Florida approves a H.S. football national bowl series for December
There could be a high school football championship bowl series this year – but it won't necessarily feature the nation's best teams.
The Florida High School Athletics Association on Monday approved a plan for three bowl games to be played in Boca Raton in late December. The series is tentatively called the State Champions Bowl Series and is being organized by Paragon Sports Marketing, the Illinois company that created basketball's National High School Invitational (now called the Dick's Sporting Goods High School National Tournament).
Paragon will oversee the selection committee, making all decisions after each state has finished its respective championship games. The Orlando Sun Sentinel reports that selection will be based on national rankings from USA Today and others, and schools must be part of their state athletic associations, which must be part of the National Federation of High School Associations, in order to play.
They're all welcome, but that doesn't mean they'll all be interested. Coaches from Texas, home to five of the Top 25 schools in the current MaxPreps rankings, told the Dallas Morning News that no schools from the state will be participating, mainly because their schedule is already long enough.
Rebecca Brutlag, media relations officer for the California Interscholastic Federation, told Yahoo Sports that it's unlikely that California teams will make it this year, because it's too late to be starting the process. All of the federation's 1,551 member schools will have to vote on the issue.
Georgia has a bylaw prohibiting bowl games or national championships. MaxPreps has four California schools and two Georgia schools in the Xcellent 25. That's already 11 top schools definitely not participating (and 7 of the top 10).
FHSAA executive director Robert Dearing told the Dallas Morning News that they'll let two of the state's team participate. There are four Florida schools ranked, so that knocks out another two of the best.
Dearing added that 11 states have been approached. ESPNU is reportedly going to air the games, which are scheduled for noon, 4 and 7 p.m. on Dec. 27 (nearly a month after football season ends in some states, only a week after California's championship bowl games).
Paragon will be giving either a cash ($12,500) or merchandise ($25,000 worth) reward, or a combination of the two, to participating teams. The contract with FHSAA also guarantees at least $10,000 in annual rights fees for allowing FHSAA schools to participate, and an additional $40,000 if a school is selected to play in the SCBS.
So much for high school players getting to enjoy the holiday break – or trying to play high school basketball, which is well underway by Dec. 27.
According to the contract with FHSAA, Paragon has until Oct. 31 to cancel the event.
