ErikG

Yep. It's meant to resemble a bracket with the higher-seeded home team listed below the lower-seeded visiting team.

Quad 1 #8 Gibbs (WC, 5-5) #1 South-Doyle (#1, 10-0) #5 Morristown West (WC, 7-3) #4 Campbell Co. (WC, 8-2) #6 TN High (WC, 7-3) #3 Anderson Co. (#2, 8-2) #7 Knox Central (WC, 5-5) #2 Knox West (#2, 9-1) Quad 2 #8 Soddy-Daisy (WC, 4-6) #1 Oak Ridge (#1, 10-0) #5 Clinton (WC, 7-3) #4 Cleveland (#2, 5-5) #6 Stone Memorial (WC, 6-4) #3 Rhea County (#1, 10-0) #7 Tullahoma (WC, 5-5) #2 Ooltewah (#1, 10-0) Quad 3 #8 Clarksville (WC, 5-5) #1 Hillsboro (#1, 10-0) #5 Springfield (WC, 7-3) #4 Beech (#2, 5-5) #6 Gallatin (WC, 7-3) #3 Shelbyville (#2, 7-3) #7 Columbia (WC, 6-4) #2 Lawrence Co. (#1, 8-2) Quad 4 #8 Kenwood (WC, 5-5) #1 Ridgeway (#1, 9-1) #5 Millington (#2, 7-3) #4 Melrose (#2, 8-2) #6 Munford (#2, 7-3) #3 Hardin Co. (#1, 7-3) #7 Memphis East (WC, 7-3) #2 Henry Co. (#1, 8-2)

Quad 1 #8 Walker Valley (WC, 5-5) #1 Maryville (#1, 10-0) #5 Hardin Valley (WC, 6-4) #4 Sevier Co. (#2, 7-3) #6 Morristown East (WC, 6-4) #3 Dobyns-Bennett (#2, 8-2) #7 Bradley Central (WC, 5-5) #2 Science Hill (#1, 9-1) Quad 2 #8 Cane Ridge (WC, 5-5) #1 Blackman (#1, 9-1) #5 Smyrna (WC, 6-4) #4 Riverdale (WC, 8-2) #6 LaVergne (WC, 5-5) #3 Cookeville (#2, 7-3) #7 Mt. Juliet (WC, 5-5) #2 Oakland (#2, 9-1) Quad 3 #8 Station Camp (WC, 5-5) #1 Ravenwood (#1, 10-0) #5 McGavock (WC, 8-2) #4 Overton (#2, 6-4) #6 Centennial (WC, 8-2) #3 Franklin (#2, 8-2) #7 Independence (WC, 6-4) #2 Hendersonville (#1, 9-1) Quad 4 #8 White Station (WC, 4-6) #1 Whitehaven (#1, 10-0) #5 Memphis Central (WC, 7-3) #4 Rossview (#2, 7-3) #6 Collierville (WC, 6-4) #3 Houston (#2, 9-1) #7 Bartlett (WC, 5-5) #2 Arlington (#1, 8-2)

Thanks, Stars. Coming from someone like yourself who has obviously followed high school football very closely for a number of years, I really appreciate that. Best wishes to you and that undersized cast of "Richies" you follow.

Yeah, there for a while late tonight, with both East Hamilton leading Bradley and Walker Valley still to play Soddy-Daisy on Friday, it looked like Oakland might have to be moved over to fill out 6A's quad #1 (along with Cookeville). But with the win Bradley is in -- hoping, no doubt, that Walker Valley follows suit so that they don't get Maryville in the 1st round.

If Boone can get to 4 wins it stands a decent chance of squeaking into the playoffs. It would be the highest rated of the state's 4-win 5A teams. So if Boone beats Crockett it might very well be the last team in or the first team out.

I generally agree that if "Region A" consists of Clarksville, Dickson and Henry it should, geographically, be more closely aligned with Memphis (Region 8). My thought is simply that if you're trying to be consistent 5 of those schools are currently District 10 (Region 5) with only Dickson Co. being District 11 (Region 6). Meanwhile, if "Region B" is made up of the 4 Williamson County schools (District 11/ Region 6) and a couple of Metro schools (District 12/ Region 6) then the current District/ Region numbers suggest it would be the region to "slide over" and fill the Region 7 void created by 4 current districts (13-16AAA) being compressed into a single Region 8 next year. But who knows? Just trying to read the TSSAA's "mind."

Just based on the current District and Region numbers, I would think your Region 6 above would actually be Region 7 and that your Region 7 would be Region 6. As for Region 2 and 3, I was referring to their make up. My thought is that West will be in Region 2 and Rhea will be in Region 3 (and that the TSSAA will allow Heritage the choice between the 2 regions).

If I were trying to project 5A statewide, I would only disagree with Regions 2 and 3 above. I would also tend to think that the schools under Region 6 would actually be Region 7, and vice versa.

Good to know. Thanks for the clarification. Thinking about potential traffic snares, if it were me I'd avoid having teams weekly travelling back and forth through Chattanooga. And considering travel safety and travel time (and different time zones) I'd not place White County with the Chattanooga-area schools (including Rhea) but maybe with the current District 7 and District 8 schools.

Yeah, no doubt that there will be 8 regions. So the question is, with 25 schools in both East and Middle TN, which of those Grand Divisions will have 3 regions and which will have 4 regions (the Memphis area will have the 8th region, which will consist of 8 schools)? I tend to think East TN will have the 3 regions as reflected at the top of this thread. Another potential factor is Lipscomb Academy. As I posted elsewhere in the "playing up" thread, the TSSAA is showing on its site that Lipscomb has elected to move up to 4A, but they were number 37 in 4A already (multiplier-adjusted enrollment of 916.2). So is the inaccuracy that Lipscomb is moving at all or should it be that Lipscomb has chosen to play in 5A? A 26th 5A team in Middle TN would make it even more likely, in my opinion, that East TN would have 3 regions and Middle TN would have 4.

If that were to occur, with 4 regions in East TN, I'd guess -- and, yes, these are just best guesses -- that it would break down like this: Region 1 (current district) Tennessee High (1AAA) Daniel Boone (1AAA) David Crockett (1AAA) Morristown East (2AAA) Morristown West (2AAA) Cocke County (2AAA) Region 2 or 3 (current district) Sevier County (2AAA) South-Doyle (2AAA) Heritage (4AAA) West (4AAA) Farragut (4AAA) Lenoir City (4AAA) Region 3 or 2 (current district) Campbell County (3AAA) Clinton (3AAA) Oak Ridge (3AAA) Gibbs (3AAA) Halls (3AAA) Powell (3AAA) Karns (3AAA) Region 4 (current district) McMinn County (5AAA) Walker Valley (5AAA) Cleveland (5AAA) Ooltewah (5AAA) Soddy-Daisy (5AAA) Rhea County (6AAA)

Region 1 (current district) Tennessee High (1AAA) Daniel Boone (1AAA) David Crockett (1AAA) Morristown East (2AAA) Morristown West (2AAA) Cocke County (2AAA) Sevier County (2AAA) South-Doyle (2AAA) Region 2 (current district) Campbell County (3AAA) Clinton (3AAA) *chose to move up after landing in 4A Oak Ridge (3AAA) Gibbs (3AAA) *chose to move up after landing in 4A Halls (3AAA) Powell (3AAA) Karns (3AAA) West (4AAA) Heritage (4AAA) *(TSSAA could allow HHS to choose whether it prefers Region 2 or Region 3) Region 3 (current district) Farragut (4AAA) Lenoir City (4AAA) McMinn County (5AAA) Walker Valley (5AAA) Cleveland (5AAA) Ooltewah (5AAA) Soddy-Daisy (5AAA) Rhea County (6AAA)

In thinking about how these regions will look statewide, the first question I have is which class will Lipscomb be in. The TSSAA's breakdown at the top of this thread has Lipscomb moving to 4A, but they were number 37 in 4A already (multiplier-adjusted enrollment of 916.2). So is the inaccuracy that Lipscomb is moving at all or should it be that Lipscomb has chosen to play in 5A? *With clarification coming from another thread, Lipscomb will be 4A. Its inclusion among schools moving up is because the multiplier created a 2-class jump (without the multiplier Lipscomb would be 2A).

Click on "Regional Standings" and then on any team and you'll see that particular school's playoff criteria numbers followed by the table showing the entire class your chosen team is in. What I find curious is that all of the tiebreakers that we've had in past years aren't shown. I don't remember a case where the TSSAA had to go beyond what they're showing this year to break a tie, but what if they did? How would anyone verify that further tiebreakers were correctly applied. I'd bet the farm that it was only because of questions/ scrutiny on this board that the Sullivan South/ Cleveland debacle of 2 years ago was looked at more closely and eventually acknowledged by the TSSAA. Also, in past years their playoff map would reflect where teams would be placed if there were too many or too few projected qualifiers in the natural quadrants. This year they're merely showing the natural quadrants these schools are in. Might that be a tactic to prevent folks from picking up on inconsistencies?

Yeah, that makes no sense. Anyone who's seen him the last couple of years should, in my opinion, come away with the exact opposite impression. Maybe it was a "plant" by someone associated with West. Perhaps an investigation is in order.

Careful. Some of those Board of Control members have probably seen this and a 7-class plan is now in the works. I can't imagine why anyone would volunteer to join the train wreck that is Tennessee's new Upward Class. Elsewhere on the AAA board, davidlimbaugh opined that keeping the number at 32 and the resulting playoff "guarantee" served as an enticement for schools to move up. If it's so great, though, why would any of the assigned 6A schools want to jump ship? If it's so great, why do you break with your standards and allow teams to drop down? One final point and I'll try to quit kicking this poor pitiful horse . . . I was out of pocket when all of this was first being discussed and approved this summer, but I do recall seeing statements in August from the TSSAA that they were o.k. allowing all of the teams to make the playoffs because, essentially, all of those schools were already qualifying. Well, as Red Rebels has shown on the "New Classification" thread, half of the 32 currently have losing records, and I'll add that last year 12 of the 32 failed to qualify (38%) in an already overcrowded field of playoff participants. Of course when those August comments were made the TSSAA didn't even know what schools would comprise the largest 32. It was just a superficial justification made to quell any grumblings, and I guess no one bothered with a follow-up question. Speaking above of enticements, what enticement is there for crowds to turn out for 10 meaningless regular season games? To travel significant distances for several of those meaningless games? To travel again to watch the same poor matchups in the early rounds of the playoffs? I don't see how this can't adversely affect gate revenue for these schools. I hope I'm wrong because there are few things I enjoy more than a great Friday night atmosphere, but again, I can't imagine why anyone would volunteer to be subjected to this Upward nonsense.

So there's a quote from the TSSAA's Executive Director in the article referenced above by gobears89 stating the following: "Every classification has an opportunity to move up, but the only place we are allowing schools to move down is 6A. If one school moves into Class 6A, one has to move out. That's because we have to have 32 teams in that class to fill the new playoff bracket" Bull hockey. The obvious follow-up question: Why can't you fill a 32-team bracket from a field of more than 32? Or how about this: Why is it more important to give schools the choice to move up to 6A than it is to maintain the same competitive safeguard for 5A schools that the other classes continue to be afforded where there's no option to drop down? And all of this begs someone to point out, preferably in an on-the-spot interview, that the TSSAA is essentially admitting they're not concerned with competitive balance because -- come on, man -- there's no need for 6 classes.

With the proposed 5A schools it's far more difficult. I'm assuming they want, as much as possible, to minimize travel (and travel time), maintain the alignments (and rivalries) schools share in other sports, and have some semblance of balance in the number of schools that make up each of the 8 regions. Considering those factors and going only with the 55 schools currently slated for 5A, how about the following (and the districts they're currently in): Region 1 (8 members) TN High (1AAA) Daniel Boone (1AAA) David Crockett (1AAA) Morristown West (2AAA) Morristown East (2AAA) Cocke County (2AAA) Sevier County (2AAA) South-Doyle (2AAA) Region 2 (8 members) Campbell County (3AAA) Halls (3AAA) Powell (3AAA) Oak Ridge (3AAA) Karns (3AAA) Knoxville West (4AAA) Heritage (4AAA) Maryville (4AAA) Region 3 (8 members) Farragut (4AAA) Lenoir City (4AAA) McMinn County (5AAA) Walker Valley (5AAA) Cleveland (5AAA) Ooltewah (5AAA) Soddy-Daisy (5AAA) Rhea County (6AAA) Region 4 (6 members) Franklin County (8AAA) Shelbyville (8AAA) Lincoln County (8AAA) Columbia (8AAA) Summit (11AAA) or White County (6AAA) Cane Ridge (12AAA) Region 5 (6 members) Stewarts Creek (7AAA) Station Camp (9AAA) Hendersonville (9AAA) Gallatin (9AAA) Beech (9AAA) White County (6AAA) or Hunters Lane (12AAA) Region 6 (6 members) Rossview (10AAA) Clarksville (10AAA) Northeast (10AAA) West Creek (10AAA) Henry County (10AAA) Dickson County (11AAA) Region 7 (6 members) Brentwood (11AAA) Centennial (11AAA) Independence (11AAA) Hillsboro (12AAA) Glencliff (12AAA) Hunters Lane (12AAA) or Summit (11AAA) Region 8 (7 members) Brighton (13AAA) Munford (13AAA) Bolton (14AAA) Southwind (15AAA) Wooddale (15AAA) Memphis Central (16AAA) Memphis Overton (16AAA) White County is a real outlier but the quickest and safest (and same time zone) trips to and from Sparta are either Sumner and Rutherford or those southern mid-state schools (Franklin Co., Shelbyville, Lincoln Co.). So for the sake of balanced numbers, wherever White County lands causes a shift, which is reflected above with the 3 "or" alternate guesses.

Assuming there are no changes in 6A, I think Gov has it the only way it can go if the TSSAA elects to have four 8-team regions. What if they choose to do 8 regions of 4 teams though? This would make playoff seeding far easier and early round playoff matchups far more interesting (1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3 just like the other classes). Otherwise, you're playing 10 largely meaningless regular season games only to turn around and play the same teams the first couple of rounds of the playoffs (assuming the TSSAA doesn't want to send schools half way across the state for 1st and 2nd round blowouts). The only problem for some schools might be filling out the rest of their regular season schedule, but with overall record removed from the playoff qualifying formula, this shouldn't be as difficult as it was under the z-plan. And it would likely help some of the geographically isolated schools, keeping down travel costs by lining up games closer to home than would be the case with an 8-team region. If they went this route I could imagine the following: Region 1: Science Hill, Dobyns-Bennett, Jefferson County, Bearden Region 2: Hardin Valley, William Blount, Bradley Central, Cookeville Region 3: Warren County, Coffee County, Riverdale, Oakland Region 4: Blackman, Siegel, Smyrna, LaVergne Region 5: Mt. Juliet, Wilson Central, Lebanon, Antioch Region 6: John Overton, McGavock, Ravenwood, Franklin Region 7: Collierville, Arlington, Cordova, Bartlett Region 8: Houston, Germantown, White Station, Whitehaven

Can someone point me to where this is officially stated by someone with the TSSAA? I've heard and read plenty of speculation, but I've not been able to turn up any guidelines stating that schools can move down. It's certainly not included on the "TSSAA Classification -- Two-Year Adjustment" page ( http://tssaa.org/tssaa-classification-two-year-adjustments/ ) or in the TSSAA's August minutes ( http://tssaa.org/tssaa-board-of-control-minutes-august-2014/ ) when they voted to make the change. As I've asked on another thread, why must everyone make the playoffs? If 20 schools want to move up, the more the merrier -- but with the understanding that only 32 will make the playoffs. If the whole premise is that larger schools have an inherent advantage, you simply cannot allow schools to move down. It's not been permitted in the past, and there's nothing in this new system that should change that. Determining who doesn't get into the playoffs, if you add schools to 6A without removing others, would require some thought, but given how few schools would be affected and how weak their argument for inclusion would be, it shouldn't upset the applecart. Should the TSSAA stubbornly insist that 6A must remain at 32 schools, then the only proper thing to do is stick with the largest 32 and, in this class only, not allow schools the option to move up. After all, if enrollment is how you gauge fairness or advantage/ disadvantage, then an imposed disadvantage on affected 5A teams (having to compete with a team that should be 6A but has dropped down) trumps the desire of other 5A teams to move up in order to compete in the highest classification. Without consistency, ulterior motives become glaringly evident.

Why must everyone make the playoffs? The TSSAA can still have its 5 playoff rounds whether there are 32, 35, or 46 schools assigned, or choosing, to play in 6A.

Schools should be able to move up if that's their preference, just as they could during the last reclassification period of the current system. However, if this whole thing is about fairness and the TSSAA's gauge for fairness is enrollment figures, schools should not be permitted to move down. They could not previously, and there's no reason for that to change. Of course total enrollment is far from a foolproof gauge, and the TSSAA has little concern for fairness. If they allow schools to move down they're admitting their standards have no merit and that they -- the TSSAA -- have no standards themselves. Then we would see this as merely a matter of convenience for the TSSAA, getting rid of a z-plan they repeatedly failed to properly execute yet holding on to a ridiculously unnecessary 6-class system and the additional revenue it creates for our favorite non-profit.

I think everyone in District 4 feels that way -- unless it's their team he's tormenting that particular Friday!

Outstanding call! Congratulations to the Admirals!