The ultimate decision is more than a month away but the new top football region could be a reunion of ancient rivals.

The Chattanooga Class AAA district, which will be split into 5A and 6A for the postseason, could have as many as nine teams including Bradley Central, Central, Cleveland, McMinn County, Ooltewah, Walker Valley, Soddy-Daisy, Rhea County and Red Bank.

Central and Red Bank are on the bubble and each might wind up in AA (3A and 4A for playoffs. The early student population numbers on Red Bank are 990 and Central 1,080.

Bradley, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy are definite 6A teams and McMinn County could be, according to Bradley Central athletic director, who was among those attending a TSSAA region meeting last week at McMinn County.

“We don’t know about Central and Red Bank for sure, and Rhea County might wind up in another region (closer to the mid-state),” Jackson said.

It is thought that the majority of Red Bank’s coaches in other sports would prefer to go AA but it also might be hard for Red Bank to pass up the very attractive gates that would accompany match-ups with Bradley, Cleveland, Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy.

“Nobody will know for sure until Nov. 13 when the numbers are supposed to be released by the TSSAA,” Jackson said.

He also pointed out that a number of private schools in the middle and western parts of the state are expected to join Division II, which will cause a chance in the number of teams in each Division I classification.

Several other changes are on the horizon.

— Volleyball will be going to three classifications in Division I, moving from AAA and A/AA to AAA, AA and A.

— Schools holding Hall of Fame basketball games are going to be allowed now to pay officials out of the gate, which will keep participants from taking financial losses.

“If you had a thousand-dollar gate and paid officials (up to $250), you were going to break even at best,” said Jackson.

The TSSAA gets 75 percent of the gate receipts from such games.

— School trainers that get certified will be able to give hydration tests for their wrestlers at the school rather than those wrestlers having to go to a specific site for such tests. There should no longer be a testing fee for those schools that have such certified trainers.

— If a team plays an ineligible player, any wins accumulated by that team would be vacated rather than forfeited. For example, if a team was 16-4 and had 16 wins with an ineligible player, that team would be 0-4 rather than 0-20 while the opponents’ records would not change.

Jackson also said that the state is encouraging satellite games for district and region tournaments, meaning teams would not go to a central site but would likely play at the higher-seeded team’s home court.

“It means that only one team would travel, but I think it is going to be hard for schools to let go of those central tournament sites,” Jackson said.

Comments