[EKUAlum05]

You gave me 1-5 years. I wanted you to give me a history of the last 10-15 years. You know why you didn't, because there isn't any. The teams in SWVA during the 90's up until about mid 2000's were putting out some dang good teams. It didn't seem that too many EKY teams wanted to play SWVA teams. You had plenty of D1 talent and NFL talent (Jones Bros, H. Miller, J. Hamilton, A. Bradshaw) just to name a few and SWVA football was better than EKY football. EKY football might be better than SWVA football right now in 2013 but I think as a whole, VA football is better than KY football.

Where was Union ranked? Preseason maybe but not AP ranked as of 10/4/13 but Union is a decent team. Middlesboro was ranked #6

Shelby Valley beat Grundy (503 kids) & Hurley (190 kids). Shelby Valley should beat Hurley when you have 190 kids in grades 9th-12th. compared to SV's 580 to 600 kids. Grundy has been weak for several years with only 1 winning season in the last 8-10 years.

If East Ridge with 650 kids couldn't beat Twin Valley with 225 kids and only 30 victories in the last 11-12 years then I would take up the pads after the game.

The Hazard/ Clintwood game is the best game of the ones you mentioned. Both teams at the top of their game in their classification. Hazard was the better team both years. PERIOD

Harlan County,not much argument here, they are better than Gate City, Lee High (never been much in the 1st place) and Powell Valley towards the end before they consolidated with Appalachia.

Belfry is on another level and they did kick the crack out of Richlands. I think if they had played Richlands in 2011 and 2012 when they had 2 D1 recruits and 3 more signed to play college football, it would have been different.

I was thinking that the George Wythe/Belfry game was 2-2 in the scrimmage. I went and watched Belfry play GW, Marion and Richlands but I don't think Belfry beat GW, I think they tied.

So for the tally, 3 of the EKY teams(Belfry, Harlan, Co., Hazard) are really good and I really respect their program. The other 3 (Shelby Valley, East Ridge, Middlesboro), I still respect their program but I wouldn't thump my chest to much on their victories.

Just for the record, I do support and follow any Mtn. teams from Eastern Kentucky when they make the playoffs. I'm just glad that EKY and SWVA can field teams to discuss because it seems like kids are more interested in Xbox and playstation 3 & 4. Times are really different.

As I said I was just going off the top of my head... I can barely remember where I put my cell phone..let alone the last 15 years of KY vs. VA games

First to acknowledge a couple things you said:
Belfry outscored GW's varsity 5-0 and basically scored at will. Wythe was like a Pikeville team from the past 5 or 6 years from everything I heard. Nice athletes, but just not very strong up front. Belfry tied Marion 2-2 on a couple deep passes, but everyone at the scrimmage agreed Belfry was basically toying with them.

As for the 2011/2012 Richlands teams... the Belfry team you saw scrimmage had 6 Freshmen playing in their first varsity action where they were hitting someone new. 2011 Belfry was very good... 2012 Belfry was scary good. Richlands probably would have been a bit more competitive..but Belfry has been very strong the past few years and this year was actually supposed to be the question mark year. As good as Belfry's defense looked in that scrimmage, the 2012 defense was next level.

I absolutely loved that scrimmage for Belfry BTW. I hope it becomes a regular thing as it was good competition and diverse offense that I felt helped get them ready for the start of the season better than the standard format and teams (Boyd County) that Belfry usually scrimmages in their place.

Now for some real talk. The difference between SW VA and EKY IMHO is hard to measure actually. The main reason being that the majority of SW VA teams are 1A or 2A size teams, specifically the best teams like Clintwood, Honaker, Richlands, George Wythe, Carroll County, etc. EKY's has numerous schools that are much larger like Johnson Central, Harlan County, Knox Central, Pulaski County and other flagship programs which are slightly bigger like Belfry, Breathitt Co, and Bell County.

If you took the Top 10 SWVA teams vs the Top 10 KY teams matching them u so #1 vs #1, #2 vs. 2, #10 vs. #10 and so forth it would be lopsided,,,, but considering enrollment it should be. These teams cant be ignored as they are the best of the best and obviously factor into the equation..but in terms of head to head comparisons it is more fair to match up the EKY 1A/2A teams vs. the SWVA 1A/2A teams conceding the aforementioned point.

You now compare programs like:
Prestonsburg vs. Richlands (who I personally think are almost identical twins)
Clintwood vs. Hazard
Pikeville vs. George Wythe
Williamsburg vs. Honaker
Somerset vs. Carroll County
Corbin vs. Union
Middlesboro vs. Gate City

Now the gap closes and you have a very competitive matchup that I see as ever so slightly leaning in favor of KY over the past decade. (A side note..I see several games I would love seeing become a regular series).

Pound for Pound comparing the two areas it is fairly even...but.. consideration has to be made when arguably 7 or the Top 10 EKY teams arent even included, including the three or four programs who have been next level amongst the group for the past decade.