Newspaper takes a stab at DII classification

[warhawk]

I agree that the natural break should be utilized and there should be more teams in AAA.     What is the argument not to do that?    

[TTate]

28 minutes ago, warhawk said:

I agree that the natural break should be utilized and there should be more teams in AAA.     What is the argument not to do that?    

The argument at the time (4 years ago) was there was a significant difference in resources between the high level privates and the mid-level privates.  Speaking from a Lipscomb perspective, they were going from playing in the public division to D2.  The school at the time obviously had zero athletes receiving financial aid.  To go from playing a "White House" to a "BA" or "Ensworth" in one year just didn't make any sense.  LA did play up in all other sports and I would say is just now becoming competitive, just not competitive for championships.....yet.  In football, with the hiring of coach Dilfer, Lipscomb can compete at the highest level.  I would not be surprised if they decide to move up....I also would not be surprised if they stay put.  Personally, I hope they do whatever CPA does.  And by the way, CPA should compete in AA in all other sports.  To have them play Zion, MTCS, Providence, etc is a joke.

[JRB]

I would like to see only 2 classes in DII for all sports.  A state champion from a pool of 13-14 schools seems insignificant to me.

[peteyrichards]

Why wouldn’t the private schools just all leave TSSAA and start their own divisions for sports? Just curious. 

[PurplePanther]

2 hours ago, JRB said:

I would like to see only 2 classes in DII for all sports.  A state champion from a pool of 13-14 schools seems insignificant to me.

Completely agree with this!  

[LouPickney]

In 1992, we had three champions in Tennessee. Total. No public/private split. You had to fight to have a good enough record to make it into the postseason.

In just five years, the TSSAA jumped from three to seven state champions. And now we have nine.

If they were to move private back to two classes, I wonder how BGA would feel if CPA and Lipscomb were moving up and they weren't. But I'll go with the hypothetical laid out in this thread.

It's doable with the 16 schools and a seven-game region schedule.

Split it into four sections: West, Middle4, Middle3 with Z, and East.

What is Z? A rotating school from the East. For the purposes of this explanation, I have Knoxville Webb in the Z spot. Rotate the Z school out every two years and you're in theory set for a decade.

The split for the middle seven is a bit tricky. MBA is the toughest if you want to protect them for Ensworth and FRHS and BA. My idea:


Div. II-Large, Seven-Game Schedule
West: CBHS, MUS, Briarcrest, St. Benedict
Mid4: MBA, Ensworth, FRHS, JP2
Mid3+Z: Lipscomb, CPA, BA, (Webb)
East: McCallie, Baylor, CCS, Catholic

Non-region division games
West- 2 Mid3, 1 Mid4, 1 East
Mid4- 2 Mid3, 1 West, 1 East
Mid3- 2 Mid4, 2 West
Z----   4 East
East- 2 Mid4, 1 West, Z


This way, the Memphis teams all play, Nashville teams face four of the six local schools, and the Knoxville/Chattanooga schools all play one another.

Protect MBA/BA for the first two years. Flip BA and JP2 and protect JP2/Ryan for the next two years, etc. This is purely hypothetical of course, so that element is less important.

And then the playoffs are however you want them to be. Top three in each region get in, region winner gets a first-round bye. Or any other number of possibilities.

[PurplePanther]

4 hours ago, LouPickney said:

In 1992, we had three champions in Tennessee. Total. No public/private split. You had to fight to have a good enough record to make it into the postseason.

In just five years, the TSSAA jumped from three to seven state champions. And now we have nine.

If they were to move private back to two classes, I wonder how BGA would feel if CPA and Lipscomb were moving up and they weren't. But I'll go with the hypothetical laid out in this thread.

It's doable with the 16 schools and a seven-game region schedule.

Split it into four sections: West, Middle4, Middle3 with Z, and East.

What is Z? A rotating school from the East. For the purposes of this explanation, I have Knoxville Webb in the Z spot. Rotate the Z school out every two years and you're in theory set for a decade.

The split for the middle seven is a bit tricky. MBA is the toughest if you want to protect them for Ensworth and FRHS and BA. My idea:


Div. II-Large, Seven-Game Schedule
West: CBHS, MUS, Briarcrest, St. Benedict
Mid4: MBA, Ensworth, FRHS, JP2
Mid3+Z: Lipscomb, CPA, BA, (Webb)
East: McCallie, Baylor, CCS, Catholic

Non-region division games
West- 2 Mid3, 1 Mid4, 1 East
Mid4- 2 Mid3, 1 West, 1 East
Mid3- 2 Mid4, 2 West
Z----   4 East
East- 2 Mid4, 1 West, Z


This way, the Memphis teams all play, Nashville teams face four of the six local schools, and the Knoxville/Chattanooga schools all play one another.

Protect MBA/BA for the first two years. Flip BA and JP2 and protect JP2/Ryan for the next two years, etc. This is purely hypothetical of course, so that element is less important.

And then the playoffs are however you want them to be. Top three in each region get in, region winner gets a first-round bye. Or any other number of possibilities.

I think BGA would want to move up if CPA and LA go up.  They usually play several in the class every year anyway.  This is well thought out in my opinion.  There will never be a solution that appeals to everyone, but the above has me starting a petition to name you "Childress' D2 Whisperer"!  

 

Kudo's Lou!

[JRB]

Lou- in your scenario, I would combine Mid 3 and 4, similar to baseball and basketball.  It would minimize travel and expenses (which is part of why BA and Ensworth were threatening to drop to DII-AA 2 years ago) while maintaining traditional rivalries. 

[TTate]

6 hours ago, LouPickney said:

In 1992, we had three champions in Tennessee. Total. No public/private split. You had to fight to have a good enough record to make it into the postseason.

In just five years, the TSSAA jumped from three to seven state champions. And now we have nine.

If they were to move private back to two classes, I wonder how BGA would feel if CPA and Lipscomb were moving up and they weren't. But I'll go with the hypothetical laid out in this thread.

It's doable with the 16 schools and a seven-game region schedule.

Split it into four sections: West, Middle4, Middle3 with Z, and East.

What is Z? A rotating school from the East. For the purposes of this explanation, I have Knoxville Webb in the Z spot. Rotate the Z school out every two years and you're in theory set for a decade.

The split for the middle seven is a bit tricky. MBA is the toughest if you want to protect them for Ensworth and FRHS and BA. My idea:


Div. II-Large, Seven-Game Schedule
West: CBHS, MUS, Briarcrest, St. Benedict
Mid4: MBA, Ensworth, FRHS, JP2
Mid3+Z: Lipscomb, CPA, BA, (Webb)
East: McCallie, Baylor, CCS, Catholic

Non-region division games
West- 2 Mid3, 1 Mid4, 1 East
Mid4- 2 Mid3, 1 West, 1 East
Mid3- 2 Mid4, 2 West
Z----   4 East
East- 2 Mid4, 1 West, Z


This way, the Memphis teams all play, Nashville teams face four of the six local schools, and the Knoxville/Chattanooga schools all play one another.

Protect MBA/BA for the first two years. Flip BA and JP2 and protect JP2/Ryan for the next two years, etc. This is purely hypothetical of course, so that element is less important.

And then the playoffs are however you want them to be. Top three in each region get in, region winner gets a first-round bye. Or any other number of possibilities.

Interesting....I could definitely support that!

[Joyful95]

Heard an interesting rumor that BA was considering playing down because of the low number of males at the school.  Hard to believe if true.

[ChuckDSanAntonio]

That would be shocking.  Perhaps going to 2 divisions solves for more than we thought.

 

 

[PurplePanther]

2 hours ago, Joyful95 said:

Heard an interesting rumor that BA was considering playing down because of the low number of males at the school.  Hard to believe if true.

Hard to believe, but if true:

• give credit to the Williamson county school system for several programs that continue to improve and put out P5 talent
• Murfreesboro kids having Oakland and its facilities
• Emergence of CPA as perennial power 

BA's facilities while stellar, are not as shiny as others privates in the area (personal top 3 are MBA, Ensworth, and now LA).

It looks like everyone else caught up.  My $.02