With two regular-season games remaining for the Baylor School football team, both on the road and against region opponents, TSSAA Division II-AAA’s top-ranked Red Raiders are closing in on an unprecedented accomplishment in their program’s history.
Baylor (8-0, 3-0 DII-AAA East) faces Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville this Friday and Knoxville Catholic on Nov. 1 with a chance to lock up the program’s first outright D-II region championship.
Baylor shared the region title in 2010 with Ensworth, but the Tigers got the top playoff seed based on their regular-season win over the Red Raiders. The following season, Baylor, Brentwood Academy and Ensworth finished in a three-way tie atop the region, with the Red Raiders getting the nod for the top seed. However, in both of those seasons, Ensworth defeated Baylor in the BlueCross Bowl to win the state title.
“Obviously we would be more excited about getting the top overall seeding so we have home-field advantage, but to win the region would be a nice recognition for how well our team has played in a very tough league,” said Baylor coach Erik Kimrey, whose team would earn a first-round bye, then have the right to host the quarterfinals and semifinals if it locked up the top seed.
Chattanooga is hosting the nine BlueCross Bowl title games for the fourth year in a row, with those Dec. 5-7 at Finley Stadium.