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TN Private School highest sport class in turmoil - how are your States structured?
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:41 pm
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:41 pm
In the TN you have sports split between public and private, with public have several size classifications and private having big, medium and small.
Over the years all of the private schools have been accused of recruiting to some level by the public schools, it appeared to be true. Over the last few years the two big private schools in Chattanooga and one in Nashville have started recruiting nationally. They have just been dominating the private big league in football since this started. With that, the two biggest private schools in Memphis and two in Nashville have announced they are leaving the league for at least the next two years and will play as independents. This will drop the division from 12 to 8 teams State wide. It's causing a big mess in the private school sports world because by rule classification is the top 12 biggest private schools so not smaller schools will replace them and get beat even worse by the 3 national recruiting schools. Then you have the issue of teams from West TN playing in East TN and vice versa for regular division games - 6-7 hour drives.
I know this has to be an issue in every state to some extent. Seems like a while ago Evangel or maybe John Curtis had something impact them for being accused of recruiting - and I know GA has some big boarding schools that do what the TN Chattanooga schools do.
How have your states resolved these issues, combining public and private - make the recruiting schools play as independents?
Over the years all of the private schools have been accused of recruiting to some level by the public schools, it appeared to be true. Over the last few years the two big private schools in Chattanooga and one in Nashville have started recruiting nationally. They have just been dominating the private big league in football since this started. With that, the two biggest private schools in Memphis and two in Nashville have announced they are leaving the league for at least the next two years and will play as independents. This will drop the division from 12 to 8 teams State wide. It's causing a big mess in the private school sports world because by rule classification is the top 12 biggest private schools so not smaller schools will replace them and get beat even worse by the 3 national recruiting schools. Then you have the issue of teams from West TN playing in East TN and vice versa for regular division games - 6-7 hour drives.
I know this has to be an issue in every state to some extent. Seems like a while ago Evangel or maybe John Curtis had something impact them for being accused of recruiting - and I know GA has some big boarding schools that do what the TN Chattanooga schools do.
How have your states resolved these issues, combining public and private - make the recruiting schools play as independents?
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:42 pm to hubreb
I guess the other TN schools are sick of either Baylor or McCallie winning every year?
Here in GA, all 3A and below private schools play in their own classification. The issue is with city school systems that are allowed to take as many out of zone students as they want. Buford (Gwinnett County, northern Atl metro) has won like 15 state titles in the past 25 years. Before that it was the farm money south GA powers like Valdosta.
Here in GA, all 3A and below private schools play in their own classification. The issue is with city school systems that are allowed to take as many out of zone students as they want. Buford (Gwinnett County, northern Atl metro) has won like 15 state titles in the past 25 years. Before that it was the farm money south GA powers like Valdosta.
This post was edited on 9/29/26 at 3:47 pm
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:45 pm to hubreb
Columbia Academy had to move up because of enrollment and they have been getting bludgeoned. This is the even higher level but will be same result.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:49 pm to GoGators1995
My kids have been out of HS for 5 years so not keeping up closely, but a buddies kids are at MUS which announced they were leaving the division with CBHS last night. Sounds like it is more Brentwood Academy in Nashville and Baylor that are the biggest culprits - but he says McCallie does the same. I think they all recruit to some extent - but those 3 are supposedly going nationwide.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 3:50 pm to hubreb
quote:
How have your states resolved these issues, combining public and private - make the recruiting schools play as independents?
I wouldn't say that GA has solved it.
The public schools are in the GHSA. The private schools have the option of several different leagues that are private schools only, but some privates choose to participate in the GHSA.
Usually, the private schools in the GHSA were in the lower classifications, but at one time, they were split off into their own "regions"; now they are back in the mix with public schools.
Here's the current region assignments:
LINK
Posted on 9/29/26 at 4:08 pm to hubreb
Saw that CBHS (my alma mater) announced last night. Can't compete when you have schools like Baylor and MBA paying room and board for top prospects nationally.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 4:50 pm to VolsOut4Harambe
quote:probably doing things that would make JT Curtis blush
Saw that CBHS (my alma mater) announced last night. Can't compete when you have schools like Baylor and MBA paying room and board for top prospects nationally.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 5:06 pm to hubreb
The biggest issue is TSSAA being an absolutely weak organization. There are kids from other states that don’t even go to class playing for Baylor who leave to go back home after the season. TSSAA should be removing those schools. Private schools who still focus on academics first shouldn’t be in this position.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 5:26 pm to hubreb
Yeah McCallie is just as guilty. Ted Turner went there and he was a generous donor. Look up some of their music videos on YT.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 5:28 pm to chalmetteowl
Buford definitely does here in GA. And the farm money south GA schools have $15 million 100 yard IPFs.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 6:11 pm to hubreb
quote:
and I know GA has some big boarding schools that do what the TN Chattanooga schools do.
GA has four boarding schools: Rabun Gap-Nacoochee, Riverside Prep, Tallulah Falls and Darlington. My kid attends Darlington (it's 15 mins from my farm). We sure as hell don't recruit football players; the team is known as the Thin Thirty (or the Dirty Thirty) because we usually have 30 or so on the roster. We are a single A (smallest classification) school in GA. As others said, the A-AAA private schools play in their own playoff bracket (we do play in region with the public schools during the regular season and power rankings determine playoff berths). And before you think the largest private schools own the playoffs, single A sized schools have won all the football and basketball titles since this went into effect. Darlington won boys basketball last year, beating a AAA school for the title. It's the big (4A and above) private schools like Marist and Blessed Trinity that really recruit, and they compete with the public schools.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 6:23 pm to VolsOut4Harambe
quote:
Saw that CBHS (my alma mater) announced last night. Can't compete when you have schools like Baylor and MBA paying room and board for top prospects nationally.
I went to MUS and yeah it’s ridiculous. I have a buddy who is an assistant coach at MUS and this is basically a play to get the TSSAA to make Baylor, McCallie and Brentwood go the IMG route. 6 total private schools have bounced thus far.
When you have high school kids from all over the country get paid and housed to come play football, you don’t need to be playing local high schools anymore. In the BA and Baylor game on ESPN, there were 50 juniors and seniors with D1 offer. How can any normal small private high school compete with that.
If TSSAA would enforce their own bylaws, this wouldn’t be an issue but here we are
Posted on 9/29/26 at 7:57 pm to hubreb
Louisiana had it right until they went to divisions in the major sports.
Posted on 9/29/26 at 9:11 pm to Old Man and a Porch
Alabama changed the rules this year for the first time. Until now, privates just competed with Public’s but they have always tinkered with rules such as making a private student count as 1.35 for classification purposes. Then they moved it to a system where if you keep winning state or going far in playoffs, you eventually got bumped up a division
But this year, privates are now separate and they grouped them into 2 groups, “big” and “small”. We will see how well it works. The problem is, some of the privates do put an emphasis on certain sports and recruit but there are others who just focus on academics and they are going to get slaughtered most weeks. But the privates were dominating certain sports, especially things like girls volleyball. Alabama doesn’t have a lot of large privates so these small county schools were the ones struggling. You could grab 2-3 stud players and do well in 1-3A ball
But this year, privates are now separate and they grouped them into 2 groups, “big” and “small”. We will see how well it works. The problem is, some of the privates do put an emphasis on certain sports and recruit but there are others who just focus on academics and they are going to get slaughtered most weeks. But the privates were dominating certain sports, especially things like girls volleyball. Alabama doesn’t have a lot of large privates so these small county schools were the ones struggling. You could grab 2-3 stud players and do well in 1-3A ball
This post was edited on 9/29/26 at 9:14 pm
Posted on 9/29/26 at 11:02 pm to EsquireReb
As it stands there’s no one in Memphis other than Braircrest in Div 2-AAA. They’ll have to drive to Nashville, Knoxville, or Chattanooga for any regular season football games.
It’s a weird dynamic. At one point I’m sure some of these schools claiming unfair circumstances have recruited or otherwise enticed athletes to enroll by some means or another (disproportionately favorable financial aid, employing a family member, etc).
Apparently national recruiting is the line to cross.
Heck, CPA in Nashville - who is a big part of this protest - had a basketball factory including a relationship with an AAU team that got them in trouble. Seems quite sanctimonious when you consider the quotes from the athletic director in the USA Today article.
No one claiming the high moral ground here is likely entirely free from sin.
It’s a weird dynamic. At one point I’m sure some of these schools claiming unfair circumstances have recruited or otherwise enticed athletes to enroll by some means or another (disproportionately favorable financial aid, employing a family member, etc).
Apparently national recruiting is the line to cross.
Heck, CPA in Nashville - who is a big part of this protest - had a basketball factory including a relationship with an AAU team that got them in trouble. Seems quite sanctimonious when you consider the quotes from the athletic director in the USA Today article.
No one claiming the high moral ground here is likely entirely free from sin.
This post was edited on 9/29/26 at 11:04 pm
Posted on 9/29/26 at 11:14 pm to Crimson
quote:
As it stands there’s no one in Memphis other than Braircrest in Div 2-AAA. They’ll have to drive to Nashville, Knoxville, or Chattanooga for any regular season football games.
Funny thing about Briarcrest. When Michael Oher and Greg Hardy were there, they were dominating the lower division and winning state titles. Then they moved up, started get dominated themselves, tried to move back down, but were told no because the school had become too big. Now they've dropped some money to build a good team this year and think it's sustainable to keep up with the wallets of Baylor and BA, good luck with that. And to top it off, they're basically trolling on twitter now re them staying and citing bible verses while doing it. can't stand those self-righteous douchebags.
quote:
Apparently national recruiting is the line to cross.
well yeah. It's high school football. Why would you be recruiting nationally? And in Baylor's case, they're recruiting internationally and not just with football. Look at their tennis team. They have playrs from Switzerland, Canada, the Bahamas, and Bengaluru It's a joke. If you want to be IMG, go be IMG
quote:
No one claiming the high moral ground here is likely entirely free from sin.
meh, as with everything, there are levels to all of this. High school sports in the state separate divisions to try to provide a fair playing field for each division. What Baylor, McCallie, and BA are doing doesn't provide for that mission statement.
Posted on 9/30/26 at 1:12 am to lsufball19
Why don’t they just go back to putting all the schools in the same divisions, public and private? When I was in high school, Baylor and McCallie were in my public school’s division and it was never an issue.
Posted on 9/30/26 at 5:25 am to hubreb
Here in MS., private schools have a few classifications. The biggest has 6 schools statewide and it is the Jackson Academy and Jackson Prep fiefdom. So a “state championship” is really not even a district championship. It’s sad. Of course they recruit from the public schools even though Da’Quantavious can’t afford 30k/yr. Ironically, these private schools were formed back in the 60’s so the grandparents didn’t have to go to school with the grandparents of De’Quantavious.
Posted on 9/30/26 at 5:42 am to Lou Loomis
McCallie’s campus was by far the nicest school facility I’ve ever seen … 25 years ago
Posted on 9/30/26 at 6:33 am to hubreb
The biggest three private schools in Mississippi have gone all in on recruiting.
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