Final Fours (Class 1A/1R/Rural) since 2011.

 If there's one there I really don't like about Florida High School football it's the silly decision to split the state in "Metro" and "Suburbs", which splits up Miami-Dade, Broward. Palm Beach. Duval, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Orange and Seminole counties from the rest of the state because Miami schools are tough to beat.

The one thing the FHSAA always seemed to be against was splitting the state....so they split the state which led to more mediocrity across the board. It was a heavy handed solution to a problem that didn't exist. The teams that were complaining about the Miami schools dominating rarely got to the point where they had to play them. And the "suburban" teams that do advance into the deep rounds like Venice, Naples, Manatee, Lakeland, etc...actually look forward to playing the big city schools. As someone that covered prep football in Polk County, I can tell you that those schools loved playing the Hillsborough schools in the county next door.

So thanks for taking that away FHSAA. You guys are awesome...said no one.

Anyway this got me curious about what schools actually advanced to the semifinals during the best recent period of high school football in Florida, when there were eight classifications and the best teams won regardless of location.

First look is at the rural division, originally known as Class 1A, which started in 2011. This was actually a good idea as the small community schools, mostly located in the north central through the northwest part of the state were often not equipped to deal with the small private schools in bigger cities like Tallahassee North Florida Christian or Hialeah Champagnat Catrholic...schools that had small enrollments, but access to a much larger pool of players than a one-town school like Chipley. 

As usual the rural wasn't perfect when it started and seemed to lock out rural schools that weren't located in the top half of the state. After some realignment schools like Fort Meade, Frostproof, Pahokee and Madison County were let in. Anyway here are the Final Fours for the past dozen years.

2011: Chipley, Northview, Jefferson County (c), Union County

2012: Northview (2) (c), Liberty County, Trenton, Newberry

2013: Blountstown, Cottondale, Trenton (2) (c), Dixie County

2014: Port St. Joe (c), Vernon. Hamilton County, Dixie County (2)

2015: Port St. Joe (2), Baker, Trenton (3) (c), Madison County

2016: Baker (2), Blountstown (2), Pahokee (c), Madison County (2)

2017: Blountstown (3), Baker (3), Pahokee (2), Madison County (3) (c)

2018: Baker (4), Port St. Joe (3), Madison County (4) (c), Hawthorne

2019: Blountstown (4), Baker (5), Madison County (5) (c), Pahokee (3)

2020: Baker (6) (c), Sneads, Hawthorne (2), Madison County (6)

2021: Hawthorne (3), Chipley (2), Madison County (7) (c), Chiefland

2022: Hawthorne (4) (c), Union County (2), Northview (3), Blountstown (5)

As you can see there was a really they originally tried to lock MadCo out, but when they arrived they were good wiht seven appearances and four championships. Baker made the final four six years in a row and Blountstown has always been a really solid small school program.

I like the rural division. It's good for those communities and games draw big crowds. As you can see there have been a small handfull of schools that dominate the standings, but overall it's done more good than harm.