5 class plan

[ocac]

I am hearing from some reliable sources that the 5 class plan is gaining some momentum.  I know another thread addressed this issue a couple of weeks ago, but I am starting a new thread to hear thoughts and opinions.  How will that affect the teams that are teetering on the high/low side of enrollment for each class?  

[sx1234]

Needs to be done, if not smaller.  I get that a lot of decisions are money related, but teams automatically making the playoffs is a joke of the sport.

[blazer1set]

Should school size enter into this discussion at all?       We hear this all the time, it isn't "fair" for Unaka (337) to have to compete against the schools with 2000+ kids like Science Hill and Dobyns Bennett.    But then along comes Alcoa (635) and Greeneville (914) who regularly stomp most 6A schools more than twice their size.     Should we really be trying to find a single state champion across the board?      Or is the T-ball mentality (everybody's a winner, everybody gets a trophy) just too hard-baked into out culture now?       How about having 95 state champions (one for each county)?      What if we had a single champion from the 3 natural divisions of the state (east, middle, west)?     So many ways to slice and dice it......

[GREYRIDERx]

5 minutes ago, blazer1set said:

Should school size enter into this discussion at all?       We hear this all the time, it isn't "fair" for Unaka (337) to have to compete against the schools with 2000+ kids like Science Hill and Dobyns Bennett.    But then along comes Alcoa (635) and Greeneville (914) who regularly stomp most 6A schools more than twice their size.     Should we really be trying to find a single state champion across the board?      Or is the T-ball mentality (everybody's a winner, everybody gets a trophy) just too hard-baked into out culture now?       How about having 95 state champions (one for each county)?      What if we had a single champion from the 3 natural divisions of the state (east, middle, west)?     So many ways to slice and dice it......

Those 2 have the same team size as those other schools

[BoomKing2006]

The discussion to lower the number of classes for football is so they don't have to add any for other sports bickering about only having 3 who want to move up to 4 (Softball, basketball, baseball... etc..). So if they can get it down to 5 they can point to the other sports and say they're addressing the inequality. 

Doing separate classifications by sport is dumb though. Red Bank (798 Students) plays 3A Football (Schools up 820 is or so), 2A Basketball/Baseball/Softball (Schools up to 1000 or so), but in track and cross country they are classified as a "Large School" (Up to 2700+). 

Most states have blanket classifications... if you have this many kids you are in this class for all sports. In that case, i think 4 blanket classes would be ideal for the state. 

A - 0 to 323 Students

AA - 324 to 706

AAA - 707 to 1150

AAAA - 1151 to 2700

In sports like Soccer, Tennis, Golf, Cross Country you can still combine A and AA into one class as needed as most are right now. 

 

[WingT08]

Thats how the states that are light years ahead of Tennessee do it! @BoomKing2006

Edited November 19, 2019 by WingT08

[kwc]

I'm glad I don't have this task.

[2goldenrings]

2 hours ago, BoomKing2006 said:

The discussion to lower the number of classes for football is so they don't have to add any for other sports bickering about only having 3 who want to move up to 4 (Softball, basketball, baseball... etc..). So if they can get it down to 5 they can point to the other sports and say they're addressing the inequality. 

Doing separate classifications by sport is dumb though. Red Bank (798 Students) plays 3A Football (Schools up 820 is or so), 2A Basketball/Baseball/Softball (Schools up to 1000 or so), but in track and cross country they are classified as a "Large School" (Up to 2700+). 

Most states have blanket classifications... if you have this many kids you are in this class for all sports. In that case, i think 4 blanket classes would be ideal for the state. 

A - 0 to 323 Students

AA - 324 to 706

AAA - 707 to 1150

AAAA - 1151 to 2700

In sports like Soccer, Tennis, Golf, Cross Country you can still combine A and AA into one class as needed as most are right now. 

 

This would be a brilliant plan!!!

[sportsguy22]

2 hours ago, BoomKing2006 said:

The discussion to lower the number of classes for football is so they don't have to add any for other sports bickering about only having 3 who want to move up to 4 (Softball, basketball, baseball... etc..). So if they can get it down to 5 they can point to the other sports and say they're addressing the inequality. 

Doing separate classifications by sport is dumb though. Red Bank (798 Students) plays 3A Football (Schools up 820 is or so), 2A Basketball/Baseball/Softball (Schools up to 1000 or so), but in track and cross country they are classified as a "Large School" (Up to 2700+). 

Most states have blanket classifications... if you have this many kids you are in this class for all sports. In that case, i think 4 blanket classes would be ideal for the state. 

A - 0 to 323 Students

AA - 324 to 706

AAA - 707 to 1150

AAAA - 1151 to 2700

In sports like Soccer, Tennis, Golf, Cross Country you can still combine A and AA into one class as needed as most are right now. 

 

Just a thought/question...isn’t putting schools with 1,200 students up against schools with over 2,000 students completely unfair?? It seems like a huge disadvantage.

[BoomKing2006]

11 minutes ago, sportsguy22 said:

Just a thought/question...isn’t putting schools with 1,200 students up against schools with over 2,000 students completely unfair?? It seems like a huge disadvantage.

maybe talk to every Track/Cross Country/Golf/Tennis Coach in the state where there are two divisions... 760 and below and 760 and above. 

1200 students up to over 2000 is more equitable than 760 up to over 2000. 

[sportsguy22]

31 minutes ago, BoomKing2006 said:

maybe talk to every Track/Cross Country/Golf/Tennis Coach in the state where there are two divisions... 760 and below and 760 and above. 

1200 students up to over 2000 is more equitable than 760 up to over 2000. 

For football and the numbers/depth it takes, that is a huge gap, especially compared to other classes.

[wow1029]

4 hours ago, blazer1set said:

Should school size enter into this discussion at all?       We hear this all the time, it isn't "fair" for Unaka (337) to have to compete against the schools with 2000+ kids like Science Hill and Dobyns Bennett.    But then along comes Alcoa (635) and Greeneville (914) who regularly stomp most 6A schools more than twice their size.     Should we really be trying to find a single state champion across the board?      Or is the T-ball mentality (everybody's a winner, everybody gets a trophy) just too hard-baked into out culture now?       How about having 95 state champions (one for each county)?      What if we had a single champion from the 3 natural divisions of the state (east, middle, west)?     So many ways to slice and dice it......

You get teams like Gordonsville & Whitwell with bad records who stomped schools with great records so records mean nothing.