Classification rant continues

in dribs and drabs.
Note that 2A Arlington Country Day got like their fifth straight state title in a brutal 80-41 mauling of Summit Christian. Nobody from D5 (Bronson's district) got through the regional quarter, because of having to get by the two-headed monster (Arlington and Providence) of D6.
Arlington mopped the floor with Oak Hall (70-18) and Providence easily dispensed with Hawthorne (79-49), a team that consistently plays over its head. The outcome of the Arlington-Providence and Arlington-Florida Air (a team that beat 5A state champ Gainesville) matchups was reasonable.
The only final I can't quite account for is Arlington's six-point win over true public Franklin County. The win-loss record for Franklin in MaxPreps isn't all filled in, and what's there doesn't make a lot of sense. The only thing of note is that Franklin is a consolidated all-county school, newly built in 2006, so maybe they are pulling in two or three schools' worth of players.
Nine public high schools survived district tournaments in Florida Class 2A; only three made it to the round of 16, and only one, Franklin, got to the Final Four.
It was worse in 1A, where only five public schools got into regional play (and that's if you count FAMU High School, one of Tallahassee's two P.K. Yonge university school equivalents), and, since all four were in adjacent districts, only one reached the round of eight. None reached the Final Four.
Graceville, the lone 1A public school to get to the regional final, was dusted 54-21 by The Rock of Gainesville. That's not a matchup, that's a mugging. The margins of victory are similar wherever the basketball-committed private schools face basketball-committed public schools.
Public schools that have to draw from true local populations can't compete with recruiting private schools. The trouble with complaining about recruiting is twofold -- one, it's hard to prove and two, it's impossible to stop. If a high school coach is very good and very committed, doesn't have to waste time teaching a subject and can therefore dedicate all of his time to basketball, including AAU, he doesn't have to contact players and violate the rules. They'll come to him. And if savvy players and parents game the system within the letter of the law, what's to punish? The obvious solution is to weight populations based on something other than actual numbers.
Time for FHSAA to examine literal population-based classification. It's not working any more.