Who's in, who's out? FHSAA releases final 2022 high school football playoff brackets
The calculations are finished and the playoffs are here.
Yulee, First Coast and Riverside were among the Northeast Florida teams cheering, while several other bubbles burst Sunday when the Florida High School Athletic Association released the final brackets for the 2022 high school football playoffs.
On the opening-round menu: a festival of rivalry games, including Raines at White, Riverside at Jackson and Episcopal at Bolles within Region 1-2M, plus several more all-local clashes.
District champions qualified automatically, and the FHSAA used its ranking formula, a variant of the MaxPreps rankings, to allocate at-large berths — four per region per class, except for two per region per class in Class 1M and 1S.
What you need to know: USA Today Network reporters break down the FHSAA football playoffs
Bound for the Bayou: Trinity Christian sophomore quarterback Colin Hurley commits to LSU, reclassifies to 2024
First Coast Varsity Weekly: Bishop Kenny-Bolles memories strong from last Crusader win
Week 11 rewind: Creekside, First Coast, Fletcher, Riverside win
For Yulee, Week 11 was an experience in life on the edge.
The Hornets entered the week outside the top eight in Region 1-2S, but after a 35-7 win over Menendez — a success powered by rushing, receiving and defensive touchdowns from junior Rylan Hale — Yulee is bound for its first FHSAA regional since 2016.
It was even wilder for First Coast, which needed to knock off Jackson in their finale and did exactly that, rallying from a winless 2021 on the and punching a ticket to regionals for the first time since 2014.
The win gave the Bucs enough points to leapfrog Winter Garden Horizon by 0.382 points for the final playoff berth in Region 1-3M, setting up a trip to Orlando against top-seeded Edgewater.
Also celebrating their berth in next week's regionals were Riverside, courtesy of Friday night's 25-14 victory over Ribault at the Backyard to nail down the final at-large spot in Region 1-2M; Middleburg, which rallied from an 0-4 start to qualify at 5-5 in Region 1-3S; and Palatka, which survived a three-game skid in hang on at Region 2-2S.
For a few others, though, the bubble finally burst.
That list includes Tocoi Creek, which dropped from the top eight in Region 2-2S with Friday's loss to Nease; Providence, edged out by Orlando Christian Prep in Region 1-1M; and Wolfson, which finished narrowly behind Riverside in Region 1-2M even after beating Englewood Friday. For the Wolfpack, the wait for regional qualification stretches back to 2006.
Bartram Trail received the top seed in Region 1-4S, while Trinity Christian is on top in Region 1-1M, Bradford will be No. 1 in Region 1-2S and Jackson emerged on top of the battle for the first seed in Region 1-2M.
The complexity of year one under the FHSAA's new Metro/Suburban system extends to playoff seeding. Teams are seeded based on their position in the rankings for the opening round, but in a confusing twist, the seeding doesn't automatically determine home field advantage. If a district champion meets a team that didn't win its district in the first round, the district winner will host regardless of seeding.
Thus, eighth-seeded Mandarin opens the Region 1-4M playoffs at the Corral against top seed Sanford Seminole, because the Mustangs won District 1-4M while Seminole finished as a district runner-up.
REGION 1-4M
(1) Sanford Seminole at (8) Mandarin
(5) Oviedo Hagerty at (4) Lake Mary
(6) Lake Brantleyat (3) Winter Park
(7) Orlando Boone at (2) Apopka
REGION 1-3M
(8) First Coast at (1) Edgewater
(5) Tampa Bay Tech at (4) Fletcher
(6) Tampa Wharton at (3) Oviedo
(7) Wekiva at (2) Orlando Jones
REGION 1-2M
(8) Riverside at (1) Jackson
(5) Raines at (4) White
(6) Episcopal at (3) Bolles
(7) Bishop Moore at (2) Bishop Kenny
REGION 1-1M
(4) Orlando Christian Prep at (1) Trinity Christian
(3) Orlando First Academy at (2) University Christian
REGION 1-4S
(8) Flagler Palm Coast at (1) Bartram Trail
(4) Creekside at (5) Navarre
(6) Pace at (3) Gainesville Buchholz
(7) Crestview at (2) Niceville
REGION 1-3S
(8) Tallahassee Rickards at (1) Pensacola Pine Forest
(5) Choctawhatchee at (4) St. Augustine
(6) Tallahassee Lincoln at (3) Columbia
(7) Middleburg at (2) Escambia
REGION 1-2S
(8) South Walton at (1) Florida High
(5) Wakulla at (4) Pensacola Catholic
(6) Panama City Bay at (3) West Florida
(7) Walton at (2) Suwannee
REGION 2-2S
(8) Crescent City at (1) Bradford
(4) North Marion at (5) Gainesville Eastside
(6) Yulee at (3) Baker County
(7) Palatka at (2) Baldwin
REGION 2-1S
(4) Father Lopez at (1) Ocala Trinity Catholic
(3) P.K. Yonge at (2) Melbourne Holy Trinity
REGION 3-1R
(1) Union County, first-round bye
(2) Hilliard, first-round bye
(5) Fort White at (4) Madison County
(6) Branford at (3) Mayo Lafayette
Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX, and sign up for the First Coast Varsity newsletter at https://profile.jacksonville.com/newsletters/first-coast-varsity/.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school football playoffs 2022: Northeast Florida brackets revealed
