[EKUAlum05]

Ever lurked on a message board before joining, and then there was that one post that got you to join? This is the one.

grimsrud,
First of all thank you for the very intelligent and thought out post. I know you said you have only been lurking, but after work like this I can only hope that you will continue to post more often and bring some much needed perspective into on-going debates.

With that said I think you missed the intention of the point I was making. I totally agree with your statement that the two states are very close, in fact I would probably go so far as to give Tennessee a slight advantage as evident with the larger number of D-1 prospects the state has produced. The reason I posted this was due to an Alcoa fan on another thread who openly asked for someone to prove that ANY Kentucky team has been ranked ahead of their beloved F5 at any time. Not only did I then attempt to disprove their viewpoint that "Kentucky football is weak", but I did it by producing the most recent national ranking from the season's end last year.

Kentucky football, in terms of National spotlight, is very top heavy. Trinity and St. X have dominated Kentucky large school football for years, and even though Kentuckians talk about "The Big 3", Male has only been in the same league of X and T in sporadic bursts. Ft. Thomas Highlands is as good as it gets IMO, pound for poud. Highlands has an enrollment less than 700 students (3A in KY), yet they typically are a Top 25 calibur team Nationally. After those three teams Kentucky has several top tier programs for their classification, schools that would dominate in less talent rich states, but schools who would be less competitive then they are in other states (Bowling Green, Bell County, Belfry, Newport Central Catholic, Danville, Covington Catholic, Ft. Campbell, Louisville Central, Breathitt County, Male, Henry Clay, etc).

The Kentuvky/Tennessee game has never been a good indicator of state's individual power. Usually the elite level prospects did not participate, and plus on the whole it wasn't representative of the state's "better teams". When I think of Alcoa, Maryville, Montgomery Bell, Highlands, Trinity, and St. X, it isn't the number of college prospects the schools produce (which for the most part the KY-TENN game was predicated on), I think about teams who win with discipline, balance, and players who are properly developed by coaches. Memphis White Station or Knoxville Catholic has probably produced more D-1 players then any team in the state of Kentucky, but as evident by their trophy cases, that doesn't translate to being an "Elite team".