New Classification Idea

[rebelboy121]

Wish the tssaa would take a look at how Alabama does their classification and their tournaments, The basketball tourney is going on right now. Their region tournaments made more than our state tournaments. Six classes in all sports would mean all schools playing teams that are closer in size.  Makes sense to some its up to the schools to make it happen. 

[Indian]

Closer in size but really, really spread out distance-wise.

[crazzyness]

Very true. Say in Region 1, there are only 4 2A sized schools. A school like Hampton would have to travel to the the other side of Knoxville (over 2 hours) just to have more than 6 games against teams of the same classifacation.

[johnnyjumpshot]

Here is something to consider:

 

The TSSAA has approximately 340 schools that play basketball in Division One. With six classes divided equally this would mean there would be 56-60 teams in each of the six classes.

 

The current format has 16 districts, 8 regions, 8 sub-state/sectionals, and the state tournament with 24 teams, 8 in each class.

 

The breakdown for six classes would go like this:

 

There would be 8 districts in each class across the state. Districts would have 6-8 teams.

 

 

The top 4 teams from the districts tournament advance to the Super-Regional.

 

Teams are seeded 1-4 from their finish in the District, similar to our current district format. These 4 teams advance to the Super-Regional. There would be 4 Super-Regionals across the state in each class.

 

In the first round, 1 vs 4 seed, and 2 vs 3 will play, just as we have now with the current Regional tournament format.

 

After Districts, losing teams are eliminated, winners advance.

 

In second round winners play, with losing teams eliminated. Winners advance to the Super-Regional Championship.

 

The Super Regional Championship would be an elimination game. The winners advance to the State Tournament.

 

There would be 4 teams in the State Tournament in each of the 6 classes. This allows the same number of 24 teams to advance to the State, the same as our current format.

 

The State Tournament format would be as follows:

 

Wednesday: Class 1-A, 2-A, and 3-A Semi-Finals. There would be 6 games total.

Thursday:    Class 4-A, 5-A, and 6-A Semi-Finals. There would be 6 games total.

Friday: Class 1-A, 2-A, and 3-A Championships. There would be 3 games total.

Saturday: Class 4-A, 5-A, and 6-A Championships. There would be 3 games total.

 

Another suggestion would be to have a Super Saturday,  where all Super-Regional finals are played at a central location on a Saturday. This could be done with Classes 1, 2, and 3 at one site for a Super Saturday event that would be like a mini-state.

Edited February 28, 2014 by johnnyjumpshot

[RedDevilBasketball]

In Alabama they have areas, 4-6 teams tops. Host for the area tourney depends on who wins the area regular season. Only 2 from the area tourney advances to the sub state game, area champs host sub state area runner up travels. This is an elimination game. The winners of the sub state games advance to regionals, 4 sites: northwest, northeast, central, and south. From this point every game is an elimination game. The region champ moves on to Birmingham and the Final 4 for each classification in both boys and girls. This is the final 48 teams. They play 1 girls game followed by 1 guys game. 8 games a day for Tues- Thurs. Friday and Saturday are Title days, 6 games each day. In Alabama, this set up brings in more money than football every year! It is enough that the AHSAA can operate off of this tournament set up alone without the Super 6 football title games. 

 

The big difference is that you can lose 3 games in TN and still make the state tourney, but in AL every post season game is an elimination game except for the area title game. Makes it tougher and gives it more backbone when someone wins a ring in Alabama. 

[bob77]

In Alabama they have areas, 4-6 teams tops. Host for the area tourney depends on who wins the area regular season. Only 2 from the area tourney advances to the sub state game, area champs host sub state area runner up travels. This is an elimination game. The winners of the sub state games advance to regionals, 4 sites: northwest, northeast, central, and south. From this point every game is an elimination game. The region champ moves on to Birmingham and the Final 4 for each classification in both boys and girls. This is the final 48 teams. They play 1 girls game followed by 1 guys game. 8 games a day for Tues- Thurs. Friday and Saturday are Title days, 6 games each day. In Alabama, this set up brings in more money than football every year! It is enough that the AHSAA can operate off of this tournament set up alone without the Super 6 football title games. 

 

The big difference is that you can lose 3 games in TN and still make the state tourney, but in AL every post season game is an elimination game except for the area title game. Makes it tougher and gives it more backbone when someone wins a ring in Alabama.

 

The only thing I don't like about our current system is you might have to beat the same team 5 times. Like a couple years ago. Jackson Co had already beat Clay Co 4 times, twice in the regular season, in the district championship and in the regional championship. Each time Clay Co would get a little closer. Then still had to beat them again to win the state title. Which did not happen. Clay Co won the state title by not winning the regular season district , the district tournament and the region tournament. Too many chances to me. Not taking anything away from them, they were the best team that day, but just have to play the system that's in place.

[crazzyness]

The only thing I don't like about our current system is you might have to beat the same team 5 times. Like a couple years ago. Jackson Co had already beat Clay Co 4 times, twice in the regular season, in the district championship and in the regional championship. Each time Clay Co would get a little closer. Then still had to beat them again to win the state title. Which did not happen. Clay Co won the state title by not winning the regular season district , the district tournament and the region tournament. Too many chances to me. Not taking anything away from them, they were the best team that day, but just have to play the system that's in place.

The only thing I would consider changing in the current system is only take THREE teams from the district tournament. Makes the 3rd place game an elimanation game, AND rewards a team for winning District with a by for the first round of regionals. Take the top 3 form two districts, have the 2 seeds play the 3 seeds in the first round and let the 1 seeds have a by. This way, the 3rd place and championship games in districts REALLY mean something. Wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit if this happened.

[swanson71]

I believe the they should do away with the regionals and substate all together. Here's how I would do it: take the top 2 teams from district A, top 2 from district B, 2 from district C and 2 from district D, and stick them in a tournament. There are 16 districts so 4 different sectional tournaments. Winner of the sectional tournament goes to play a 4 team state tournament. You would only play a team 4 times max in a season instead of 5.

[judgesmales]

It is absolutely the worst setup in the nation. Whenever you can LOSE 3 times and still 'win' the state championship, it is a terrible format. The other thing is having to beat a team 3-5 times in a season is ridiculous also. Someone mentioned Jackson County and Clay County 2 years ago, the last game should have never happened, they LOSE 4 of 5 but are rewarded with the 'state championship' for winning the last game, Unbelievable. I wish we had some basketball coaches that actually cared about the game and would push for the same classifications as football, that would level the playing field for many schools at the low end of each class to have success. But truthfully, every sport should have the same number of classification and championships.

[dmm88]

I agree 100% with this. Time to Tenneseee to do away with the basketball tourney format. I like the Alabama basketball format, or even Kentucky. Good teams are too protected now. Lose and still have a shot at state. No it all needs to be single elimination.

[MidTennFootball]

I believe the they should do away with the regionals and substate all together. Here's how I would do it: take the top 2 teams from district A, top 2 from district B, 2 from district C and 2 from district D, and stick them in a tournament. There are 16 districts so 4 different sectional tournaments. Winner of the sectional tournament goes to play a 4 team state tournament. You would only play a team 4 times max in a season instead of 5.

 

So under your format, Riverdale wouldnt have even gotten to play beyond the district tournament. You sure about that? I agree with going away from a regional tournament, but maybe a 64 team tournament once the district tournaments are done. Come up with a group of criteria to determine seeding and seed them 1-64 with 4 regional brackets, last 4, 8 or 16 play at Murphy Center

Edited February 28, 2014 by 7AAANetwork

[swanson71]

So under your format, Riverdale wouldnt have even gotten to play beyond the district tournament. You sure about that? I agree with going away from a regional tournament, but maybe a 64 team tournament once the district tournaments are done. Come up with a group of criteria to determine seeding and seed them 1-64 with 4 regional brackets, last 4, 8 or 16 play at Murphy Center

I am sure, in baseball only the top 2 from each district advance. It makes the district tournament that much more important....