2024 FHSAA high football state championship projections

We know who's in the playoffs now, but let's have some fun in predicting who will reach The Villages and Miami in December

Brady Hart of Cocoa Tigers passes against Rockledge in the annual Barbecue Bowl Friday, November 1, 2024. Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY via USA TODAY NETWORK / Craig Bailey/FLORIDA TODAY / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

I mean, is it okay to release state championship projections less than a couple hours after the release of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) playoff bracket release.

We don't think it's too early, so let's get to it.

On Friday evening, at around 6 p.m., the FHSAA released its high school football playoff brackets and plenty of reactions are coming in from across the Sunshine State. 

2024 Florida high football state championship predictions

To join in the fun, we want to give you our ‘way too early’ state championship predictions based on the brackets released and hear from the fans on who you think will reach the 2024 FHSAA state championships in Miami and The Villages?

Take a look down at the predicted matchups we’ve cooked up for mid-December. 

CLASS 7A

Lake Mary vs. Venice: Arguably the state's best quarterback up against the most potent offense. Noah Grubbs has shown througout the season he can lead this Rams to a state title game, but it would be versus a high-powered Indians offensive attack. This game would be a lot of fun. Wouldn't be surprised at all if Sanford Seminole ended up against Venice either.

CLASS 6A

Armwood vs. West Boca Raton: Defense, defense, defense. Oh, and two Power 4 backs dueling it out. This would be your old school kinda game as Armwood features Girard Pringle and West Boca Raton has Javian Mallory.

CLASS 5A

Lakeland vs. St. Thomas Aquinas: Well look what we have here. A tale as old as time between these foes that have met in six state championship games already. Can they make it officially a seventh?

CLASS 4A

Orlando Jones vs. Miami Norland: A quarterback eccentric matchup between two teams that have really proven themselves over the course of the season. Trust us when we say it was hard deciding on Norland over Plantation American Heritage, but the Vikings are in and aiming to avenge what happened in 2023.

CLASS 3A

Raines vs. Miami Northwestern: The 904 versus the 305. We think it's time for the Vikings and it would be up against first-year head coach Teddy Bridgewater and his Bulls down in their own backyard. Storylines galore in this projected tilt.

CLASS 2A

Cocoa vs. Cardinal Mooney: We're not betting against Brady Hart's ability to lead the Tigers back to a state title game. What we have seen out of Cardinal Mooney is they're fully capable of making a run back to the state championship game.

CLASS 1A

Clearwater Central Catholic vs Chaminade-Madonna: Yes, hit us with Marauders versus Lions one more time. With The First Academy out of the mix, CCC remains on course with matching up again versus Chaminade-Madonna for the third straight season. Problem is, the Lions look like themselves and ready to win another state crown.

Rural State Championship Series

Chiefland vs. Madison County: Hear us out o this one because we're sure the people in Hawthorne are wondering about how they're left off. Welp, we love season-ending win over Union County by the Chiefland and feel Adam Gore has this team fully turned around. This would be a great championship matchup.

Rural Invitational Series

Baker vs. Wildwood: A No. 7 seed reaching a state title game? That's what would happen here with the Wildcats facing the top seeded Gators. Don't look at the rcd, but more so the fact that Wildwood has played pretty much all higher level classification schools and are battle tested.

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-- Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @sblivefl