There should be 5 Classifications

[Stokomo]

Here's my 2 cents worth. Things are about to change, so I'm speaking on the past. You must get outside the basketball realm on this issue. Schools are funded by their student enrollment. Any parent that is concerned about their child will tell you that they want their kid to receive the best education. The more a school has for funds, the more adequate education you can give each student. If parents have to move into a school's area to have their kids go to that school, that's what will happen. Example: The County schools vs. City schools in the Tri-Cities is a big topic. Parents move inside city limits to have their children go to the best schools because they get double funding, the state funding is larger and they get a big fund from big industries wanting tax right-offs (i.e. Eastman Chemical Co.). So instead of 750 student (County), you have 2000+ (City) to choose from. Now there are some exceptions of talent pools, but for the most part, consistently good teams come from lager districts. So population has a small part to do with good talent available EVERY YEAR. My belief is that we have enough class systems in place. The numbers should be different to accomodate the smaller schools so they can be more competitive.

 

 

 

:justwrestle:

[8aa4life]

The numbers should be different to accomodate the smaller schools so they can be more competitive.

 

 

 

:justwrestle:

Not a bad idea....no new classes just different numbers.

[soccerchick]

I agree that it's not a bad idea, but it would be hard to change the numbers and actually get much out of it. They would be very simliar to the class system we already have.

 

You could change the numbers and have:

 

A...400 and Below

AA...410-800

AAA-801 and up

 

Still it's hard for schools with 850 students to compete with Bradley Central who has 2,300 students.

 

I'm not sure I understand the argument about money. York Institute is funded directly from the state, no county funding, and they still only have about 600 students and this is with a lot of students from neighboring counties comming in. I'm not so sure money attracts students to schools.

[OSHSman]

Let's put this to rest. Alcoa has an enrollment of around 400 and was playing in the AA semi-finals. There....

[8aa4life]

Like people have already said, a few small schools will get in every once in a while.

 

BTW, Alcoa had one of the easiest routes to state....trying playing 8AA or 7AA, or even better go to west tn. They would be in the same dilemma.

Edited March 23, 2004 by 8aa4life

[OSHSman]

No, Alcoa had a pretty though road. They had to play w/ Fulton and A-E in both the district and region tournaments.

[kcork54]

Three classes is just right for Tennessee. The turnover for state champions in every class is almost perfect. White Station became just the fourth team to 3-peat in the history of TN basketball. That's not bad for 3 classes and a secondary division. Repeats are increasingly rare, just look at the past 10-15 years, just a couple of repeats. However, in states with 4-7 classes, repeats happen almost every year.

Edited March 23, 2004 by kcork54

[Wululu]

There have been good points brought up by both sides. Although I am for more classes I think somebody made an excellent point when they said just change the numbers.

 

I disagree. We may not have a lot of repeat champions, but we do have the same teams going to state year after year (big schools).

[GCHS05]

This may be off subject now, but in his senior year my Dad's graduating class had about 15 people. Not an error, 15. The basketball team went to the finals in Indiana where there weren't any classes. I just thought that was something interesting to throw in.

[Topperman]

Most people would rather have 5 classifications, but the travel distance would be too great. I , myself , do not really care. I really believe there really needs to be only one state champion. How this is resolved; I do not know. The Class A needs to have a chance at it; as well as AA. What do you think? The Class AAA in Tennessee is really considered the real champion.

[8aa4life]

Split it up into 5 classes then let the champions play each other lol. AAAA would dominate but teams like Bolivar in AAA would have a chance. Bolivar is awesome.

[Bsims33]

I'm not sure of the exact situation with the Catholic school in Kentucky, but I know you can't compare private schools with public schools because they have different rules. That is like saying Oak Hill in Va should be competing with small single A schools just because Oak Hill only has around 180 students or so.