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Football Alignments Could Mean End For SAC

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: December 15, 2008

If the football alignments announced by the Florida High School Athletic Association survive appeals, the Sunshine Athletic Conference in Pasco County may become a thing of the past.

As expected, only a handful of teams remained in their current districts. Wesley Chapel and Mitchell dropped the furthest. The Wildcats will play in Class 2A next year, along with Pasco and Anclote, which will open in August. The Mustangs drop from 5A to 3A.

Other teams moving are Land O' Lakes (4A to 3A) and Wiregrass Ranch (3A to 4A).

The hardest hit by realignment are Anclote, Pasco and Wesley Chapel. They have been placed in Class 2A-District 4 with Avon Park, Crystal River, Eustis, Lake Wales, Bushnell South Sumter and Tavares.

With eight district games, the three Pasco County schools will only be able to play four SAC games.

Other districts are: Class 4A-6 -- Ridgewood, River Ridge, Tarpon Springs, Wiregrass Ranch; Class 3A-7 -- Gulf, Hudson, Land O' Lakes, Mitchell, Sunlake, Zephyrhills.

Academy at the Lakes and Bishop McLaughlin will continue to play as independents.

The FHSAA had originally planned for eight districts for Class 6A through 3A. However, there was extensive travel within this plan so the FHSAA staff made a unanimous decision to change to a 16-district format.

Schools will have until noon on Jan. 9 to submit written requests for reassignment to a different classification and/or district if they believe the change is warranted. Schools have the option of playing in its assigned classification or one classification higher. Schools in the lower 10 percent of
the population breakdown of each classification have the option of playing down one classification if it is deemed more suitable for district travel reasons.

As of Dec. 12, no schools had made a request to either play up or play down.

Letters of appeal that are received prior to the deadline will be reviewed by the appeals committee, which is comprised of selected FHSAA staff members.

District football scheduling meetings will be held on Jan. 28. District coordinators will be indicated on the final district football assignments when they are posted later in January.

Informatio0n from the FHSAA was used in this report.

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