Prep Blog: TSSAA realignment will create new and interesting matchups

The new playoff format and region alignments finalized last week should make for some interesting games and the renewal of several rivalries next fall in Tennessee.

The way the TSSAA set it up was to divide the teams by Class A, Class AA and Class AAA with each classification then sub-divided for the playoffs. Class A will be 1A and 2A teams, Class AA 3A and 4A teams and Class AAA 5A and 6A teams.

Signal Mountain went undefeated — and by lopsided scores — in its first year while playing a JV schedule and will enter its first varsity season in the same region with Marion County and South Pittsburg. Marion is in the Class 2A quarterfinals and will play Boyd-Buchanan on Friday night, while South Pittsburg, unbeaten now in 27 straight games, is in the 1A quarterfinals at Trousdale County. Lookout Valley, another 1A team that also made the playoffs this year, also is in the region.

Polk County, Meigs County and McMinn Central, who will be 3A playoff contenders, are in a AA district with Sequoyah and Sweetwater and Red Bank, its enrollment down to 981 students, will be in AA but play in the 4A playoffs along with Brainerd, Central, East Ridge, East Hamilton (the new school in East Brainerd scheduled to open next fall) and Hixson. Also in that region but going the 3A playoff route are Tyner and Howard.

Can you imagine a Tyner-Red Bank battle or Red Bank-Howard game?

And in Class AAA, the new local region will feature Bradley Central, Cleveland, Ooltewah, Rhea County, Soddy-Daisy and Walker Valley. All but Cleveland and Walker Valley, who will be 5A teams, will be shooting for the 6A playoffs. Chattanooga’s old Region 2-5A teams, Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah, lose two trips annually to the Knoxville area — and that’s a plus because of a travel savings — but they must now turn around and find teams willing to play. Ooltewah has played just nine games each of the last two seasons.

Here are some East Tennessee games you’ll want to keep in mind:

Maryville-Farragut: Maryville, which has dominated Class 4A, is making the jump to 6A and will be in a region with Farragut, one of the East Tennessee bullies in 5A.

Knox Catholic, which will play a Class 3A quarterfinal Friday against Austin East, is also in that group, which means the Irish will be playing Maryville and Farragut plus Knox West and Bearden. It makes for a very competitive region.

Signal Mountain-South Pittsburg: The new kid on the block against one of the top small-school teams in the state.

Signal Mountain-Marion County: They’ll be fighting for the area’s top 2A seed and Marion appears to have regained some of the good fortune it enjoyed in the nineties.

Notre Dame, a 3A team this year, got bumped up to 4A and will renew rivalries against Bledsoe County and Sequatchie County, teams they haven’t played since Charlie Wiggins took over as coach and Wiggins joined Notre Dame in 2002. The Irish will play Sequatchie County, Bledsoe County, Chattanooga Christian and Grundy County in a five-team region. They don’t get an automatic bid, but have to hope for a wild card because they’re the only 4A team in the region.

That other area region will bring some teams back together that haven’t played in a while including East Ridge-Tyner and East Ridge-Red Bank.

The things that most concern me are things no one knows. Who decides which teams will get wild cards and how will those teams be matched? Will it be geographic or by records? Are we looking at a BCS-type scenario where a computer makes the call? How soon will those match-ups be made public and how are coaches going to make arrangements about film swaps and travel? If you’ll recall there were a shortage of charter buses for the first round this year.

And all of this was done to ease travel expenses — pairing teams into regions closer geographically — but will that be countered by postseason travel?

One thing I’d love to see cut back is the number of games where teams that have played in the regular season meet each other as early as Week 2, such as the match-ups between Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy and McMinn County and Farragut last week. It would be nice to see a team from West or even Middle Tennessee playing here rather than having two old rivals driving across town or a short piece up the highway.

I’m sure it’s for the best but I don’t know about the wild card scenario. Sure, it might create some interest – and the TSSAA is almost as big on that as it is ventures that make money — but how long will that interest remain? I’d be willing to be the TSSAA winds up with some type of money-making pre-playoff TV show in which it unveils the field and the match-ups.

I’m not again change but it seems the only time the TSSAA seriously considers change is when there is change – as in coins and cash — to be made.