After three months of high school football, Florida’s brackets are here.
Raines entered the history books as Jacksonville’s first-ever Open Division qualifier and dozens of other Northeast Florida teams learned their postseason fates as the Florida High School Athletic Association unveiled its playoff brackets on Nov. 6.
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The brackets chart the course toward the FHSAA football finals from Dec. 9-12 at Pitbull Stadium in Miami, where Raines won the Class 3A championship last December to end Jacksonville’s three-year title drought.
The road to the playoffs, already filled with numerous twists and turns from the volatile MaxPreps rankings, nearly took a further detour when Miami Carol City filed for an injunction against the FHSAA’s ruling that had excluded the school from the playoffs. Carol City had been banned from postseason and 15 players received suspensions after a postgame brawl at an Oct. 2 loss to Grayson (Ga.). However, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Antonio Arzola of Florida’s 11th Judicial Circuit denied Carol City’s request in a Friday afternoon hearing.
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Raines’ Ameer Mebane (22) scores a touchdown against Bishop Kenny’s Bryce Lapenes (2) during the forth quarter of a high school football matchup at Bishop Kenny High School on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Jacksonville, Fla. Raines defeated Bishop Kenny 48-3.
How were the playoffs selected for standard classes?
District champions — for Northeast Florida, these are Creekside, Mandarin, Columbia, St. Augustine, Raines, Palatka, Bolles, Bradford and Trinity Christian — qualify for the postseason automatically.
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From there, the FHSAA uses the MaxPreps rankings to select at-large teams to bring each region up to eight playoff teams. A few regions in South Florida contain fewer than eight teams and thus could not fill the full bracket, leading to several first-round byes.
Superior seeds host first-round games in standard classes in most instances. However, when the superior seed did not win its district and its first-round opponent did, the district champion has hosting priority.
The FHSAA postseason is scheduled to begin Friday, Nov. 13.
How will the Open Division work?
The Open Division, first employed last month for volleyball, takes the first eight teams in the statewide MaxPreps rankings and pulls them out of their regions into two groups of four, playing in a round-robin format.
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The first group includes teams ranked Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 8; the second will have teams ranked Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7.
Each Open Division team plays three group games, with the top two in each group advancing to the semifinals at The Villages. The championship game will take place in Miami.
Raines, winner of its last 24, will play Miami Columbus, West Boca and Miami Central.
Full FHSAA regional football playoff brackets for Northeast Florida
OPEN DIVISION
Pool A: (1) St. Thomas Aquinas, (4) Chaminade-Madonna, (5) Lakeland, (8) Venice
Pool B: (2) Miami Columbus, (3) West Boca Raton, (6) Miami Central, (7) Raines
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REGION 1-6A
(8) Lake Brantley at (1) Sanford Seminole
(5) Lake Mary at (4) Creekside
(3) Mainland at (6) Winter Park
(7) Spruce Creek at (2) DeLand
REGION 1-5A
(8) Oakleaf at (1) Mandarin
(5) Bartram Trail at (4) Orlando Evans
(3) Nease at (6) Pace
(7) Ponte Vedra at (2) Gainesville Buchholz
REGION 1-4A
(8) Clay at (1) Columbia
(5) Lynn Haven Mosley at (4) Choctawhatchee
(6) Tallahassee Rickards at (3) White
(7) Tallahassee Lincoln at (2) St. Augustine
REGION 1-3A
(1) Tallahassee Godby at (8) Palatka
(4) Bishop Kenny at (5) Pine Forest
(6) Panama City Bay at (3) Wakulla
(7) South Walton at (2) Baker County
REGION 1-2A
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(8) Freeport at (1) Bolles
(5) Jackson at (4) Florida High
(6) Gadsden County at (3) Walton
(7) Destin at (2) Pensacola Catholic
REGION 2-2A
(8) Clearwater Calvary Christian at (1) Orlando First Academy
(5) Cocoa at (4) Tampa Catholic
(3) Berkeley Prep at (6) Bradford
(7) St. Petersburg Lakewood at (2) Clearwater Central Catholic
REGION 1-1A
(8) Chipley at (1) Madison County
(5) Taylor County at (4) Holmes County
(6) Baker at (3) Fort White
(7) Marianna at (2) Blountstown
REGION 2-1A
(8) Father Lopez at (1) Trinity Christian
(5) Williston at (4) Melbourne Central Catholic
(6) Wildwood at (3) University Christian
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(7) Chiefland at (2) Hawthorne
FHSAA INDEPENDENT BRACKET NORTH B
(8) Oviedo Master’s Academy at (1) Mount Dora Christian
(5) Bozeman at (4) Gainesville Oak Hall
(6) Providence at (3) Hilliard
(7) Geneva at (2) Jay
FLORIDA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT 4A-6A NORTH
(8) Tocoi Creek at (1) Lake Howell
(5) St. Cloud at (4) Riverside
(6) Pensacola Washington at (3) Land O’Lakes
(7) Yulee at (2) Beachside
FLORIDA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT 1A-3A
(8) Cypress Lake at (1) Suwannee
(5) North Marion at (4) Bayshore
(6) Wellen Park at (3) Belleview
(7) Tallahassee FAMU DRS at (2) Gainesville Eastside
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Who’s in, who’s out? Northeast Florida’s FHSAA football bracket is here
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