Hargis: Too many champs, too little common sense in TSSAA football

TSSAA Logo
TSSAA Logo
photo The Chattanooga Christian Chargers take the field before their prep football game against Notre Dame.
photo TSSAA Logo

NASHVILLE - And you thought there was tension between the national conventions for Democrats and Republicans.

By the time most folks were wrapping up lunch Wednesday, the TSSAA's tone-deaf Board of Control had already put in a full day's work creating a football playoff system that makes Tennessee a laughingstock for the absurd number of state champions we'll crown, then topped it off by ensuring an even wider gap in relations between public and private schools.

photo Stephen has covered sports in the tri-state area for the Times Free Press for more than 25 years and was named Sports Editor in February of 2015 after 10 years as assistant sports editor.

Thanks to the board's decision to add one classification in Division II and keep six classes in D-I (public schools), Tennessee will now have nine football state champions beginning next year.

Nine! That's the second-most in the nation, and for a state with a membership of only about 340 football-playing schools. By comparison, Texas crowns 10 state champions for its 1,400 member schools and Florida has eight state championships for its 700-plus member schools.

Does anybody believe the Volunteer State's brand of football requires us to be on par with Texas or Florida? Or even south Georgia for that matter?

Asked if nine state champions is too many, TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress smiled wryly and replied, "Evidently our Board of Control doesn't think so."

That Tennessee will have nine state champions in football is asinine. But nobody spoke up when the small window of opportunity opened for common sense to be applied by recommending the TSSAA go back to four classes among the public schools, which would create a much tougher playoff field and truer, more worthy state champions.

Instead, I half expected a board member to stand up and, like Oprah giving away cars to her audience members, begin pointing and yelling at football coaches, "You get a gold ball! And you get a gold ball! And "

The clearest reason why no one proposed a return to the four-class system our state once used is simple math. By reducing the number of classifications, you also severely cut the number of playoff games and the amount of revenue streaming in. Remember, the TSSAA gets 50 percent of all gate receipts for every playoff game; the two competing teams split the remaining 50 percent.

Next, the board left most independent schools feeling insignificant by ignoring the recommendation by a committee of D-II representatives that their three football classes be divided evenly so each class would have enough teams competing to reduce travel for league games.

The board voted down that proposal and instead instituted a plan in which the three D-II classes are divided strictly along the lines of enrollment, using the arbitrary cut-off number of 530 to determine which teams must play in the largest class against several national powerhouse programs and which can play in the mid-sized class against teams that aren't as stacked with talent.

"Across the state, the independent schools are frustrated that a panel of D-I administrators makes the decision for what's best for D-II schools," Baylor athletic director Thad Lepcio said. "They threw out our recommendation that so many of our administrators had worked hard on to benefit the majority of our schools. The message we took from today is that the opinion of D-II schools still doesn't matter to the TSSAA."

Administrators from several D-II schools actually stood on the TSSAA lawn during a break and openly discussed whether it would make more sense to simply withdraw from the state's prep sports governing body and create their own organization.

"The thing that has prevented us from doing that before is that the national federation only recognizes one sanctioned organization per state," said one D-II administrator. "But when you continue to feel like your opinion doesn't matter and that no one on the board takes into account what's best for independent schools, you have to wonder why we continue to be a member.

"At least with our own organization we could do what's best for our student-athletes and even write our own recruiting rules."

Shortly after the meeting, administrators from Brentwood Academy and Ensworth - two mid-state teams that have long dominated the largest D-II class, winning five of the past six state titles despite having a small enrollment - admitted they were so dissatisfied with the board's decision that they may no longer opt to play up in class.

In other words, those two could play in the 2A class of D-II, which has more schools competing and therefore more scheduling options. That would not only leave 3A with only seven schools (including Baylor and McCallie) but would also put Brentwood Academy and Ensworth in the same league with schools like Boyd-Buchanan, Chattanooga Christian and Notre Dame.

"I think the best thing for our school is to really contemplate the possibility of playing where our (enrollment) is," BA athletic director Cody White told the Tennessean. "The TSSAA has hamstrung us and made things absolutely ridiculous. I know they made the decision with the thought of us and Ensworth moving up. But if you look at it from a school perspective - the travel, the budget, the scheduling - why wouldn't you consider (playing in 2A)?"

It's a scary possibility for area schools about to cross over to D-II. But even scarier is the seeming lack of understanding and common sense used by the decision-makers overseeing prep sports in our state.

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.

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