new Metro-Suburban format, schools in the largest eight counties in Florida play in the Metro division. A fringe school like Baldwin made sense to petition for a change into the Suburban classification.
To rectify the two-team district that Baldwin’s move created, Riverside was moved from District 1-2M and placed into 3-2M alongside Westside and White.
Matanzas moved down a classification and into District 4-3S with Clay, Gainesville, Menendez and St. Augustine. And Interlachen moved out of district play and became an independent.
The playoff qualifying format remains largely intact, although district play returning to small classifications is a change. Previously, teams in Class 4A and under played in regions and didn’t have opponents locked in.
In Classes 2M-4M and 2S-4S, district champions qualify for the playoffs, with the next four playoff teams determined by FHSAA Power Rankings. That’s a deviation from the RPI metric that had been used to determine playoff seeds. In Classes 1M-1S, district champs earn the automatic playoff berth, with the next two teams with the highest Power Ranking number qualifying. In 1M-1S, only four teams per region qualify. In the Rural division, the top six teams per region qualify.
Metro division
Note: The Metro division includes schools from the eight most populated counties in Florida (Broward, Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Seminole).
District 1-4M
Atlantic Coast
Sandalwood
Mandarin
District 1-3M
Englewood
First Coast
Fletcher
Parker
District 1-2M
Jackson
Raines
Ribault
District 2-2M
Bishop Kenny
Bolles
Episcopal
Wolfson
District 3-2M
Riverside
White
Westside
District 1-1M
Christ’s Church
North Florida Educational Institute
Providence
Trinity Christian
University Christian
Suburban division
District 3-4S
Bartram Trail
Gainesville Buchholz
Creekside
Fleming Island
Oakleaf
District 4-4S
Flagler Palm Coast
Nease
Ponte Vedra
District 3-3S
Columbia
Middleburg
Orange Park
Ridgeview
District 4-3S
Clay
Gainesville
Matanzas
Menendez
St. Augustine
District 4-2S
Suwannee
Taylor County
Wakulla
District 5-2S
Baker County
Baldwin
Fernandina Beach
West Nassau
Yulee
District 6-2S
Bradford
Keystone Heights
Palatka
Tocoi Creek
District 3-1S
P.K. Yonge
St. Joseph
Trinity Catholic
Rural
Region 3-1A
Bell
Branford
Fort White
Hamilton County
Hilliard
Mayo Lafayette
Madison County
Union County
Independent
Beachside
Bishop Snyder
Cedar Creek Christian
Eagle’s View
Global Outreach
Harvest Community
Impact Christian
Interlachen
Paxon
Stanton