Division II to split

[TheGreatLineJudge]

I heard over the weekend, and have more or less confirmed by talking to a few coaches/ADs, that Division II will split into a Small and Large or A/AA class system next year (2007-08). I'm not sure where the line is for Small/A and Large/AA, but regardless, this will likely have a dramatic change on how Division II volleyball gets played, as well as what teams appear at the state tournament for Division II Small/A.

 

I also heard about the possibility that Middle and East will be combined into a "Super Region" for state tournament qualified purposes.

 

Has anyone else heard anything? Thoughts on the matter and how it impacts volleyball?

 

 

 

 

Note to CoachT: Please don't move this topic; this is in regards to the impact the change will have on volleyball.

 

Note to posters: This is not a public-private debate. Please don't make it as such, as it would get moved out of the volleyball forum.

[PHargis]

I heard over the weekend, and have more or less confirmed by talking to a few coaches/ADs, that Division II will split into a Small and Large or A/AA class system next year (2007-08). I'm not sure where the line is for Small/A and Large/AA, but regardless, this will likely have a dramatic change on how Division II volleyball gets played, as well as what teams appear at the state tournament for Division II Small/A.

 

I also heard about the possibility that Middle and East will be combined into a "Super Region" for state tournament qualified purposes.

 

Has anyone else heard anything? Thoughts on the matter and how it impacts volleyball?

Note to CoachT: Please don't move this topic; this is in regards to the impact the change will have on volleyball.

 

Note to posters: This is not a public-private debate. Please don't make it as such, as it would get moved out of the volleyball forum.

While certainly no expert on this matter, in VB. Private Schools Big School/ Small School may not have as much to do with it as how the School has developed its program and perceived to be such. Some schools, both private and public, have posted the need to be in small school catagory (A) because of size and travel times. It may be the difference, with both, in having a good program or not and also a consistant program. There are many small schools, it seems, that have wound up with teams that may not have been "big" on volleyball in the past so local near by participation might help the schools, near by officials, etc. Big schools, very likely could take care of themselves. Small private schools might like to be competing with small publics considering the highly compressed season and the number of matches played along with schools not being able to market their product sometimes. then as the program develops, schools might be able to move whereever they might want to compete. Just a thought but considering it from a small school point of view.

[StarsPres]

I think this is long overdue. It seems to me that of all the sports, volleyball is unique with it's tournament play during the regular season. The Privates and Publics compete very well against each other and there has always been a good mix of power teams in both sectors. Teams in the "big" private school division like Father Ryan, Notre Dame, etc need to go AAA and the small schools go to A/AA.

 

We have too many classifications, classifications that vary from sport to sport and too much politicing to be good for the athelets. In my opinion, we should have 3 classifications across all sports. Private schools that do not offer any financial assistance to athelets would be classified by enrollment and those that do would be put in AAA. The money saved by this move would be good for everyone.

[VballDaddy78]

I heard over the weekend, and have more or less confirmed by talking to a few coaches/ADs, that Division II will split into a Small and Large or A/AA class system next year (2007-08). I'm not sure where the line is for Small/A and Large/AA, but regardless, this will likely have a dramatic change on how Division II volleyball gets played, as well as what teams appear at the state tournament for Division II Small/A.

 

I also heard about the possibility that Middle and East will be combined into a "Super Region" for state tournament qualified purposes.

Not that I understand D2 very well but by looking at the TSSAA website there appears to only be about 30, D2 schools playing Vball. If you split into 2 "classes", assuming 8 still go to state, that would mean more than half the teams go? Heck, in 3A there are some Districts with almost as many teams as all of D2 (slight exaggeration) and only 2 of them can advance to the Region tournament.

[play4keeps]

I think this is long overdue. It seems to me that of all the sports, volleyball is unique with it's tournament play during the regular season. The Privates and Publics compete very well against each other and there has always been a good mix of power teams in both sectors. Teams in the "big" private school division like Father Ryan, Notre Dame, etc need to go AAA and the small schools go to A/AA.

 

We have too many classifications, classifications that vary from sport to sport and too much politicing to be good for the athelets. In my opinion, we should have 3 classifications across all sports. Private schools that do not offer any financial assistance to athelets would be classified by enrollment and those that do would be put in AAA. The money saved by this move would be good for everyone.

 

I think this is the right idea (assuming it's what TSSAA intends). I often wondered why the private schools were set apart from A/AA and AAA.

 

I also wonder why it's A/AA and not A and AA... but I'll leave that for another day

[VballDaddy78]

Maybe I misunderstand what GLJ said but I took it to mean they would be "adding" another classification "within" D2. Clarification GLJ?

[TheGreatLineJudge]

Maybe I misunderstand what GLJ said but I took it to mean they would be "adding" another classification "within" D2. Clarification GLJ?

 

Instead of a "blanket" Division II classification, there will now be a Division II "Small" or "A" and a Division II "Large" or "AA". I say Small/A because I don't know what they're going to call it.

 

And VBD, you're right about the number of schools currently in Division II. Assuming that no significant numbers of schools are added to Division II, roughly half of schools in that division will always go to the State Tournament.

 

Strange? Yes. But tell me something normal about TSSAA!

Edited October 6, 2006 by TheGreatLineJudge

[Bruiserengineer]

The "large" "small" classification already exists in Div II for football. I had not heard that this would apply to volleyball. I did hear that they were planning to make some combination of Div. II East with some of Div. II Middle.

 

The trade offs for TSSAA and its member schools are;

 

1. Travel (time and expense)

2. Regional competition. Div II East only has three teams that compete in Volleyball.

[VballDaddy78]

Instead of a "blanket" Division II classification, there will now be a Division II "Small" or "A" and a Division II "Large" or "AA". I say Small/A because I don't know what they're going to call it.

 

And VBD, you're right about the number of schools currently in Division II. Assuming that no significant numbers of schools are added to Division II, roughly half of schools in that division will always go to the State Tournament.

 

Strange? Yes. But tell me something normal about TSSAA!

Then back to P4K's point, it seems like the first place it would make more sense is in A/AA, where there are at least 120+ schools with Vball. I don't know how many of those would fall to single A but it seems to make more sense than doing it for D2. I don't disagree that maybe there should be some adjustments made to how Regions work, in D2.

[bb317]

Then back to P4K's point, it seems like the first place it would make more sense is in A/AA, where there are at least 120+ schools with Vball. I don't know how many of those would fall to single A but it seems to make more sense than doing it for D2. I don't disagree that maybe there should be some adjustments made to how Regions work, in D2.

 

It does look like there will be a combination of Middle and Eastern regions in Volleyball for D-II large division. You're right with only 3 teams from East something has to give and the tssaa won't continue to let two of the three automatically go to state. Part of the reasoning for dividing into two classes for all sports was to entice more private schools to enter D-II. Currently they have three football divisions and that will be reduced to two. The private schools have wanted thios for some time simply to allow the smaller private schools to be able to "compete" with like schools. I doubt that this will work at this point in time. The funny thing is Volleyball is one sport where most people don't get carried away with the split as most continue to play each other, unlike football and basketball to some degree. I guess we volleyball people want the best competition we can play and not worry about having 8 state champions as they do in football!!!!! Most coaches I know want to play the best.