Just in the nick of time they say. For The First Academy (Fla.), that’s exactly the case just ahead of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) bracket reveal show, set to begin at 12 p.m. Eastern Time today.
According to a report by USA Today’s Jon Santucci, the Royals have had their FHSAA-imposed playoff ban temporarily lifted by Orange County Judge Margaret H. Schreiber on Thursday. With the ruling, The First Academy would technically be eligible for the FHSAA’s Class 1A playoffs, though the Royals haven’t played a district game the entire 2025 season.
Now it’s a wait and see for The First Academy, as they finished the regular season with a 5-5 record after defeating last year’s Class 5A runnerup Lakeland, 35-28 at Bryant Stadium. If anything else, it brings some more intrigue as the selection show is just minutes away from taking place.
Recently, attorney Paul Aloise Jr., one of two lawyers that is representing a group of Royals players, filed for an emergency temporary injunction in an attempt to reverse the program’s two-year playoff ban that was imposed on The First Academy by the FHSAA.
The FHSAA had previously denied The First Academy‘s appeal to be reinstated for the 2025 football playoffs back in June, leaving the Royals having to play this past season without the opportunity to qualify for the state postseason that’s set begin on Nov. 14 with region quarterfinal games.
“The No. 1 goal of the players and the parents is to play in the 2025 playoffs, unequivocally,” John Ramsier, a father of a The First Academy player, said via a report. “We felt like we had to come up with some legal representation that specialized in sports law and NIL in order to present this request to the Florida High School Athletic Association.”
The First Academy was banned for the 2024 and 2025 playoffs last fall when the FHSAA placed the program on ‘restrictive probation’ for a series of alleged rules violations.
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