TSSAA to look at open zones, privates, new classifications possible

[GWAVE1]

One more thing-I don't object to the idea of classifying by Strength even if brings back the current Division II teams. It would be tough to get it started but after the first run (I'd go with 2 year periods) it would begin equalling out.

 

One big issue would be basketball as most schools have girl-boy doubleheaders. Some schools might have teams with completely different schedules.

If that were to happen you would see one champion then the rest would have their championships. Bad idea with increased travel and huge disparity in school sizes. Trousdale Co or Union City does not need to play Whitehaven or Dobyns Bennett. Plus there would be very little consistency with district/region rivals. Too much turnover.

[Indian]

Use a geography/strength combination to set up districts. I had something like that on here, if I can find it and figure out a way to explain it briefly I will repost.

 

Limit football to 6 or 7 district games to give room for rivals.

[AlcoaBasketball]

Sequatchie County is open zone.

[Governm]

I wouldn't mind going back to 5 classes.

[UpperCumberlandMan]

LOWERman is open zone. Livingston Academy is open zone. Most schools in Tennessee are. If they don't take advantage of it, that's their fault.

Livingstone is not open zoned. LA is the only HS in the county, no out of county kids can attend, that's not open zoned. UH has been opened zoned in the past, but since 2010 and until they get the new jr and hs expasion projects finished, they have been closed to only zoned students.

[SdotBears]

I wouldn't mind going back to 5 classes.

With public and private together?

[Indian]

Use a geography/strength combination to set up districts. I had something like that on here, if I can find it and figure out a way to explain it briefly I will repost.

 

Limit football to 6 or 7 district games to give room for rivals.

Basically use the past few season results for a starting point, I used four years of Sonny Moore rankings and ordered teams from 1 to 337, including current Division II teams. After that figure out how many classes, five seemed to fit that number well and decide how many teams make the playoffs.

 

I'd move up/move down the top quarter and bottom quarter of teams every two years, again going by the previous four years of results.

 

The top 10 over the past four years were Maryville, Ensworth, Brentwood Academy, MUS, Blackman, MBA, Baylor, Whitehaven, Siegel and Alcoa.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Indian

[AlcoaBasketball]

"We can't beat them so move them up."

 

That's what I just heard.

[Indian]

More to it than that. You can throw out open zone, multipliers, Division I and II and just have the best programs against each other. With four year results you could be more certain to have the best programs, not A team that had a once in a decade run and would be placed against a Maryville as a result.

[AlcoaBasketball]

If you throw all the factors that you mentioned for the one classification with the best teams, you would have to do the same all across the board. Truth be told, that just wouldn't work.

 

Sometimes in life, it's actually on the teams themselves to step up and beat the powerhouses.

[cbg]

IMO, the TSSAA will vote for a placing all private schools into D2. After they complete that act and get everything completed the D2 schools will announce that they are going to leave the TSSAA and form another athletic association for high school athletics in Tennessee. At that time the TSSAA will be forced to go back to the board for another round of classification. If you don't have 100+ schools in a single class you don't have enough schools to have a true state champion. With Tennessee only having around 300 schools playing football we should only have A, AA & AAA for football.

 

Benard was truthful when they said the major issue was open zoned schools vs specific zoned schools. If the TSSAA does not want the private schools to leave and form another association they should look at placing the open zoned schools into D2 with the private schools.

 

Are Metro Nashville, Memphis schools, Knoxville Schools not already open zoned? What about the Chattanooga schools? Where would Maryville & Alcoa fall into this discussion?

[Red Rebels]

Where would Maryville & Alcoa fall into this discussion?

Since they have been successful lately, they are right in the middle of it. The ones that aren't successful are ignored.