Miami, Florida Judge Denies Carol City Injunction and Chiefs Stay Out of Playoffs

A Miami-Dade Circuit judge on Friday denied an emergency request to lift the Florida High School Athletic Association postseason ban on Miami Carol City, a ruling that keeps one of the state's top ranked football teams out of the 2026 playoffs.

Judge Antonio Arzola denied the motion for an emergency temporary injunction after a hearing held hours before the FHSAA released its playoff brackets at 5 p.m. Friday. Arzola ruled that the court could not intervene in the association's proceedings under the circumstances presented to him.

Carol City finished the regular season 7-3 and stood at No. 7 in the MaxPreps overall rankings for Florida. Had the injunction been granted, the Chiefs would have been one of the eight teams in the first Open Division championship field.

The case the players brought

Eleven Carol City players and their guardians filed the lawsuit on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Attorney Jason Setchen of AthleteDefender and Coffey Burlington filed the complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief.

The plaintiffs did not ask the court to overturn the individual suspensions imposed on 15 Carol City players. They asked only that players who were not suspended be allowed to play in the postseason. Their attorneys argued that the association had found no wrongdoing by the 45 players who were not suspended, so the team ban punished them collectively, in violation of Florida Statute 1006.20(2)(j).

FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon testified at the hearing. According to the reports of the hearing, Damon said the postseason ban rested on a lack of institutional control at Carol City, not on the October fight as a single incident. After that testimony, the judge found he had no basis to interfere in the association's procedures.

How the ban built up

The ban followed a postgame altercation with Grayson of Georgia on Oct. 2, after Carol City lost by one point. The fight broke out in the handshake line. The FHSAA suspended 15 players, placed the program on restrictive probation that bars it from the 2026-27 postseason, fined the school $1,500 and required it to host an athletic department compliance workshop.

The October fight was not the program's first problem this year. Carol City had been placed on administrative probation in March after a recruiting violation, and that probation was extended in September. The association's board of directors denied the school's appeal of the postseason ban on Sunday, Nov. 1.

What happens next

The denial of the emergency injunction does not settle the underlying dispute over whether the ban unfairly punishes players who were not involved in the altercation. It was not immediately clear whether the plaintiffs will pursue further legal action.

For the Chiefs, the practical answer arrived Friday afternoon. The brackets came out at 5 p.m. without them, and a 7-3 season that had them ranked among the best teams in Florida ends without a playoff game.