Unaka at Greenback

[silverpie]

Semi-related opinion: Tennessee should offer eight-a-side football for the small schools.

[TheAmbassador]

Silverpie I asked the other day, but lost the thread. Where do I know you from? Who is your team? It seems like you have been around awhile?

[maj]

My thing is unaka knew they were terrible before the season started, TSSAA has a procedure to notify them you will not be participating in post season play if desired. They chose to enter the season slated for playoff seeding and we're placed in a bracket before they notified anyone so yes they should serve any bans given just like anyone else has done in the past for any number of other violations.

 

As for banning basketball, you gotta make the penalty sting somehow, it's not like you can ban the football team from post season play. Heck when they do make it you can't even talk them into playing.

Makes zero sense to punish basketball players or any other sport the school fields over a football issue. Your need for a pound of flesh does nothing positive. I suspect even the self serving T$$AA will let it go.

[plumb69]

I have been on the side getting beat by 50, and the side beating someone by 50.  This is the way high school sports is, especially in the first round of the playoffs.

 

The TSSAA has set up this system for the playoffs.  Go play the game, run the clock at the start of the second half, shake hands, then turn in your equipment and go to basketball practice on Monday.

 

Why do we make things so hard sometimes.

The T$$AA has set up this system and to say it is a flawed system would be the understatement of all time. I don't have any idea what led to Unaka's decision but there is no excuse for the bloated playoffs and forcing schools to travel to play games with little chance to be competitive. Would Unaka make or lose money on this game? I bet the T$$AA would have made money.

[crow]

Did it make sense to punish all sports for 1 year at GCA over a boys basketball and football player? The rules should be the same for everyone, you shouldn't get special consideration just because your average loss was by 45.

[creekerballer]

Did it make sense to punish all sports for 1 year at GCA over a boys basketball and football player? The rules should be the same for everyone, you shouldn't get special consideration just because your average loss was by 45.

Hardly the same situation.

[BlueDevil58]

Makes zero sense to punish basketball players or any other sport the school fields over a football issue. Your need for a pound of flesh does nothing positive. I suspect even the self serving T$$AA will let it go.

 

 

From what I've heard, it may make sense to punish basketball there if the players quit to get a head start on basketball season, which has been hinted at in rumors I've heard.

 

The rumors that the basketball coaches at Unaka have been telling kids not to play football go back several years.

 

Whether there's any truth to those, I don't know, but Pink McKinney has publicly complained about it since he took over and it is odd that the school's best athletes all play basketball and have pretty recently won state there but play no other sports.

[creekerballer]

From what I've heard, it may make sense to punish basketball there if the players quit to get a head start on basketball season, which has been hinted at in rumors I've heard.

 

The rumors that the basketball coaches at Unaka have been telling kids not to play football go back several years.

 

Whether there's any truth to those, I don't know, but Pink McKinney has publicly complained about it since he took over and it is odd that the school's best athletes all play basketball and have pretty recently won state there but play no other sports.

It's not all that odd, Unakas had a much more successful basketball and baseball program than football. I played there a couple years after that said state title and I can say I was never once encouraged to not play football by anyone. Quite the contrary I was begged to play football by several. I just wasn't interested, my whole childhood Unaka had been terrible and I wasnt interested in it. Edited November 2, 2016 by creekerballer

[BlueDevil58]

The TSSAA could easily fix this with a rule that finishing in the top 4 in the conference gets you in... unless you have a sub .500 record.

 

Allow the top seed from each district in regardless of record just to give each district representation (Cloudland was 4-6), but if a sub .500 team finishes in spots 2-4, give those spots to wild card teams, in order of record, across the state.  If you put all the 5-5 teams in, the last spots would go to the 4-6 teams with the toughest schedules.

 

That way they still get their 16 first round playoff games and the games go to teams who earned a postseason and would actually want it.

 

It's painful that a team like Midway, which hammered Unaka 71-0 a week ago and finished 5-5 IIRC, is sitting at home for finishing 5th in a loaded conference while Unaka was 1-9 and got in despite not even wanting it.

[crow]

Hardly the same situation.

But the girls soccer team didn't have anything to do with that situation either.

[crow]

The TSSAA could easily fix this with a rule that finishing in the top 4 in the conference gets you in... unless you have a sub .500 record.

 

Allow the top seed from each district in regardless of record just to give each district representation (Cloudland was 4-6), but if a sub .500 team finishes in spots 2-4, give those spots to wild card teams, in order of record, across the state. If you put all the 5-5 teams in, the last spots would go to the 4-6 teams with the toughest schedules.

 

That way they still get their 16 first round playoff games and the games go to teams who earned a postseason and would actually want it.

 

It's painful that a team like Midway, which hammered Unaka 71-0 a week ago and finished 5-5 IIRC, is sitting at home for finishing 5th in a loaded conference while Unaka was 1-9 and got in despite not even wanting it.

This +1

[ftblLVR557360]

The TSSAA could easily fix this with a rule that finishing in the top 4 in the conference gets you in... unless you have a sub .500 record.

 

Allow the top seed from each district in regardless of record just to give each district representation (Cloudland was 4-6), but if a sub .500 team finishes in spots 2-4, give those spots to wild card teams, in order of record, across the state.  If you put all the 5-5 teams in, the last spots would go to the 4-6 teams with the toughest schedules.

 

That way they still get their 16 first round playoff games and the games go to teams who earned a postseason and would actually want it.

 

It's painful that a team like Midway, which hammered Unaka 71-0 a week ago and finished 5-5 IIRC, is sitting at home for finishing 5th in a loaded conference while Unaka was 1-9 and got in despite not even wanting it.

It is definitely a shame that better teams sit at home when the worst teams choose to do so!