1)PuckRanger wrote:Maybe Mr. Larson (and a few others) should go spend a year or two coaching a class A team up on the Iron Range. Maybe after they realize they have to be careful how many periods some guys play in the JV game so they have enough players for the varsity game they will understand what class A size really is. Even the more successful programs like Hibbing and Virginia would LOVE to have 47 kids try out...
The real issues here are a) fraud and b) redoing classes every year.
Let's assume those weren't issues:
Would there be some other number you could use, like number of kids who tried out for the sport? Or just hockey? I think classes would be very different if that were the case.
2)
The other dynamic that you have is that we are about halfway to enough teams for a 3rd class, where we have most of the 5A and 4A football schools, minus the st paul/mpls teams, plus a 30-40 A, AA and AAA teams. So:
How bout if you have a co-op the enrollment of the largest school is counted, if you're a private school that's ever been to state, you are in AA, then the smallest 64 teams are in A and the rest in AA?
Right now we do it the opposite.
Just a couple of ideas. Instead of pointing fingers at schools who clearly wouldn't mind being in AA but want to go where assigned, why not offer realistic suggestions of ways to change the rules and get what you want?
Not interested in getting into a heat discussion with you, but what you are describing is a tier system. The idea of a class system is that you are aligned based on enrollment, not talent.KrautBache wrote:Defense, I think that you have helped to illustrate why my idea (requiring A teams to only play other A teams (subject to an exception for areas where the # of teams is below a certain number)) would work. "A" teams could travel around the state to play better A teams as much as they want (just like AA teams like Moorhead, GR, and Duluth East do to play a better variety of decent AA competition then would otherwise be available in their area). If an A team still believes that it is "too good" to play the available A talent, its only option would be to opt up and be an AA team. Nobody is forcing them to lower their competition level -- it is their choice whether they are A or AA. If they are truly an A level team, they should be happy to only play other A level teams. If they are not happy being limited to A teams, that's a pretty good sign that they are in the wrong class.
I admit that private schools throw a wrench into that and something should be in the aligning about them imo. But when your only issue is two schools, making a crazy rule like that instead re-examining the classification seems quite silly.