Gossett blog: Thankfully, TSSAA format about to change

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

As we prepare for the TSSAA semifinals on Friday, I couldn't resist taking one last look at Tennessee's soon-to-be-departed football playoff system.

There's a place for computers, sure, but I think it's been well-documented that Tennessee football playoff placement isn't that place. And I'm glad - as are most coaches - that the TSSAA is returning to its old top-four-advance scenario.

Now we'd be even happier if the state association's officials and the board of control would wise up and realize that the state isn't big enough - or populous enough, shall we say - for six classifications in the public school division and two in the private school sector. I think that's as many as they have in Texas.

But at least a step in the right direction has been taken, and at least they haven't seen fit to divide other sports into that many groups.

(You have to wonder, though, if the weak-minded "everybody should get a trophy" mindset was prevalent in any of the discussions.)

I'm of the age group that believes simple participation doesn't earn a trophy, at least beyond the 8- and 10-under age groups. And along those lines, I would tend to agree that only the top two teams in each region should advance to the postseason. That is indeed how it was years ago.

(But then, heaven forbid anything should cut the 50 percent take the TSSAA gets from every playoff game.)

Hope you're not one of the naïve souls who believe that all schools in the playoffs make a financial killing. It just doesn't happen these days except among community football schools such as Alcoa, Maryville and Dobyns-Bennett.

But we have digressed.

Let's get back to tearing apart the computer-generated playoff brackets.

Of the 24 semifinal spots available in Division I, you have to give the computer some credit for getting more than half correct. Fifteen went to teams top-seeded in their quadrant and only one top-seeded team lost its first game. Five No. 2 quadrant seeds made it, though.

And then it gets embarrassing. Two No. 3 seeds, a No. 4 and even a No. 5 are in the semis. The No. 5 is Milan in Class 3A.

There was a quadrant No. 1 that lost its first game and there were three teams that were the lowest-seeded in their quadrant that won first-round games. And how many lower-seeded teams (fifth-eighth) won their first games? There were a total of 19.

* Playoff items of note:

• Rhea County is now 4-1 in the postseason in Mark Pemberton's two seasons as the Eagles' head coach. Prior to Pemberton's return, the Eagles had a four-year playoff dry spell.

• The kids who are seniors at Notre Dame suffered just one losing season, their freshman year - the year before Charles Fant arrived to take over as head coach - and you have to offer props to then athletic director Howie Sompayrac for that hire. Including this year's 12-1 record, Notre Dame is now 30-8 in games coached by Fant.

• Marion County is looking at a fourth playoff game in the same season for the first time since 2008, when the Warriors went 11-2 including 3-1 in the postseason. The Warriors' best years would have to be 1994 and 1995. They were 15-0 in each.

* Changing stride one last time.

• Everybody knows that money games are even more important than in the past. A financial guarantee is the primary reason Brainerd and Howard have agreed to two-year contracts with Baylor. For Baylor it was wise - guaranteed home games while playing in a league that sends Chattanooga teams to the midstate at least twice.

So why then would a private school in Knoxville cancel a longstanding rivalry - and money game - with another private school in Knoxville. I said "longstanding," so you know that would eliminate CAK and Grace Christian from the conversation. So who does that leave? I will say that one of the two was Knoxville Catholic, and that neither Catholic's administration nor its coaches initiated the conversation.

• And on the subject of Baylor, here's a novel thought that might gain popularity now that nonregion games won't count against a team's playoff aspirations. I hear that Notre Dame and Baylor are close to signing a contract if they haven't already. Notre Dame was going out of its way to find higher-classification opponents to better prepare the Irish for possible playoff runs. It's something Boyd-Buchanan often did when Fant was an assistant to coaching veteran Robert Akins.

Best I can tell, the last renewal of the once storied Baylor-Notre Dame series was in 1986, a 21-0 Baylor win. I must mention, though, that the Irish won the previous year, 9-3 in two overtimes.

* Parting thoughts:

• There have been two head coaching changes this season so far, at Ridgeland (Mark Mariakis) and Sequatchie County (Ken Colquette). Both resigned.

That isn't the end, and there are more questions than answers right now.

Does Ridgeland hire from within or do the Panthers go out and hire somebody like Signal Mountain's Bill Price? Price has his 30 years in and might be willing to make the drive from Signal every day in order to "double dip."

• Does Sequatchie County's superintendent and/or school board make the next hire? I heard the other day that a guy with at least graduate-assistant ties to UT was a leader but that another coach with college coordinator in his resume had at least made inquiries.

• Is Ryan Mallory out after just a year at Central? He denied it Saturday while admitting that he also had heard the rumors. I'm certain he's having second thoughts about the commitment he made last spring, and it has nothing to do with the athletes who are or aren't there.

That, I'm told, is just the tip of what's to come on the coaching carousel.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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