MattmanUnaka02

I actually read through the ruling and, to layman's eyes, it reads like a very limited endorsement of TSSAA's recruiting rules as being permissable under the 1st Amendment. However it does say it remands it back to 6th Circuit Appeals for further judgement so I guess there might be further action over the TSSAA internal review and hearing process. Actually reading the caveat opinions at the end, this might actually be open to be retried because a good portion of the court disagreed with one of the primary precedent cases used in justifying the ruling. In the end, this might mean nothing. But for now it means that the BA coach was recruiting by sending letters to the 8th graders even though they had signed letters of intent (the lynchpin here seems to be TSSAA's definition that a student hasn't enrolled in a school until he/she has attended 3 days of classes, which is just a stupid assertion IMO).

There's no one left to appeal to, the Supreme Court is the final word. T$$AA might be able to counter-sue BA for legal expenses, but I doubt that would fly.

I do get it. I'm asking why they should. Why should small schools be relegated to constantly losing against large schools when the comparison is apples and oranges? This message board also wasn't around back then /ph34r.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ph34r:" border="0" alt="ph34r.gif" /> . And these people are never going to shut up and combining everything into one classification will only amplify their cries and bring other people to their banner. "No, Jimmy. You're not good enough to play this game, so don't even try." So much for trying for ye olde American dream. You know what they say about people who assume. Only sport I've ever really played is baseball. Now, for other issues. There are definately pluses and minuses to a merit system. Personally I would prefer it to require 5 years of dominating (unless you were just completely decimating your competition) before being promoted and a couple of horrible seasons to be relegated. My biggest concern with such a system would be a sense of elitisim developing for the upper classifications and the attitude going from, "We're better than you because we're bigger than you," to a simple, "We're better than you losers," thus bringing the whining right back.

And I'm forced to question your grasp of current high school sports realities. You can't look at records and trends from 30-40 years ago and say, "Look, these public schools were powerful back then with one classification. Put them all back in one classification and they'll be powerful again." Dynamics have changed. The big preps have money to provide scholarships as well as invest in better facilities and coaching staffs that will more often than not result in better training and thus higher chances of winning. Why should all the small schools (public and private) have their chances of ever winning reduced to practically zero? Exactly, and the playing field wouldn't be level. The small school that fields the 90 pounder literally has to field the 90 pounder because they have a drastically smaller population from which to draw athletes (and before anyone accuses me of trying to insinuate that small privates recruit, I'm referring to the size of the student population in the school, not the population from which the school may be able to draw from). Statistically, the larger school will have a higher population of people who are better suited to play *insert sport of choice*. Thus the playing field is slanted in their favor. That's why there are classifications, to allow schools to play other schools that should have a similar sized population of athletes thus making it possible for smaller schools to win at a state level rather than being consistently crushed by the larger schools due to pure economies of scale. I suppose you're also in favor of eliminating Divisions II and III in the NCAA?

Cute, "I have facts too so your argument doesn't work./tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />" There's a distinct difference between singluar schools who build a tradition of excellence, and thus tend to dominate, and a distinct category of schools who, among themselves, tend to dominate when they are significantly outnumbered and statisticaly shouldn't be able to win as much as they collectively do. That being said, the amount of whining out of the publics is somewhat annoying this year. The multiplier wasn't intended to remove privates from competition, just remove the ones that, due to the, usually, increased attention to the students paid by private schools, are of sufficient size to have access to a pool of players and facilities that would allow them to play above the abilities of their size classification. It needs to be given a couple more years to even itself out. Schools have on years, schools have off years. FCS, JCS, USJ, etc were apparently on this year. The publics that made it to state, not so much. Now if we were to see the next three or four years dominated by the privates, then would be the time for griping.

So now the refs have self-esteem problems too huh? I'm sorry, did poor little zebra go crying to his mommy after I questioned his judgement? I can understand not cussing the refs or other players, but you've got to let the fans express their displeasure somehow. Some people need to direct their bleeding hearts somewhere useful rather than crying over this little stupid stuff.

Small mind? All I say is that the region is a lot weaker than other ones in the state, I'm sure you're still all decent to good teams. There are just regions out there where even the lady rangers would get eaten alive. Teams have on years, teams have off years. Unaka was on this year, others in the region were less on. That's all I say.

*applause* While I have to admit we probably are overrated (not our fault that our region is weak this year)....man is it ever good to see your alma mater's name on top of the AP poll.

Yes! Way to avenge that injustice guys! Someone help me here, how long has it been since we've been this successful?

Which poll did you use to get those ranks Answer9? Several I've seen have teams who lost back in the district ranked higher than teams going to state. Just a couple of hours away, good luck to all teams. GO LADY RANGERS!!

I'm going to say Unaka in at least the semis, maybe even the big game.

YEAH!!! Rangers state bound!! Sounds like it was a good game, my compliments to the Cosby team and fans, you had a good season, best of luck to you next year.

WTF? This is interesting. God the suspense is killing me.

*bows* My thanks volleyeagle. At least I'll be able to listen to the last minute.

Man I wish I could have been there tonight, and there's no way I could pick up the radio here in Cookeville. Thank you guys for posting the updates, almost as good as real-time.

Halftime already? Quick game so far. LET'S GO RANGERS!!

Get the sand out of your nether regions cfbf, I've been in that gym a heck of a lot more than you have and we have right at 1k seats plus what we can plug in standing room wise. Don't listen to this jerk Loco, yeah we're rowdy and loud, but we have respect for the other guy (unless of course he has no respect for us, in which case we bite back).

^^ Well at least you get a nice court to play on. Unaka got screwed by this rule two years ago when we had to host at Happy Valley, thankfully they dropped the numbers enough this year to let us host.

Well, didn't seem to stop us in Hancock County, don't see how Murfreesboro is going to be that different.

W000t!!! State Bound!! You've had an amazing season Lady Rangers, go for the gold! So how many are making the trip to Murphy Center?

By 20? Unless the Lady Rangers completely fall apart (which I don't see happening) that score won't be happening. Of course I see this one being decided late and by a small margin. Take it to Murfeesboro, Lady Rangers!

I haven't seen Wartburg play nor have I heard much about them, but their schedule is worrisome. However I'm going to go with my Lady Rangers in this one. While I know its going to be a close game, the Rangers play with a whole lot of heart and teamwork and with the hot streak they're on right now I don't think there's many teams that would have a good chance of stopping them.

Oh, so there's still a question about Unaka hosting. I've got information from sources on the athletic staff that Donald (boy's coach) has gotten the seating capacity of the gym certified at substate levels, and I'd have to agree with what I remember from the seats. You tell us how you play and we'll tell you how we play.

Yeah! Go Rangers! What was the score for the boys? Are they really going to let us host it on the Creek this year? Too bad I won't be able to be there. But I expect to see the girls in Murfessboro next week and the boys the week after that. Maybe this will be the year people.

Unaka boys and girls were both in 1A championships tonight. Its unconfirmed, but I've heard the girls beat Hancock County (another school with both teams in substate), no news about the boys score yet.