an outside view

It had been talked about for months. It had been analyzed and dissected every way imaginable. It had been tweaked and finally the TSSAA Board of Control passed a new classification system for high school sports in this state. The operative word to describe the system that will go into effect in 2009 is confusion.

The biggest change is in football. Now, follow closely. Football will be divided into three classifications instead of the current five. But it will name six state champs. Huh? By my math, and fortunately I have enough fingers to cipher this one, that’s two champs per classification. But how? You use one classification guideline during the regular season and another one during the playoffs. Is your head spinning yet?

Under the system, each division, (AAA, AA, and A) will be divided into 16 districts.  Districts are much more geographically friendly than before thus reducing travel costs for teams. With the cost of gasoline rising at an alarming rate, this was a driving force behind the change. Each team in the district will play one another. However, come playoff time each district will be divided into two groups with the larger schools in that group vying for a title against schools of like size and the smaller schools in that district doing likewise. 

So, in effect, there will six classifications when the playoffs roll around. I can’t even start to explain which teams will actually make the playoffs.

What does all of this mean for Coach Gary Householder and the Seymour Eagles? Well, it’s one of those good news bad news things. The bad news is they will be moving up into a higher classification. The good news is Fulton won’t. And the better news is Maryville will likely move into the largest school classification.

Translated, that means the Eagles can make a serious run at a title without having to go through either Fulton or Maryville. The odds of Coach Householder winning his first ever state title just went way up.

If the TSSAA had voted to maintain the status quo, Seymour would have moved up to Class 4A due to its increasing enrollment and would have very likely been in the same classification as Maryville. How many of the blue and gold faithful would be making Clinic Bowl plans if they knew they had to beat Maryville to get there? Not many. 

If enrollment remains about the same, Seymour will most likely play in a district with Cherokee, the two Morristown schools, Cocke County, Jefferson County, and Sevier County. There will be no more two hour bus trips to Sullivan County. For playoff purposes, Jefferson County and Sevier County will compete in the largest school classification and Seymour and the others will be in the second group.

Hey, this is beginning to make sense and I may even like it. Since the new system will include at-large teams, it will put an end to 1-9 teams making the playoffs. Hooray! That has always been a pet peeve of mine.

We will see some new rivalries develop. I’ve always thought Morristown West could be a great rival for Seymour. Exxon may not like the plan since literally thousands of dollars will be saved on gas but I doubt the decrease will cause a ripple in the billions of dollars in profits the oil giant will report for the fall quarter.

The uneasy thing about this plan is the treatment of the private schools. The TSSAA voted to keep the enrollment multiplier which means private schools with smaller enrollments must play in higher classifications and compete with larger schools. Some private schools will actually be forced to play up two classifications.

Private schools with student bodies of 300 which would normally be in the 1A classification will have to compete for titles with public schools with enrollments of 800 or more in the new 3A class. That doesn’t seem fair even if you accept all of the argument that private schools have an unfair advantage, which I don’t.

Public school coaches have such a bias against their private school brethren and they can’t see past their paranoia and prejudice.

So, it’s time for the private boys to throw in the towel. I say the TSSAA should forget about having a private school division during the regular season. Let’s lump them all in together – public and private. It doesn’t matter if the private schools give financial aid or not.  Let Webb play Fulton. Let Brentwood Academy play Riverdale. Let Red Bank play McCallie. But when it comes time to compete for a state championship, then break out all of the private schools.

Much was made of the fact Knoxville schools currently have to travel to Chattanooga or Kingsport to play league games. This change will fix that. No one seems to care that Chattanooga Baylor will still have to travel to Nashville to play league games. I guess the TSSAA figures the rich kids can afford to put petrol in their Hummers for the trip across the mountain. How do you explain that? You start by understanding the private schools get no representation on the Board of Control. They have no voice. They are simply at the mercy of others. Wasn’t that how the Boston Tea Party came about?

The changes being made by the TSSAA are good. But they are only half right.