TryNotToSuck

So if they don't benefit UC, they'll ship them down to Obion Central? And Obion Central's award is they're the smallest 4A school in the state for the second consecutive classification... They were the smallest 4A school in the 2021-23 cycle, and they're the smallest school again in 4A for this 2023-25 cycle. What @Sherdog wants to know is this: South Fulton's enrollment went from 180 students in the previous cycle, to 186 students in the current cycle. Obion Central's enrollment went from 762 students in the previous cycle, to 751 students in the current cycle. Union City's enrollment went from 422 students in the previous cycle, to 356 students in the current cycle. So, where did the 66 students go?

I don't believe Munford is overhyped. They went 20-4 in the last two seasons. I wish their schedule will improve, but they have Covington and Munford (they call it the M&M Bowl down there), it's going to be tough to find other teams that are willing to play. Geographically, doesn't help them either. They do have Arlington and Lausanne on their schedule, too. I do believe the reason they're getting offers is due to their style of play. In addition, it does appear their freshman team maybe practicing along with the varsity team because there wasn't a setback regarding to their pace from freshman team to their varsity team. But they're getting the ball out to their athletes and letting them run in space. It's a system that appears to be fun for their players, and it can attract coaches when it comes to recruiting. What's going to be their downfall is they're going to have Henry County and Beech waiting for them in the playoffs.

yes

Both teams played fast, really fast. They got a lot of plays in the scrimmage. Couldn't tell who won, but I can careless about that. South Gibson ran the ball effectively, they also will spread it out and throw the ball downfield at times. I am impress with Munford as well. Two teams that had the same offensive mindset that'll create havoc. I do believe South Gibson can win this region.

One thing I learned from last year is to not believe in what everyone is going to say on this message board. A lot of people are overhyping their respected team, which is fine. However, their team is going to end up being a disappointment. Strength of schedule will disappoint some teams as well. I do believe there is a clear cut #1. I am high on some teams more than others. I'm a fan of South Gibson, I'm a fan of Jackson Christian. I do believe there maybe 3 teams should discussed at the 1 spot. However, one team separates the others. Everything else should fall in place.

That last sentence is simply not true. If that happened at Halls, Obion Central, or Chester County, no one would know about it. No one would care either. Why are you coming on a message board and throwing shots at people and not talk football? You randomly threw a shot at the referees, when I didn't even mentioned anything about them. Now, you're throwing a shot at the USJ fanbase for something that happened 3-4 years ago. It's really weird that you're mentioning something in the past that has nothing to do with the present and the near future.

I'm not a USJ guy. Kind of funny how you're already blaming the referees for a game that is 3 weeks away. However, I'm not surprised.

If USJ and Union City play 10 times, I would say USJ wins about 7 of those games. It just happened that USJ didn't win the 7 times out of 10 last year. Which is more likely: USJ to score more than 6 points at home, or Union City to score fewer than 20? I think we all know the answer.

Ensworth is going to beat Union City pretty handily. USJ will watch that film and will take care of Union City as well. Union City will start 0-2.

Recruiting or transferring? Two different things. TSSAA doesn't have the manpower to have rules and expect all 300+ schools across our state to enforce all rules. Some schools cheat across all sports. That's part of it. Whatever rules they have, school systems have the leverage to find loopholes around it. TSSAA knows that.

It's not going to stop, that's the reality now. What bothers me is when student athletes will pass one public high school, to attend another public high school 5-10 minutes further down the road. I think that's my biggest problem. However, schools are now going to an "open zone" so there's nothing I can do about it. Whatever rules the TSSAA has about preventing "recruiting" or new rules they're going to create, school systems are going to do everything it takes to find and create loopholes around the rules. With the new facility upgrades and money that school systems are investing into their athletes, you best believe they're going to do everything it takes to put a winning product on that field. And if the TSSAA aren't losing a dime in when it comes to their financials, why should they care?

How do you compare them to Covington this year?

I understand your logic, but if Haywood were to be a 5A team, I think they'll be just fine. Maybe a small step back but they won't die in 5A. Good news is that they're still around 300+ students away to be a 5A school, which there's about a 50/50% chance they'll reach that number.

They don't have to deal with Alcoa University. They're also consistent enough to make a deep run in the playoffs each year. If they were to move up to 4A and Haywood happen to stay at 4A, then it'll create one of the best rivalries in West Tennessee because both teams should be very good each year. Currently, there's not a school in Region 7-4A that can compete with Haywood. However, I do believe Covington can. It'll benefit them because they will have a better shot at winning the state title game if they reach it. It'll benefit West Tennessee because they'll play each year and it'll guarantee both teams a tough region opponent each year that'll likely meet up in the quarterfinals. If Covington were to be a 4A team, then West Tennessee would have Hardin County, South Gibson, Lexington, Haywood, and Covington all in 4A. North Side, Crockett County, and Chester County would be the three teams on the outside looking in.

It'll benefit Haywood and Fayette-Ware as they could very well move up to 5A. Both schools are in the 800's in enrollment, so they'll need around 320 students each to move up to 5A, assuming the numbers will stay around the same. Brighton and Munford will need around 400 students each to move up to 6A. Covington will likely move up because they're only around 30-40 students shy of reaching 4A, which will be great for them and West Tennessee football. Don't think it'll impact Jackson schools as much as people believe it will because Jackson and the Ford plant is 40 miles away. The Memphis suburbs schools like Arlington and Germantown are around 20-25 miles away. However, the majority of the Memphis suburb schools are 6A already. They're all comfortably in 6A as well. The two largest schools in Tennessee are Collierville and Bartlett, and Cordova is the 10th largest school. For private: Fayette Academy should be the biggest benefit from this, but honestly, they need a new school.

Again, you're making my argument for me. You know the Nashville metropolitan area is the biggest in the state. It also helps when you have 3 interstate systems all joining together in downtown Nashville. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_metropolitan_area 13 counties are considered "Nashville metropolitan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_metropolitan_area 9 counties are considered "Knoxville metropolitan" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga_metropolitan_area#:~:text=The Chattanooga%2C TN-GA metropolitan,by the city of Chattanooga. 6 counties are considered "Chattanooga Metropolitan" 3 of those 6 are counties in Georgia. So who cares about them from a football perspective because they don't play football in Tennessee? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_metropolitan_area 8 counties are considered "Memphis metropolitan." 1 county in Arkansas, and 4 more in Mississippi. Again, no one in Tennessee cares about Mississippi and Arkansas High School football because they aren't playing in Tennessee. And what sucks about Memphis is that Arkansas can't really build any buildings and homes on their side of the Mississippi River because that stretch of land is a flood plane. It's not like Cincinnati where there are cities on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Again, you may not "make the rules" but this is similar as to someone saying, "whose going to win the 3A State Title in Tennessee?" When we all know the answer...

And this is why this discussion thread is a very unfair discussion, especially for West Tennessee. One, no one in West Tennessee includes themselves as "Memphis" other than Shelby County schools and maybe Brighton and Munford, because those two teams usually play in Memphis regions. Even Covington fans don't include themselves as a part of "Memphis" because where they're set up region wise. As weird as this sounds, we're pretty strict at that for some reason. Two, we don't have a second interstate system that runs through our side of the state north and south. There's not an I-65, I-24, and I-75 on the western side. Obviously, we all have I-40. You're adding Columbia as part of "Nashville." Columbia is a part of Maury County. Maury County is not adjacent to Davidson County? How does that make sense. There's only 21 counties in West Tennessee, which makes up 22% of the 95 counties. When it comes to recruiting, no one include the players from northern Mississippi and eastern Arkansas as part of "Memphis" recruiting. We just don't. And if schools from those states happen to win a state title in their respected state, then no one in Memphis (or West Tennessee) claims that as well. That's just how it is. If you're going to add Murfreesboro and Columbia as part of "Nashville" then everybody knows the answer because it's an obvious answer. There's no point of a discussion. Murfreesboro and Columbia are both 45+ minute drives to downtown Nashville.

Region opponent? Interesting.

No, that was reported earlier.

Got to have a plan B when defenses are executing your plan A very well! Smart decision.

Yeah, I never really understood what the NCAA game plan was when it came to this case. It wasn't a secret Tennessee was cheating at that time. However, the problem was if the NCAA didn't drag this out, then they should have hammered Tennessee. I don't know why they had to drag this out longer than what it should be. And if you're a college that is going to be under a serious investigation, you want the NCAA to drag this out and get as much "new players and staff" in as possible. Therefore, they're not going to penalize that college as heavy because all the "new players and staff" are innocent. The NCAA simply didn't care anymore over something that was obvious.

But Milan/SGC was in the same region. The only problem with that region was everybody knew we weren't going to beat Haywood. I do understand the severity of the Huntingdon/Milan because it's a region game now, and that'll create excitement for this rivalry.

I never said Milan/Huntingdon isn't a rivalry, because I do believe it is. Where you're confused is this: Is Milan/Huntingdon a rivalry to the football players of Milan and Huntingdon today? I'm not talking about parents/fans/alumni, talking about the players. If you ask a Huntingdon football player, which one is more important: Milan or McKenzie? I believe they'll say McKenzie. Why? Because McKenzie has won the state title and they're on a 20 game regular season winning streak. With these two being extremely close, helps as well. If you ask a Milan football player, which one is more important? Huntingdon or South Gibson? They may say South Gibson. Was it Milan that kicked a game winning field goal last year in this game? These game usually come down to the wire. South Gibson is now a 4A team that a lot of people are high on, and could win Region 6-4A. Again, these two schools are extremely close to each other. When you go based off recent scores between Huntingdon/Milan and Milan/South Gibson, the Milan/South Gibson games are usually the better ball game to attend. Again, I do believe Milan/Huntingdon is a rivalry, but I think the players on the field today, may not care as much as the older generation that watched this rivalry played out on grass.

But is it a "rivalry" to the athletes on the field? In my opinion, no. Last 5 matchups between Huntingdon/Milan 2018: Huntingdon won 44-29 2019: Huntingdon won 40-39 2020: Milan won 49-20 2021: Huntingdon won 63-33 2022: Huntingdon won 42-21 Point being, since 2010, there's only been 3 Huntingdon/Milan games that finished with a one possession score. Two games by 1 point, and one game by 8 points. In that same time span, we had several games decided by 27 points or more, and one game decided by a final score of 62-18. Due to geographical reasons, this isn't a rivalry anymore in my eyes. Huntingdon's rival is McKenzie. I imagine the players hang out with each other at the local sonic or Walmart parking lot. They got nothing else to do. If you ask the Huntingdon players today, who would they rather beat: McKenzie or Milan? They'll likely say McKenzie. You can make the same argument for Milan football players as they have South Gibson on their hands. With the game being on a Thursday night to open up the season, that game will mean more for Milan players than the Huntingdon/Milan game. Four of the last five South Gibson/Milan games have finished with a point differential of 5 points or less. I know this was a rivalry in the past, but things have changed. The on field performance/results isn't there. In addition, you add a school down the street in South Gibson. You have a McKenzie team also has went to Chattanooga in the last two years.

Understanding that part, but I'm referring to the high school job.