The FHSAA’s Assistant Director of Athletics Alex Ozuna Wednesday emailed coaches to outline some additional details about how the new all-inclusive district playoffs will be handled.
As you can see below, Ozuna’s email clarifies one major unknown – the handling of district seeding as well as brackets for districts with more than 4 teams. This was unknown until now.
DISTRICT TOURNAMENT BRACKETS
The last regular season date that counts toward district tournament seeding is Saturday, April 4th. Once the FHSAA Power Rankings are pulled the following Monday, the FHSAA will set up the brackets for every district tournament and distribute information to the schools. The brackets will be set up in accordance with Policy 13.3.4 in the FHSAA Handbook with No. 1, 4, 5, and 8 seeds in one half of the bracket and No. 2, 3, 6, and 7 seeds in the other half of the bracket.
REGIONAL TOURNAMENT QUALIFICATION
As in previous years, after all district tournaments have concluded, each district champion will advance to the regional tournament where they will face the district champion of their neighboring district during the first round of the tournament (i.e. district champion1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6, etc.).
The team listed on the bottom line of the bracket is designated as the host team during the first round of the regional tournament. Additionally, during the second round of the tournament, The team listed on the bottom line of the bracket is designated as the host team. If, however, the school on the bottom line of the bracket served as a host school during the previous round and the school on the top line of the bracket was a visitor during the previous round, the school on the top line of the bracket will be designated the host school.
FHSAA POWER RANKINGS TIMELINE
| Ranking Release Dates | Notes |
| Wednesday, March 17, 2021 | First Florida Rankings release |
| Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | |
| Wednesday, March 31, 2021 | |
| Wednesday, April 7, 2021 | Final Florida Rankings for District Tournament Seeding |
The FHSAA Power Rankings will be posted on the lacrosse pages of the FHSAA website and will be the ONLY official rankings for FHSAA Lacrosse. The MaxPreps rankings that can be viewed on MaxPreps’ website are NOT the same as the FHSAA Power Rankings.
The FHSAA Power Rankings do not include preseason results or consider margin of victory so they will not match the MaxPreps rankings listed on the MaxPreps site. However, all district tournament seeding will be based entirely on the FHSAA Power Rankings.
TLR Edit: Here is the text of Policy 13.3.4: “13.3.4 Bracketing. For the sports of baseball, basketball, girls and boys soccer, softball and girls volleyball, every district member shall be placed on the tournament bracket according to seed. In the sports of flag football, boys volleyball, lacrosse and water polo, the top four seeds only shall be placed on the tournament bracket. A single-elimination, standard progression bracket shall be used. The No. 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 16 seeds shall be placed in the upper half of the bracket and the No. 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 and 15 seeds shall be placed in the lower half of the bracket. Byes, if any, shall be awarded to the higher-seeded schools. The higher-seeded team of the bracket in each tournament contest shall be designated the home school for that contest.”
