East TN teams on the road AGAIN this year in semis

[Cletus]

I was mistakenly thinking that East TN (Regions 1 & 2) would be hosting this year's 5A semifinal. After all, as has been referenced under many topics on Coach T, Ooltewah (Region 2) traveled to Smyrna (Region 4) last year. Traditionally, that would have meant that this was East TN's year to host. However, a rule change implemented in 2005 is this year for the first time breaking the traditional alternating pattern. The explanation and reasoning for the change from the TSSAA can be viewed here: http://www.tssaa.org/Sports/Football/bracketchanges.pdf . Of course this affects other classifications (1A, 3A & 4A) and regions as well. You'll notice Regions 5 & 6 also take the hit this year.

[sciurus]

is there even a reason for this? or for most of the stupid things the TSSAA does??

[JC4life]

"This change was made in order for every regional winner to be able to host all playoff games once over a four year period, where under the former playoff format only regions 1,4,5, and 8 had the ability to host all playoff games at home."