​Central and Jay football are joining the FHSAA Independent League for postseason play.The two Santa Rosa County schools will join the Independent League, which was announced July 14 ahead of the 2026 season.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Independent League will consist into two division, Division A for schools with 900 or more students and Division B for schools with up to 899 students. Both divisions will also have North and South regions. Central and Jay will be in the Division B North region, which extends all the way to Orlando.Independent League teams can schedule regular season games independently, while MaxPreps rankings will be used to seed teams for postseason play, selecting the top eight teams from the North and South regions in each division. The higher seed will host each round in the playoffs, culminating in a championship on December 4 at the Villages Charter School. Teams that don’t make the postseason are eligible to play in bowl games.Central and Jay had previously decided to join the Sunshine State Athletic Association postseason in January, two of the 32 teams who decided to join the organization’s new Atlantic League, which featured mainly FHSAA school who didn’t want to play in the organization’s playoffs.Jay joined over concerns about fair play in the former rural classification, while Central joined over concerns it wouldn’t play enough FHSAA schools to be eligible for postseason play. FHSAA teams have to play a schedule of at least 60 percent member schools to qualify for the postseason.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSo many small schools joined the SSAA that at a January 29 emergency Board of Directors Meeting the FHSAA voted to dissolve the Rural football classification and absorb the remaining Rural schools into 1A. Northview, the Pensacola area’s only other Rural school, opted to remain with the FHSAA and will play in 1A this season.The FHSAA unanimously voted to establish an Independent League at the same meeting. The guidelines stated that schools which will compete for SSAA championships can no longer call themselves full members of the FHSAA and would instead be “members by sport,” which limits access to state championships or the Independent League for the sports the school is an FHSAA member for.League participants will meet in March to discuss the implementation of the Independent League to discuss how to move forward.This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Central and Jay football join new FHSAA Independent League