The field is set for the first Florida Open Division Football Championship.
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), Columbus (Miami), West Boca Raton (Boca Raton), Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood), Lakeland, Central (Miami), Raines (Jacksonville) and Venice were revealed as participants in the FHSAA First Open Division, as announced during the playoff exit show Friday.
All eight programs will compete for a championship in a tournament that brings together the top-ranked eligible teams in the state, regardless of classification. Selection was based on MaxPreps rankings at the end of the regular season.
Saint Thomas Aquinas headlines Pool A with Chaminade-Madonna, Lakeland and Venice. Columbus headlines Pool B with West Boca Raton, Miami Central and Raines.
The path to the title begins with three weeks of pool play before the tournament moves to single elimination for the semifinals and championship match.
Group matches are scheduled for November 13, 20 and 27. The teams will face all the opponents in their group. The top two in each group advance, meaning an early loss doesn’t necessarily end a team’s championship hopes.
Ties in the pool standings will be broken first by the head-to-head results between the tied teams, followed by the points awarded between those teams, the point difference between those teams, and the overall point difference of all pool matches.
The four advanced teams will meet in the semifinals on December 5 at the Range at HG Morse Stadium in The Villages. The winner of Pool A faces the finalist of Pool B, while the winner of Pool B faces the finalist of Pool A.
The winners of the semifinals will play for the inaugural Open Division championship on Dec. 12 at South Dade Kia Field at Pitbull Stadium on the campus of Florida International University in Miami.
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