The Virginia Plan

[yellowdog]

Schools would be divided into thirds by enrollment, one-third to each class, just as it is now.

This nice thing about this is that every school plays the same district teams in EVERY sport - gone would be A-AA, 1A, A ... Schools could actually learn who their opponents were in every sport. Football would be a wee bit different in that you would play all the teams in your district but only the top two in the large and top two in the small grouping would qualify for play-offs. State champions would be A, AA-Large, AA-Small, AAA-Large and AAA-Small.

 

There would be no more Science Hill having to travel to Knoxville for a region football game or Oak Ridge traveling to Soddy-Daisy for a football game. All schools see increased gates and are able to play natural rivals.

 

Looks win-win to me. -- But I don't know details, just what I've heard here in west tenn from the meeting.

[Rebelguy]

North Carolina does the same thing yet with four classifications. That makes 8 state champions in a state that isn't even near the size of a California, Florida, or Texas. I kinda wish they would go back to 3 divisions period though, it makes for a better championship and larger crowds at the final game.

[CoachT]

If any fans want to see what their football region would be, basically: go to www.tssaa.org, click Classifications, and click the classification your school is now in for basketball. Your current basketball district would be your new football region.

[GWAVE1]

Interesting. But are there any situations where you have maybe 6 teams in the large class and 1 in the small in the same region/district? Or if you divide the large class and the small class within your own district could you get a situation where in the playoffs a school having 1000 is playing a school with 1500 just due to the split within your own region/district? I guess having a set attendance cutoff would take care of the last senerio,right?

[CoachT]

Interesting.  But are there any situations where you have maybe 6 teams in the large class and 1 in the small in the same region/district?  Or if you divide the large class and the small class within your own district could you get a situation where in the playoffs a school having 1000 is playing a school with 1500 just due to the split within your own region/district?  I guess having a set attendance cutoff would take care of the last senerio,right?

Each region would be divided based on the enrollment of those schools only. You could have a case where a small school from one region is bigger than the large schools from another region.

 

The cutoff for Class AAA would be around 950-1000 students.

[FatCat]

Each region would be divided based on the enrollment of those schools only. You could have a case where a small school from one region is bigger than the large schools from another region.

 

The cutoff for Class AAA would be around 950-1000 students.

Coach T,

 

If what you said above is true, that makes absolutely no sense. If one school in the AAA (Large) playoffs is smaller than a school in the AAA (Small) playoffs, what sense does it make to even have classifications?!? Sounds like to me that we are making a mountain out of a mole hill.

 

Now forgive me if I am missing out on some historical significance of the classification system here in TN, because I have only lived here for 3 years. But, it appears to me one way to solve a lot of these problems would be to go to 4 classification groups (A, AA, AAA, AAAA) for ALL SPORTS. That should go a long way to taking care of the problem of schools who don't play football and still keep a simple system. Why is TN fixated on having only 3 classification groups?!?

 

Now I have never sat down and tried to work out all the districts/regions under a 4A plan. I know that would be extremely time consuming and not as easy as it was for me to type it up, but I do think it should be workable. But, if that isn't the answer, then there has got to be something easier, not to mention more logical, than the Virginia System.

 

What I have looked at is some basic numbers, though. Based on the TSSAA site, there are currently 285 schools who have football programs (counting the privates). That would equate to about 71 or 72 teams in each classification, giving you 8 regions of about 9 teams in each classification. Then, if you add all the schools who play basketball, baseball, etc., you have a total of 327 schools. That would equate to having 82 teams in each classification that would result in 8 regions of 10 or 11 teams or 16 districts of 5 or 6 teams.

 

Now, call me crazy, but that seems a lot simpler and more logical......you get to play all the same schools in all sports......eliminate having multiple classification systems for the different sports.......and you still cut down on all the crazy travel.

 

Just one man's opinion!

[ELA]

FAT CAT from Greenbriar... how many private schools does your school play against in the playoffs? You seem to have missed the whole point of the public/private split all together! Right now we have 8 classifications! DI-A, DI-AA, DI-AAA, DI-AAAA, DI-AAAAA, DII-A, DII-AA, and DII-AAA.

Edited July 13, 2003 by ELA

[FatCat]

ELA,

 

Not sure where you are going with this, but we don't play any privates in the football playoffs because we are 3A. However, in other sports, we have David Lipscomb in our District. We had to fight them at every level of the BB and SB playoffs this year as both our teams made it to Spring Fling.

 

By the way, I am USMA Class of '89.....Company A-4.

[ELA]

My son is a senior at The Point this year.

 

What I was saying about the split is it is motivated by a desire of public schools to stop playing privates in the playoffs. How would you like it if we put in the multiplier plan and Greenbriar ends up in a region (football) full of Nashville private schools like CPA, Goodpasture and David Lipscomb?

 

I tried to make the argument for four classifications in all sports but the basketball and baseball coaches don't want those changes made. If you check out the public/private board you will see all of the arguments laid out.

[FatCat]

ELA,

 

I have been on the site long enough to know about not getting into the public/private debate on here. However, without delving into that too much, I agree I would not want to play a bunch of privates in football in the playoffs. I agree that it is inherently unfair to have private/public competing for the same championship.

 

I have been to the public/private debate. Since reading many of those posts, I have done some statistical data that I won't post here. But, I do know that pulling privates out of the mix won't change my 4 classification system at all. It just means only 7 or 8 teams per Region instead of 9 in football. And it makes it even easier for baseball/basketball because then you can easily go with 8 Regions and not have to break it down into Districts.

 

I have not read the posts where the baseball/basketball coaches don't want to go to a 4-A system. But, if that is the case, that is a shame. I would even go so far as to say that who cares. Let's do what is best for all sports in TSSAA instead of making some happy.

 

I guess you are I are too logical for the others to comprehend!

[GWAVE1]

I agree with you jc33tn, going to 4 classifications makes more since to me. The playoffs would not be so watered down as they are now. It can be done. I worked out the 4 class system back about 10 years ago. The main sticking point that I came away with was that the mythical east, middle and west parts of Tenneessee had to be done away with. The 4 class system puts a whole lot of teams in the same class in the same general area creating some huge regions and small ones in other parts of the state. A main advantage was the tradtional rilvaries are kept intact.

 

As too the public/private issue, back when Father Ryan, CBHS, MBA, McCallie, and Baylor played with the 3-A big boys they were not a real issue. If BA would join them and Riverdale won't throw such a cry baby fit like what happened to cause the split in the first place, we may get some true whos better than who football back in this state. The smaller schools, now that is up for debate.

 

Personally I choose 4 classes with the privates back in the mix over the Virginia Plan.

[yellowdog]

 

Personally I choose 4 classes with the privates back in the mix over the Virginia Plan.

What criteria would you use to select the 4 classes? Football playing schools, Basketball schools, or all schools?

 

If you take all schools and divide by 4 to get your classifications then the smallest class would only have have a pool of 1/2 as many schools for football playoffs than the bigger classes. East and West soccer regions would have a handful of teams - if that much. Track is the same way.

 

In a perfect world where all schools had all sports a 4 class system would be perfect - but that is not reality.