To me it's a numbers game. There are only 2 6A teams in the Tri-cities, and 6 5A teams (Correct me if wrong.) That's not many compared to other geographic areas like Knoxville, Nashville, Murfreesboro, etc so the chances for success in the area isn't high statistically. And in the old 5A/current 6A football playoffs there aren't any easy games. Every team that makes it in that is for real, esp in 6A Quad 1 this year. If you narrow the area down you could really make the case for any area in Tennessee outside of Blount county, annually choking in the playoffs. On top of that, there's just less population in NET, so you're gonna have less talent, even if there are large schools in the area. What the tri-cities needs is an NFL or D-1 college team to "encourage" better talent