Four high school football teams from Broward and Palm Beach counties won Florida High School Athletic Association state championships in 2024 and learned their title-defense opening opponents when the FHSAA released its playoff bracket on YouTube on Thursday afternoon.
Chaminade-Madonna (1A), American Heritage (4A), St. Thomas Aquinas (5A) and West Boca Raton (6A) (in addition to Miami Northwestern in 3A) all brought home hardware in five of the seven state classes last season.
St. Thomas Aquinas is looking to extend its Florida record of six state titles in a row, while Chaminade-Madonna is gunning for a fifth consecutive championship and a possible 10th straight appearance in the state championship game. The Lions’ string of nine straight years of reaching the title game also is a state record.
St. Thomas Aquinas (6A), Archbishop McCarthy (4A) and Chaminade-Madonna (1A) all drew No. 1 seeds with the action slated to start Friday, Nov. 14.
St. Thomas Aquinas, winners of 31 consecutive playoff games, leads the state with 15 football championships. The last Raiders’ loss in the state playoffs came in the 2018 7A state final to Lakeland.
American Heritage, who won it all with five-star QB Dia Bell out due to an injury, will once again be without the contributions of Bell, a Texas commit, who has sat out most of the season following surgery on the same leg
West Boca, winners of their first state championship a year ago, is seeded second and will tackle No. 7 Largo in the opening round of action in 6A.
Archbishop McCarthy, enjoying its best season in school history, drew the top seed in 4A, propelled by edging American Heritage last month. The teams could meet in a regional final.
No. 7 Somerset Canyons–Boynton gets to host No. 2 St. Petersburg Lakewood, the higher seed in 2A because it won a district title. No. 4 Coconut Creek in 5A, for the same reason, will travel to No. 5 district champion Mater Academy.
Coral Glades, meanwhile, is making its first trip to the postseason since 2021 when it fell to Miami Palmetto.
For the second consecutive year, 34 teams from Broward and Palm Beach will continue their play in regionals.
Except for Pahokee, who is playing in the rural division state tournament, all of the Broward and Palm Beach teams in 7A through 1A will vie for an opportunity to play in the state championships from Dec. 11-14 in Pitbull Stadium on the campus of Florida International University.
Here are the first-round matchups for the FHSAA traditional, 32-team brackets:
7A Region 3
Orlando Dr. Phillips (7) at Jupiter (2)
Palm Beach Central (6) at Fort Pierce Central (3)
7A Region 4
Coral Glades (8) at Miami Palmetto (1)
Miami Columbus (5) at Santaluces (4)
Western (7) at Spanish River (2)
6A Region 3
Largo (7) at West Boca Raton (2)
6A Region 4
Nova (8) at Miami Southridge (1)
Piper (5) at Flanagan (4)
South Plantation (7) at West Broward (2)
Doral Academy (6) at Monarch (3)
5A Region 4
Palm Bay Heritage (8) at St. Thomas Aquinas (1)
Coconut Creek (4) at Hialeah Gardens Mater Academy (5)
North Miami (7) at Atlantic (2)
McArthur (6) at Stuart Martin County (3)
4A Region 4
Hialeah (8) at Archbishop McCarthy (1)
Ft. Pierce John Carroll (8) at American Heritage (2)
Plantation (6) at Dillard (3)
3A Region 4
Pembroke Pines Somerset Academy (8) at Miami Northwestern
2A Region 3
North Broward Prep (8) at Sarasota Cardinal Mooney (1)
Fort Myers Bishop Verot (8) at Calvary Christian Academy (4)
King’s Academy (6) at Glades Central (3)
St. Petersburg Lakewood (2) at Somerset Canyons–Boynton (7)
2A Region 4
Miami Monsignor Pace (7) at Cardinal Gibbons (2)
1A Region 4
St. John Paul II Academy (8) at Chaminade-Madonna (1)
Miami Archbishop Carroll (6) at St. Andrew’s (3)
1A Region 3
Benjamin (7) at Cardinal Newman (2)
The FHSAA opted to add a tournament labeled the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT), which includes three brackets: Rural, 1A-3A, and 4A-7A. These tournaments run concurrently with the traditional state playoffs, offering a postseason opportunity to teams that did not qualify for the traditional state series.
The FHSAA expanded the FIT for the 2025 football season after a successful trial with the Rural Division in 2024. In addition to the Rural FIT bracket, there are also two new 16-team brackets – one for 1A-3A and another for 4A-7A.
A total of seven local teams were selected for the FIT based on their final FHSAA MaxPreps Power Rankings, with invitations extended to the next highest-ranked teams (first out from the playoffs) that did not make the main bracket.
The FIT championship games will be held on Dec. 5-6 at H.G. Morse Stadium on the campus of The Villages Charter School.
Here are the first-round matchups for the FIT brackets, set for Thursday, Nov. 13.
7A-4A South Division Bracket
Sarasota (8) at Dr. Joaquin Garcia (1)
Royal Palm Beach (5) at Palm Beach Lakes (4)
Port St. Lucie Centennial (6) at Palm Beach Gardens (3)
Fort Pierce Westwood (7) at Miramar (2)
3A-1A South Division Bracket
Inlet Grove (5) at Cape Coral Oasis (4)
Melbourne Palm Bay (7) at Hallandale (2)
