Has Anyone Benefitted more

[Gerry Bertier]

From the 6 class system than Columbia? A team who was a bottoms of the barrel team before is now going to its 3rd BCB in 4 years.

[BlackShirt]

I'd have to say the greatest beneficiary is all the Williamson County schools that haven't had to play Columbia for the last 4 years!!... No in all seriousness, Columbia has had a tremendous amount of talent the past 4 years(5 graduates are on TN Tech's roster and numerous others at Georgia Tech, UTC, Cumberland,etc), a tremendous amount of team unity and discipline( a team of 50 players has sent at least one young man to a service academy every year for the past 5 and a team GPA that is greater than the student body's average), a coaching staff that is incredibly talented(only 3 fulltime assistants this year and they are playing for another gold ball), and a strong ability to deal with adversity( forget about being down 2 touchdowns, these young men and community rallied around each other after the death of a teammate and friend 12 hours before they went out and won a state championship). No Mr. Footballs.. Just a really great, well rounded team... Although, i imagine, Dre Hall and Jalen Hurd in a foot race would be pretty entertaining.

 

Columbia is the beneficiary of their own hardwork and self-created confidence and culture. They are just doing things the right way and reaping the rewards.

[midtnmale]

I'd say the mid-state in general has benefitted the most because 5A seems to be the only classification that Middle Tennessee teams (outside of DII) can consistently get a gold ball. Now, before Maryville moved up to 6A, Williamson and Rutherford county teams was pretty solid too.

Edited November 24, 2012 by midtnmale

[howdoitknow]

Either Columbia or Beech is about to win their 2nd in 4 years. That's crazy!

[RedSwarm10]

Since 2009 (the first year under this system), the 5A champs have been: Beech, Columbia, and Henry County. None of those 3 had ever won a state title prior to this system. I'd say its benefitted a lot of teams.

[Verb58]

It has allowed 32 more teams across the state to play an eleventh game per season. That's about 1500 more young men who may have never had the chance to play in a playoff game. Sure there is money involved but let's not forget these young men worked hard all season for that opportunity at one more game.