Opinion question concerning Private Schools in Tennessee

[BigDave67]

Do You think Tennessee should do like Georgia does and not have a separate Classification for Private Schools? I sort of think Tennessee should do like Georgia and put the Privates in the same regions as the Public High Schools. I don't think it would effect the quality of the competition all that much.

[Mr. Postman1]

How many times has this can of worms been opened? It never gets old though, and the answer is heck no.

[BigDave67]

How many times has this can of worms been opened? It never gets old though, and the answer is heck no.

 

 

Most of the Privates in Georgia are Christian Schools who are for the most part in the 1A Class in Georgia.

Edited August 8, 2013 by BigDave67

[AllRegion]

Most of the Privates in Georgia are Christian Schools who are for the most part in the 1A Class in Georgia.

That's not how it is in Tennessee though. There are privates of all sizes in Tennessee and they all have an advantage over public schools.

 

Privates have no place in the public classification. They play by different rules, plain and simple.

[RedRobin]

That's not how it is in Tennessee though. There are privates of all sizes in Tennessee and they all have an advantage over public schools.

 

Privates have no place in the public classification. They play by different rules, plain and simple.

How do privates (especially privates that play in Division 1 and are thus subjected to a multiplier) have an advantage over open zoned publics?

[AllRegion]

How do privates (especially privates that play in Division 1 and are thus subjected to a multiplier) have an advantage over open zoned publics?

 

Because private schools have selective enrollment. They do not have to admit anyone to their school and they can therefore pick and choose from the cream of the crop, in both academics and athletics. The student body composition is inherently different. A private school with an enrollment of 400 students is likely to have more athletes than a public school with an enrollment of 700 students.

 

I am not opposed to private schools, though, so do not take me the wrong way. I just believe that public and private schools should play in different divisions.

Edited August 9, 2013 by AllRegion

[RedRobin]

Because private schools have selective enrollment. They do not have to admit anyone to their school and they can therefore pick and choose from the cream of the crop, in both academics and athletics. The student body composition is inherently different. A private school with an enrollment of 400 students is likely to have more athletes than a public school with an enrollment of 700 students.

 

I am not opposed to private schools, though, so do not take me the wrong way. I just believe that public and private schools should play in different divisions.

And that is exactly why TSSAA applies a multiplier of 1.7 to the D1 private. Given your numbers, TSSAA considers the enrollment at the private to be 680, which is pretty much in line with your thoughts. Let's not forget that the parents of every one of those kids at the private is paying thousands of dollars in tuition (in addition to the taxes they pay to support the public schools in their county). Meanwhile, the open-zoned public which they are both competing against gets to enroll as many football players as it can for a couple of hundred dollars of tuition, with the county and state picking up the rest of the tab. Yet TSSAA applies no multiplier to these schools.

 

I just do not understand why everyone complains about "recruiting" whenever a CAK wins big, but no one seems to understand the huge advantage realized by Beech, Alcoa, Maryville or every one of the other open-zoned publics. Why is no multiplier called for in these circumstances, and why aren't you complaining about that?

[AllRegion]

And that is exactly why TSSAA applies a multiplier of 1.7 to the D1 private. Given your numbers, TSSAA considers the enrollment at the private to be 680, which is pretty much in line with your thoughts. Let's not forget that the parents of every one of those kids at the private is paying thousands of dollars in tuition (in addition to the taxes they pay to support the public schools in their county). Meanwhile, the open-zoned public which they are both competing against gets to enroll as many football players as it can for a couple of hundred dollars of tuition, with the county and state picking up the rest of the tab. Yet TSSAA applies no multiplier to these schools.

 

I just do not understand why everyone complains about "recruiting" whenever a CAK wins big, but no one seems to understand the huge advantage realized by Beech, Alcoa, Maryville or every one of the other open-zoned publics. Why is no multiplier called for in these circumstances, and why aren't you complaining about that?

 

I believe you misinterpreted my example, and I apologize for being unclear. My statement was that a private school with 400 students will have more athletes than a public school with 700 students. Even though they are considered to be nearly equal for enrollment purposes (680 students vs. 700 students), the private school will still have way more athletes in their student body than a public school. This is because public schools are forced to take anyone who lives in their zone, adding many kids who are not as blessed academically or athletically to the student body, which obviously makes up a high percentage of their student population. If you look at the student body of a private school, the composition is quite different.

 

Therefore, while the TSSAA says that a private school with 400 students and a public school with 700 students are equivalent, I completely disagree with this. They are not equal at all. Why else would private schools (who make up a significantly smaller percentage of DI member schools than public schools) be winning championships at a significantly larger clip?  

 

The tuition for open-zoned public schools, while not as high as private schools, is still much higher than the $200 that you claim in your post. Good luck trying to get a kid in a school like Maryville for just $200. You can't even get them in Alcoa for that cheap

 

I do realize that there is an advantage for open-zoned public schools. However, they are still public schools, meaning that they have to take anyone who lives in their zone. This means that these open-zoned public schools have many, many kids in their student body who (like I said earlier) are not as academically or athletically blessed. This works as a natural multiplier. Public and private schools are simply different. That is why I'm not "complaining about" open-zoned public schools. They need to be in separate divisions.

 

This doesn't mean that I am against private schools or that I do not like them. I just don't think that they belong in DI.

[CommanderMan]

The TSSAA is way too watered down. Put all the schools in one division. Have 4 classifications and all privates are either in 3A or 4A. It'd be exciting to see the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of 4A each year

[BigDave67]

The TSSAA is way too watered down. Put all the schools in one division. Have 4 classifications and all privates are either in 3A or 4A. It'd be exciting to see the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of 4A each year

 

 

At least Tennessee isn't like Georgia where there is a 6A division.

[lovemesomehsfb]

The TSSAA is way too watered down. Put all the schools in one division. Have 4 classifications and all privates are either in 3A or 4A. It'd be exciting to see the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of 4A each year

I agree with CommanderMan.  

[AllRegion]

At least Tennessee isn't like Georgia where there is a 6A division.

Yeah, good thing for that...hey, hold on a second