[Sykotyk]

Biggest question I have from all of this.....

How many of THEIR fans complain about the drive to the state championship location? Lol.

Longest trip last year was Canadian traveling to NRG Stadium in Houston at a cool 598 miles one way. Their game was at 10am on a Thursday and had about 5,000 people on their side of the field.

But, in Texas, there's two-lane roads signed at 75mph, and some interstates at 80mph. So, travel is a bit different out there.

I'm kidding, obviously. I get what 55 was TRYING to say, but I think he would have been better served using Tennessee as a comparison to make his point (and the other posters point about private schools) a little better. Tennessee population is roughly 6.5 million to roughly 4.5 million for Kentucky. They also have 6 classes in HS football, plus 2 seperate classes for schools that charge tuition or give financial aid. I think if Kentucky were similarly modeled, most likely you would see 5 classes (max) for the "public" schools and most likely two (max) for the private schools.

Which would work. Interesting thing is that in TX, the UIL is only public schools and two private schools (Dallas Jesuit and Houston Strake Jesuit because no other private association will admit them because they're gigantic schools). But, kids don't flock to the private schools to be 'noticed' the way so many in Ohio, Kentucky or elsewhere in the midwest or east coast do. It's just a different mindset. TAPPS, the largest private association, is a bunch of small schools.

One thing Texas does have is 'equal participation'. If you live in a school district, you can play sports and extra-curriculars at the public school, whether you're enrolled there, a private school, or home-schooled. This lessens the impact of trying to form private super teams since you can go to one school for education and still participate in extracurriculars at your home public school your taxes are going to.

Right now, with the rapid and fluid dynamics of the population settlement changing in Kentucky as much as it is, plus so many smaller and less competitive schools choosing to drop out of district play or being merged into larger schools (much like South Floyd and Allen Central will be) primarily on the eastern side of the state, I truly feel like the next 10 years or so will see a move towards 5 classes. Will there ever be a seperate class or two for the schools that give financial aid? I seriously doubt it because of the same mindset that keeps our basketball format as an open "any size school could win it all" sweet 16 format. There MAY be, at some point, a championship similar to the All A for football, but I would be very hard pressed to see how the logistics of that could be managed, how you would avoid schools bouncing back and forth between that and the "larger" championship format, and so on. It's an interesting discussion topic for sure.

I don't think I've ever seen a state shrink the number of classifications before. I find it hard for them to squeeze the genie back in the bottle. PA just went up from 4 to 6 for the first time since they started state playoffs. I can't forsee them ever dropping back.

Wyoming has less than 50 high schools and has five classifications. Even they won't shrink because the size-disparity between teams is vast. The big city schools in Cheyenne, Laramie, and Casper dwarf the rural schools and requires they keep several levels. Then there's 1A which are the smallest 11-man like Niobrara County, Yoder Southeast, or Cokeville. And then you have 6-man, such as Kaycee, Meeteetse, Ten Sleep, or Little Snake River. For years, Meeteetse and a few other 6-man teams played in the Montana association or Idaho association because no opportunities in Wyoming until they got 6-man. Kaycee was a school for a years just south of Buffalo that had sports, but not enough for 11-man football (their players went to Buffalo in a co-op) before 6-man was founded and started a team. And do very well.

Wyoming also has the weird fascination of cross-threading their playoffs. The state is split into two divisions in each classification. East and West, primarily (i think one does north/south). However, in the first round, the east #1 plays the worst west team. And vice-versa. So, Niobrara County traveled to play Cokeville. In the first round. At 433 miles for a Friday afternoon game (rural Wyoming schools only are open Monday through Thursday, so Friday is treated like Saturday. This is because many kids live on farms and since travel is expensive for busing, it's easier to make four trips instead of five each week).


If anyone wants an issue with too many classifications, go look at New Jersey. They had 24 at last count. Public divisions were North 1, North 2, Central, and South. Each with five groups. Then there was Non-Public with four groups.