[More Cowbell]

I know it's been stated on here before, but the schools involved in the All-A Classic are all "small schools" when compared to the bigger schools downstate. The tournament does still represent the little guys, it's just that some schools that weren't little guys when the event was started ARE little guys now. Enrollments are dropping everywhere, especially around here.

There are several reasons why a school can be class 2A or 3A in football but still be invited to this event. First, the only sport that has classes recognized by the KHSAA is football. That's it. And football classifications only take into account male enrollment, which makes perfect sense as they are the only ones that can play that sport. But a basketball event will consider both male and female enrollment, since boys and girls teams are involved. So, a school with many more male students could be higher in football, but still not indicative of the school's total enrollment.

Another reason is that KHSAA divides the schools into six classes, which means that the class A schools in football are in the bottom 1/6 of male enrollment in the state. This is different from a few years ago when there were four classes, when being class A meant you were in the bottom 1/4 of enrollment. When the realignment occurred, several schools on the upper end of class A were shifted into the new 2A class. The folks behind the All-A tournament may still be using numbers more closely resembling the pre-realignment cutoff points.

In the end, no one should be implying that schools like Phelps and Pikeville are David, as opposed to the Goliaths of Shelby Valley and Prestonsburg. Sure, SV and P-Burg may be a little bigger, but the difference isn't as much as some might think. If one looks at the respective enrollments, those schools are a lot closer to being David than they are Goliath.