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One way to find out who the best is would be to place everyone back together and use the "MERIT SYSTEM" for football classifications.

Is it smack talk or is D2AAA football that much better than D15A football?

Laz, Everything sounds great but I would have 4 classifications for football, basketball, and baseball. Tweak, rework (or whatever you want to call it) the divisions every 4 years so that teams can have the home & away schedule and it be even. It would be great if each league, region or district had 6,7 or 8 teams in them so that each school could schedule 3,4 or 5 games outside of the mandatory schedule. This would also allow for a team to schedule very tough teams if the know that their league is weak. I like the idea of placing everyone back together and taking the top 16 teams in each division to the state football playoffs.

Coacht, Why are so many people against the "MERIT SYSTEM" that has worked well in other states? Do the people in Tennessee feel that they have superior brain power and just want to show the world how smart they are by inventing a new system that has never been proven to work? Could it be that the TSSAA Board of Control is scared of change like most people in the world so they are going to try and stick their head in the sand and hope that the problems go away?

Why will it not work on a large scale? Give it a chance because what we are using now is truly not fair to the rual public school or small private schools. Show me where I have ever complained about the multiplier. My response is that while it may not be the solution, everyone needs to stop complaining a get to work. The TSSAA needs a long range plan to solve this and several other problems but I don't feel that they have to leadership to solve any problems. They have knee jerk a reaction to most every problem instead fixing the problem. The TSSAA acts and conducts business just like any other government agency that has ZERO competition.

Give the "MERIT SYSTEM" a chance and see who is crying!!!! It would be fair for everyone which is good unless you want to control the situation and wish not to be fair.

Have you guys been going to the Mouses Ear???????????????????????

The Clinic Bowl is a way to raise funds for Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital. When the TSSAA State Championships were held at Vanderbilt the final games were called the Clinic Bowl. Before the playoffs they would play a game (may have been Thanksgiving Day) between two good high school teams and the game was refered to as the Clinic Bowl. It seems like they would get the best "city team" and have them play the best "county or rual" team" @ Vanderbilt and call the game the Clinic Bowl.

You talk of sports being the only way out of poverty for some poor athletes and I have a problem with that. Sports may be the easy way out for those athletes but EDUCATION is the best way out of poverty for those same athletes. Athletics is a quick fix but in the long run those with the most education will make more money and have a much better quality of life. Those same athletes have a much better chance of being admitted to medical, law or graduate school than they do of playing professional sports if they worked on academics. We often hear of how some kids from the housing projects play basketball ten or twelve hour each day but I ask you just how smart would they be if they worked on academics for five or six hours per day? How many times have we heard of the ex professional athlete that was broke and on the streets when they were in their 50's and beyond? Never under estimate the power of education.

Larry, What would be wrong with using the "MERIT SYSTEM" for all schools and placing everyone back together? By using that system everyone would be on a level playing field and politics would be eliminated from everything. No one school (public or private) would have an advantage. Use the system, place everyone back together in four classifications and the attendance figures will begin to rise again because a state championship will be more valuable and cherished. Everyone knows that the Tennessee state championships have been watered down. JMO, some schools and communities will fight the use of the "MERIT SYSTEM" because they political clout within the TSSAA will evaporate. This is nothing more than a turf war between adults/communities trying their best to receive some type of athletic advantage over all of the other schools.

Yes, public schools could ask to be placed in D2 but that would be for all sports and not just for football.

My personal opinion is that if Jeff hangs around "G" much longer he will begin to smell like the backside of a mule and Jeff is much to smart to allow that to happen. The best thing that could happen is for Jeff and Carlton to swap jobs. The "G-Man" and Carlton are one and the same and deserve one another.

Bingo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You won the Grand Prize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let's not forget that McGugin took an assistant coaching position at the University of Miami to gain some college coaching experience. Who would blame any coach for leaving Franklin Road Academy for MBA. FRA refuses to make the commitment necessary to win in football.

If you are willing to use the "MERIT SYSTEM" for the open zoned public schools why not put everyone back together and use it for everyone? Oh I forgot, you don't like private schools so you are trying to get them kicked out of the TSSAA.

What ever happened to the old Antioch coach Billy Whitaker? I heard that he now has a nephew coaching in Nashville.

1. Brentwood Academy 2. Maryville 3. McCallie 4. Ooltewah 5. Alcoa 6. Ravenwood 7. Smyrna 8. Riverdale 9. Goodpasture 10. Hillsboro

I could see Rutledge leaving MBA (very few people like working for the "G Man") but I am not sure that BA would be willing to pay him $165,000.00 per year and that is probably what it would take. It has been reported that he makes $150,000.00 as the AD and football coach @ MBA and no one changes jobs without a 10% pay increase. It's probably more likely that Rutledge would take a college or professional job.

If you really want to get all of the private schools out of D1 you must use reverse pshychology on the 4A & 5A schools. Get all of the small schools to push for the D2 schools back into D1 and watch how fast they rush to help you with your cause. The most economical and fair way to get control of the situation is to put everyone back together with 4 classifications and use the MERIT SYSTEM (like Ohio) to determine who qualifies for the playoffs. The problem is that 99% of the people could care less what is fair, they want to tilt the playing field in their personal direction so that their school has a major advantage. If the TSSAA is going to make it another ten years they need someone to take charge that will clean house and place people in charge that will treat all schools fairly.

Do you really feel that the D1A and D1AA game would draw more than the BA vs McCallie game?

Wrestling is very good for a lineman but it probably is even better for DB's. When a DB is in man coverage that is like being on an island by yourself (like being in the center of the mat for a state championship) and the DB must make the play or his team will give up 6. Another valuable lesson for the wrestler/DB is that a 5'8" & 160/lb DB is if that DB ever get's his hands on the back/receiver they may not make the solo tackle but they know how to hang on until help shows up.

The public schools competed with the private schools very well for many years. From the time the TSSAA was formed until around 1990 the public schools did very well but something happened and IMO it was mental. The public schools convinced everyone including themselves that they could not compete and guess what they really can't compete now.

Would this be a discrimination case? Public school games are on television but the financial aid giving schools games are not televised. What is the deal here? Who secures the advertising for the other games to be placed on television? It looks like we have a ton of unanswered questions.

Could they be talking about the Nashville Catholic team? Not to speak poorly of anyone but are they good enough to compete in the Harpeth tournament? What have they ever won in the past?

Did you mean to say that Middle Tennessee dominated the last 25 years? Look at the facts. State Championships: Middle Tennessee 17 The other Tennessee Regions 8 2nd place finishes: Middle Tennessee 14 The other Tennessee Regions 11

I fixed the mistake. Thanks for the help.