Big 9 Conference - Football

[tricitiessportsfan]

Greeneville will declare whether they go up or stay down at there school population classification Friday. From what I have heard only 1 program is fighting staying where the state wants them at GHS.

 

What program is fighting to stay in Class AA? I wouldn't mind having Greeneville in Class AAA-District 1, and I say that as a Dobyns Bennett fan, though if Greeneville moves up I am sure they will be in District 2.

[noonesfool]

What program is fighting to stay in Class AA?

 

One program wants to be 3A, all others want to be 2A. FB prefers 2A but are not happy with our rivalries in the future in 2A. So it is not FB /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

[tricitiessportsfan]

One program wants to be 3A, all others want to be 2A. FB prefers 2A but are not happy with our rivalries in the future in 2A. So it is not FB /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

 

Good information. Any information on Sullivan East or Elizabethton?

[tricitiessportsfan]

From tricitiessports.com:

 

Central Gets no Relief Under New TSSAA plan, To Stay With Large Schools

TriCitiesSports.com

October 12, 2008

 

The Sullivan Central Cougars will be the next-to-smallest school in the biggest classification -- Class AAA -- according to the new alignment that has been released by the TSSAA.

 

The Cougars, with 1,069 students, were the next-to-last school left in Class AAA. Memphis East was classified Class AAA with 1,067 students. Chattanooga Central, with 1,065 students, was classified as Class AA.

 

Sullivan South, with 1,094 students, also made the Class AAA list by a small margin.

 

Sullivan East, with 80 fewer students than Central, will drop to Class AA along with Elizabethton, Sullivan North, Unicoi County, Johnson County and Greeneville.

 

Within each division, schools will be broken out into a higher and lower division. During the regular season, 1A & 2A will be known as Class A, 3A-4A will be Class AA, 5A-6A will be Class AAA. They will only be reorganized into six seperate playoff brackets during post-season based on record, size, and geography.

 

For example, Dobyns-Bennett and Science Hill will play regional teams instead of traveling 100-plus miles to Knoxville and beyond. However, during post-season they will move to a different bracket.

 

While Sullivan East and Sullivan North are Class AA, they have until Oct. 20 to move up in classification to save travel expense.

 

"If it was up to me, we would stay in the lower classification,'' said North football coach Robbie Norris. "But I may not have the final say.''

 

Sullivan Central athletic director Brandon Krantz said his school plans to appeal.

 

"It may not do us any good, but we will appeal and ask to go to Class AA,'' said Krantz on Monday. "Their response is probably going to be 'We have to draw the line somewhere,' but while we might be as much as 500 students more than some schools in Class AA, there are some schools in Class AAA that will have 1,000 more than us that we'd have to play. It isn't fair. We play D-B and they may have 100 kids on the sidelines and we'll have 35.''

 

Below are the classications for the Tri-Cities and Greeneville region of Northeast Tennessee. This is not an official conference alignment. Some schools may be grouped with teams from the Morristown and Knoxville areas during conference play for travel convenience.

 

Class AAA

2,158 Science Hill Hilltoppers (Johnson City) maroon, gold

1,942 Dobyns-Bennett Indians (Kingsport) maroon, grey

1,407 Daniel Boone Trailblazers (Gray) scarlet, gold

1,346 David Crockett Pioneers (Jonesborough) brown, gold

1,342 Tennessee Vikings (Bristol) maroon, white

1,249 Volunteer Falcons (Church Hill) royal blue, orange, white

1,218 Cherokee Chiefs (Rogersville) red, black

1,094 Sullivan South Rebels (Kingsport) Columbia blue, gray

1,069 Sullivan Central Cougars (Blountville) orange, white

 

Class AA

989 Sullivan East Patriots (Bluff City) red, white, blue

892 Greeneville Greene Devils - green, white

891 Grainger County High School, red and black

761 Elizabethton Fighting Cyclones - burnt orange, black

756 Unicoi County Blue Devils (Erwin) blue, white

723 Johnson County Longhorns (Mountain City) maroon, white

718 Chuckey-Doak Black Knights (Afton) black, gold, gray, white

706 West Greene Buffaloes (Mosheim) blue, old gold, white

638 Sullivan North Raiders (Kingsport) black, gold

614 Happy Valley Warriors (Elizabethton) maroon, grey

531 South Greene Rebels (Greeneville) maroon, grey, white

 

Class A

437 Hampton Bulldogs - light blue, white

419 Unaka Rangers (Elizabethton) maroon, white

398 North Greene Huskies (Greeneville) green, gray

251 Cloudland Highlanders (Roan Mountain) blue, gold

 

(Note: Jeff Fleming contributed to this story).

 

Others Of Interest

Class AAA

Cocke Co. High School 1343

Morristown-Hamblen High School West 1409

Campbell Co. High School 1437

Morristown-Hamblen High School East 1464

Karns High School 1511

Sevier Co. High School 1792

Jefferson Co. High School 2318

[tricitiessportsfan]

From Kingsport-Times News:

 

By The Numbers

TSSAA's new system sets 3 D-I classifications with 16 districts

From staff reports

 

The TSSAA on Monday released the first part of its reclassification plan for the 2009-13 athletic seasons, a move that will bring about major changes to high school football in the area and across the state.

 

The new system will set three Division I classifications with 16 districts in each for football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball, as well as two classifications for Division II.

 

The biggest changes will come in football, for which each class will be divided into two divisions for playoff purposes only. All teams within a district will play each other during the regular season, but will then face teams only from their own subdivision during the playoffs.

 

For example, if Sullivan Central, with an enrollment of 1,069, and Science Hill (2,158) are placed in the same district, the two would play during the regular season because both teams are in Class AAA. For the postseason, however, Science Hill would be designated 6A as one of the largest schools in the class, Central, as one of the smallest, would be classified 5A, and both would face teams only in their own subdivision.

 

The designations mean 32 teams from each subdivision of 6A, 5A, 4A and 3A will make the playoffs in football.

 

The cutoff between Class AA and AAA was set at 1,066, with the Cougars just barely making the higher division.

 

Sullivan South, with its enrollment of 1,094, also was close to the cutoff.

 

Other teams classified as AAA were Cherokee, Volunteer, Tennessee High, David Crockett, Daniel Boone and Dobyns-Bennett.

 

The only Big 9 Conference school missing the AAA mark was Sullivan East, which has an enrollment of 989. Sullivan North kept its AA classification.

 

Any school wishing to move up in classification will have the opportunity to do so with the TSSAA by the Oct. 20 deadline.

 

On Oct. 22, the football classifications will be divided into the two subdivisions. Any school wishing to move up a division within the class will have an Oct. 27 deadline.

 

The TSSAA Board of Control meeting, during which all schools will be placed in districts and regions for all sports, will be Nov. 12-13.

 

Information from www.tssaa.org.

[tricitiessportsfan]

From Johnson City Press:

 

Prep notes: New classes beginning to shape up

By Douglas Fritz

Press Sports Writer

dfritz@johnsoncitypress.com

 

Division II teams were separated from Division I on Monday as the first step in the TSSAA?????™s reclassification project.

With the Division II teams out of the mix, Sullivan Central and South Greene found themselves on the short end of the stick as far as enrollment goes. Central currently stands as the second-smallest Class AAA school in the state while South Greene is the smallest Class AA team in the state.

 

Schools have until Oct. 20 at 1 p.m. (EDT) to move up in classification but are not allowed to move down. There are 335 Division I teams in the state, divided into groupings of 111 for Class AAA, 112 for Class AA and 112 for Class A.

 

Any movement in the next week would not affect schools in regard to their three-class standing, but it could have an impact on teams?????™ playoff classification for football only.

 

As it stands now, Cloudland (with 251 students) is the 21st largest Class A playoff competitor and the only area team that falls into that group. North Greene (398), Unaka (419) and Hampton (439) are slotted for the Class 2A playoffs, with Hampton ranking No. 20 in size.

 

Area teams competing for the Class 3A playoffs will be South Greene (531), Happy Valley (614), Sullivan North (658), West Greene (706), Chuckey-Doak (718), Johnson County (723), Unicoi County (756) and Elizabethton (761). The Cyclones are currently the fourth-largest Class 3A playoff competitor.

 

The only area teams that will shoot for the Class 4A playoffs are Greeneville (892) and Sullivan East (989). The Patriots are the 10th-largest Class 4A team.

 

Currently Greeneville is weighing its options as the only local team that appears likely to consider a class change. The Greene Devils reportedly wouldn?????™t mind remaining in Class AA, but would want to be in the same district as teams like Happy Valley, Unicoi County and Elizabethton.

 

However, the TSSAA cannot guarantee such a pairing for the Greene Devils, who could wind up in a district with teams like Grainger County and Claiborne. That possibility might push the Greene Devils to move up to Class AAA and remain with league partners like Cherokee (1,215), Volunteer (1,249) and Morristown East (1,464).

 

Those three teams are already in the Class 5A playoff mix along with Sullivan Central (1,069), Sullivan South (1,094), Tennessee High (1,342), Cocke County (1,343), David Crockett (1,346), Daniel Boone (1,407) and Morristown West (1,409).

 

The only area Class 6A playoff competitors are Dobyns-Bennett (1,942) and Science Hill (2,158).

[tricitiessportsfan]

Locks for District 1 ??“ Class AAA are:

Daniel Boone

David Crockett

Sullivan Central

Sullivan South

Tennessee High

Volunteer

Science Hill

Dobyns Bennett

 

Locks for District 2 ??“ Class AAA are:

Cocke Co.

Morristown East

Morristown West

Seymour

Jefferson Co.

Sevier Co.

 

Depending on what Sullivan East and Greeneville do, teams hanging in the balance between Districts 1 and 2 in Class AAA are:

 

Cherokee (possible move to District 1)

South Doyle (possible move to District 2)

[tricitiessportsfan]

Again, any word on Sullivan East or Elizabethton?

[THSVikings2004]

Again, any word on Sullivan East or Elizabethton?

 

 

Coach Stubbs was talking on the radio just a few minutes ago and he was discussing the z-plan for next year. Although it is still unknown where schools such Greeneville, East, and Elizabethton will go, he said that if the district remains the way it is currently set up (DB, Science Hill, THS, South, Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Volunteer, and Central) he would want Virginia High, Elizabethton and Sullivan East as the non-conference games. He did indicate that it's still difficult to determine whether or not that will work due to the unknown number of members in District 1 AA and whether the other schools would have an open date that week.

[tricitiessportsfan]

Coach Stubbs was talking on the radio just a few minutes ago and he was discussing the z-plan for next year. Although it is still unknown where schools such Greeneville, East, and Elizabethton will go, he said that if the district remains the way it is currently set up (DB, Science Hill, THS, South, Daniel Boone, David Crockett, Volunteer, and Central) he would want Virginia High, Elizabethton and Sullivan East as the non-conference games. He did indicate that it's still difficult to determine whether or not that will work due to the unknown number of members in District 1 AA and whether the other schools would have an open date that week.

 

Good information. However, how would playing an out of state school in Virginia High affect the Vikings strength of schedule?

[THSVikings2004]

Good information. However, how would playing an out of state school in Virginia High affect the Vikings strength of schedule?

 

 

It probably won't help the strength of schedule. It will probably hurt them in the playoffs...but it might not because they will still be playing DB, Science Hill, and South in the regular season. Tennessee High is also in a fortunate situation where they're going to make the playoffs more often than not simply because they only have to finish in the top half of the 5A teams in their district. Either way, Virginia High will probably always be on the Vikings' schedule as long as there is at least 1 non-district game.

 

I wonder what teams DB, South, and Science Hill are hoping to play in non-district games. Will South most likely want to continue their rivalry with North?

[tricitiessportsfan]

It probably won't help the strength of schedule. It will probably hurt them in the playoffs...but it might not because they will still be playing DB, Science Hill, and South in the regular season. Tennessee High is also in a fortunate situation where they're going to make the playoffs more often than not simply because they only have to finish in the top half of the 5A teams in their district. Either way, Virginia High will probably always be on the Vikings' schedule as long as there is at least 1 non-district game.

 

I wonder what teams DB, South, and Science Hill are hoping to play in non-district games. Will South most likely want to continue their rivalry with North?

 

Understandable. From the Dobyns Bennett front, I have heard names of large schools and private schools from anywhere from Knoxville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro, and Nashville. Don't be suprised by anything you hear. Science Hill will most likely keep Elizabethton, and probably continue to schedule local teams no further than Morristown or Dandridge. The Hilltoppers have never been known to go too far to schedule non conference foes. Sullivan South, however, I know nothing about, but I would really hope they go out and try to schedule premium competition. Seeing as the past two years have not seemed to challenge them, it would be nice to see some regular season preperation prior than the dates with Tennessee High, Science Hill, and Dobyns Bennett late in the season. I could see them going after a Morristown school for one of their non conference games.