ErikG

Area boys teams still have plenty of time to get their games in. I'm sure getting referees from Upper East TN either A.) in for earlier-than-usual girls games or B.) out ahead of bad weather following boys games was challenging. The questions I have: - On the boys side of things, with the Bearden girls hosting Anderson Co. very early and with officials already on hand, why didn't Bearden and Central play their boys quarterfinal immediately after as was seemingly intended earlier in the day? - On the girls side of things, why didn't the William Blount at Halls game happen? Were there no referees to be found? A team is likely to have to play 2 games in a day now as a result.

Games involving Knox Co. teams (both girls and boys) are being played this afternoon. Check the Coach T scoreboard page (http://www.coacht.co...see/scoreboard/ ) for times. The only games I'm not yet seeing are a pair of girls contests: South Doyle at Science Hill, and William Blount at Halls.

Games involving Knox Co. teams (both girls and boys) are being played this afternoon. Check the Coach T scoreboard page (http://www.coacht.com/tennessee/scoreboard/ ) for times. The only games I'm not yet seeing are a pair of girls contests: South Doyle at Science Hill, and William Blount at Halls.

If true, this is the most unfortunate thing yet said about this incident.

Might the Halls girls give up their home court and play William Blount at Heritage? Obviously, they shouldn't have to, but that seems like a lesser evil than one of the Halls teams not having its coach. Besides the Heritage boys agreeing to play at Halls -- which, understandably, I can't see happening -- the only other solution is to play the William Blount @ Halls girls game around 5 PM and the Halls @ Heritage boys game around 8 PM.

The "expanded" postseason with it's repeated chances to advance despite not having won the district or region creates the possibility for what is being alleged here. All that's then needed to compromise the integrity of the games and the young people playing them is a coach without ethics. Two teams are plenty to advance from the district to the region; then only the region champion moves on to sub-state; and you wind up with a final 4. Alternatively, you could do away with sub-state, and have the 8 region champs comprise the state tournament field.

Tuesday, 2/3 Results Maryville 64 Bearden 56 West 76 Lenoir City 71 (or 72?) Farragut 66 William Blount 44 Heritage 55 Hardin Valley 46 FINAL 4AAA STANDINGS 1) Maryville 13-1 2) Bearden 12-2 3) West 10-4 4) Farragut 7-7 (holds head-to-head tiebreaker over Heritage) 5) Heritage 7-7 6) Lenoir City 4-10 7) Hardin Valley 3-11 8) William Blount 0-14 Tournament Pairings Tuesday, 2/10 #5 Heritage vs. #8 William Blount (winner plays #4 Farragut on Thursday, 2/12) #6 Lenoir City vs. #7 Hardin Valley (winner plays #3 West on Thursday, 2/12) #1 Maryville plays in semi-final on Friday, 2/13, vs. Farragut/ Heritage/ William Blount #2 Bearden plays in semi-final on Friday, 2/13, vs. West/ Lenoir City/ Hardin Valley

Standings Bearden 12-1 Maryville 12-1 West 9-4 Farragut 6-7 Heritage 6-7 Lenoir City 4-9 Hardin Valley 3-10 William Blount 0-13 Tonight Farragut at William Blount Maryville at Bearden Heritage at Hardin Valley West at Lenoir City

I had not even looked at what the current 5A vs. 6A matchups would be -- simply thought it far more straight forward, consistent, sensible and, certainly, interesting. Again, if it's acceptable for these schools to compete against one another all the way through to the state championship in other sports, and if their results vs. one another in the football regular season largely determines who makes the football postseason, why would you deviate from that competition grouping just for the football playoffs? If it's solely about money, I offerred an alternative with the semi-finals being at a central site rather than the finals. I love the thought of championship games being played in high school stadiums. So I looked at which schools are currently 5A and which are 6A and found there to be 20 opening round matchups in this "what if" scenario between schools currently in different playoff classes. Of those 20, I consider the following 8 matchups to favor the 6A schools: Sevier Co. over TN High Dobyns-Bennett over Morristown West Maryville over Clinton Blackman over Tullahoma Riverdale over Shelbyville Oakland over Lincoln Co. Smyrna over Lawrence Co. Hendersonville over Kenwood Notice that half of those involve District 7AAA teams. Does anyone really believe that a larger student enrollment is the vital edge those schools would enjoy over their more rural, small-town counterparts in District 8AAA? I consider 2 of the opening round matchups (between current 5A & 6A playoff teams) too evenly paired to be able to pick a clear favorite: Gallatin @ Rossview & Memphis East @ Houston. Finally, of the 20 matchups between current 5A and 6A playoff teams, I consider the following 10 to favor the 5A schools: Oak Ridge over Farragut Anderson Co. over Hardin Valley Ooltewah over Warren Co. Rhea Co. over McMinn Co. Henry Co. over Mt. Juliet Hillsboro over Independence Hardin Co. over Cordova Munford over Bartlett Ridgeway over White Station Melrose over Collierville So that's 10 favoring 5A, 8 favoring 6A, and 2 toss-ups. I'm sure many could disagree with a couple of these perceived favorites, but it hardly looks to me as though the current 5A teams would have any problem holding their own in the opening round. **And I do want to add congratulations to all the teams competing in this year's playoffs and wish all good luck and good health. Nothing here is intended to detract from their accomplishments.

Well, I'm unable to see any official 5A bracket, but by the TSSAA's own guidelines Lawrence Co. (natural quad 2) shouldn't be in Quad 4. According to their own videos on how teams are placed in the playoff brackets, they always avoid whenever possible moving a team more than 1 natural quadrant. It could be avoided. If Lawrence Co. is in Quad 4 it's just another example of how the TSSAA fails to follow it's own handbook and guidelines and why the z-plan, with no straight-forward, hard rules on how playoff teams are paired, was doomed from the get go. Consider, too, that using last year's extended tie-breakers Ooltewah would be 2nd in Quad 2 and Rhea would be 3rd (going to wins over teams in same class: Ooltewah had 5, Rhea had 4). It's the other way around because, apparently, of a coin toss (wonder if they filmed it?). It's not that big of a deal certainly where the 1st round games are concerned, but what about the 2nd round where this seeding determines who plays at home. Of course, all such issues call into question motive and integrity. Good night and good riddance z-plan.

I goofed not noting that McGavock picked up a win over a .500 team in week 10, and as a result in Quad 3 McGavock is 5 and Centennial is 6 (instead of the other way around). The only other discrepancy is where interchangeable 8 seeds Cane Ridge and Station Camp were placed. I'll change the original post to reflect what, I guess, is now official.

Too bad they're not having a terribly embarrassing and uncomfortable "March Madness" bracket release show about now.

I listened to a good part of the game and Delong seemed to be his usual disruptive self on defense while seeing more action, too, in Bearden's offensive backfield than he had in any other game this year. William Blount's sideline reporter, Robbie Lotz (forgive me, Robbie, if I'm butchering your last name, but please know that I think you have a far better figure than Erin Andrews), deserves a Marconi Award for noticing that Bearden's punter, Matthew Marlow, shed his right glove before a first half fake punt. And as for Scott and Stan, they always make me laugh -- and I mean that in the best way possible.

It does look exciting, doesn't it? With no rooting interest at all I can easily pick out local games I'd love to go see -- and I haven't even bothered yet with Class A and Class AA.

Yep. Soddy-Daisy finished last in their district but they're heading to the playoffs. It's like the Upward 32 only a year early (a 5-5 Crockett would have prevented this if not for . . . ). Seriously, though, I don't begrudge Soddy-Daisy their berth; they didn't invent or petition for this system. Not that the TSSAA is making great strides toward getting it right, but at least Ronnie Carter's z-plan legacy dies in 5 weeks.

A few interesting or quirky matchups here as Stone Memorial turns around to revisit Rhea for a 2nd consecutive week. The same would be true of Munford at Hardin Co. Also, Columbia and Lawrence Co. opened the regular season against one another and now look as though they'll open the postseason against each other as well.

I think those semi-final matchups you mentioned could take place -- and with great interest across the state -- but would instead be quarterfinals. Wouldn't at all be surprised if you're right about the 6A title game.

As an East TN guy there's not much here in the opening round that grabs me (especially compared to what could be if we just continued with the 3-class regular season into the playoffs), but a potential 2nd round game where Maryville faces Hardin Valley -- the defense it most struggled against to generate big plays or to score TDs against in the red zone -- is somewhat intriguing and, of course, a potential 2nd round rematch for D-B at Science Hill.

Yeah, that certainly makes sense based on the TSSAA's stated geographical guidelines.

If you didn't break each regular season class into 2 postseason classes and employed the 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 system, look at these matchups we'd have this year and tell me they're not more appealing than what we're about to officially hear later this morning from the TSSAA (or, for that matter, what we'll get next year with the introduction of the Upward 32). If it's o.k. for these schools to compete against one another in all other sports, and if it's o.k. for them to compete against each other in a football regular season that largely determines who makes the postseason, it automatically follows that they should be grouped together for the football postseason. There would be just as many playoff games through the semi-finals as we currently have (124) but half as many state championship games. So that the TSSAA doesn't lose out on it's precious revenue, play the semis (6 public sector games) at a central site and then let the higher seeded semi-final winners host (as GA does) the state championship games (how about that for a great high school football environment?!). **The current District 13 with just 4 members is problematic but not nearly so much in my mind as next year's Upward 32. Wouldn't this Class AAA bracket look good for next Friday?! Region 1 #1 Science Hill #4 Morristown East #3 TN High #2 Sevier Co. #3 Morristown West #2 Dobyns-Bennett #4 Sullivan Central (thanks to a 2-team expulsion) #1 South-Doyle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Region 2 #4 Farragut #1 Oak Ridge #3 Campbell Co. #2 Knox West #3 Hardin Valley #2 Anderson Co. #4 Clinton #1 Maryville ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Region 3 #4 Warren Co. #1 Ooltewah #3 Bradley Central #2 Cookeville #3 Stone Memorial #2 Cleveland #4 McMinn Co. #1 Rhea Co. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Region 4 #4 Tullahoma #1 Blackman #3 Riverdale #2 Shelbyville #3 Lincoln Co. #2 Oakland #4 Smyrna #1 Lawrence Co. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Region 5 #4 Kenwood #1 Hendersonville #3 Gallatin #2 Rossview #3 Springfield #2 Beech #4 Mt. Juliet #1 Henry Co. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Region 6 #4 Cane Ridge #1 Ravenwood #3 Centennial #2 Overton #3 McGavock #2 Franklin #4 Independence #1 Hillsboro ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Region 7 #4 Cordova #1 Hardin Co. #3 Dyer Co. #2 Millington #3 Bartlett #2 Munford #4 Brighton #1 Arlington ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Region 8 #4 White Station #1 Ridgeway #3 Collierville #2 Melrose #3 Memphis East #2 Houston #4 Germantown #1 Whitehaven Personally, I'd pay to go see a lot more of these 1st round matchups than what we're about to be dealt. And isn't that what the majority of folks believe fuels the TSSAA's decisions? And, of course, there's the added benefit of maintaining/ maximizing regular season gates by staying with the more localized 3 classes as opposed to the travel that's about to be imposed with a questionably premature reclassification period.

Thought it kinda funny that the post above, which was the thread starter, could now be re-used for an anticipated 2nd round rematch.

I was just basing the make-up of Quad 3 off which school is farther east (Rossview or Independence). Besides not wanting to move a school more than 1 natural quadrant, I was thinking that the next stated consideration by the TSSAA is the east-to-west geography. As far as travel time goes, you're right. So if that happens to be the decision, it produces the following Quads 3 and 4. Quad 3 #8 Cane Ridge (Station Camp possible here w/o affecting other matchups) (WC, 5-5) #1 Ravenwood (#1, 10-0) #5 Overton (#2, 6-4) #4 Rossview (#2, 7-3) #6 Centennial (WC, 8-2) #3 Franklin (#2, 8-2) #7 McGavock (WC, 8-2) #2 Hendersonville (#1, 9-1) Quad 4 #8 White Station (WC, 4-6) #1 Whitehaven (#1, 10-0) #5 Independence (WC, 6-4) #4 Memphis Central (WC, 7-3) #6 Collierville (WC, 6-4) #3 Houston (#2, 9-1) #7 Bartlett (WC, 5-5) #2 Arlington (#1, 8-2)

Like two years ago when McMinn and Bradley played week 10 and then turned around and opened the playoffs against one another, you have above Riverdale and Smyrna for the 2nd straight week (though this one would be at Riverdale). Cookeville and LaVergne would be for the 2nd time in 3 weeks (again, with a different host this time).

I guess if you're a high school football enthusiast with no rooting interest, you figure the 4 vs. 5 games will be the most competitive (less likely to fulfill Barney's prediction above!). As for Coach Courtney, truer words have never been spoken.

Thanks so much for the comments. I thoroughly enjoy Friday nights (and the occasional Thursday)!