JoeyC

Agreed. If other parts of the country are so great then you should go back.

I would actually prefer cutting down to three public only divisions and then make an open division. I think public and private should be kept separate It's just common sense. However, I think an open division where both public and private can join would be nice to have. I'm sure Alcoa would be happy to beat up private schools. I don't think tiny communities with county populations of 5k-99k should be forced to compete with private schools in counties that have around half a million people. Nor should they have to travel hours just to get beat up by said schools. That's stupid.

Think the issue is Jeff County, DB and Science Hill are in FBE compared to Knoxville or Nashville area. Harder to develop talent when there's little to no camps. Basically teaching 16-17 yos what other kids have known since they were 5 years old.

Definitely not any of the ADs at 4A+ schools in UET other than Elizabethton maybe. Not sure I'd count Greenville a part of UET. Good ole boy system most places. For the smaller schools like Johnson County harder to say because the talent difference between a tiny mountain community school like Johnson County and Alcoa is massive. Alcoa recruits left and right and lives in a more populated area where it can actually recruit/attract talent in the first place.

Think the difference is other than basketball and maybe baseball no one cares about those sports. T$$AA as it were. More people watch football, more revenue. I doubt if there were 4-6 classifications for bowling the revenue would increase drastically. Also, a lot of the sports you listed are individual sports more than team sports.

All those big fast guys just to lose to a bunch of slow small white boys from Maryville.

Can say for sure Maryville and Elizabethton do not recruit. Wish more people talked about XS and os though. It's also a cultural difference. West TN and Middle TN fans are completely different culture wise.

I think the difference is the Tennessee Vols are actually good now so high school football isn't as popular in East TN atm. Whereas I've noticed an uptick in Western and Middle Tn fans.

DB football players leave several hours early on game away days. They don't take every player though. As a former DB player I will say most people were just excited to get out of class early and play football. And I graduated fairly recently(2022).