Agree, with playoff seeding based only on district results every single non-district game is basically meaningless. No benefit in scheduling easy wins. Ocean Springs lost almost all non-district games, including to NWR, (starting 0-4 or 1-3 I think) but still swept district and ended up w 1 seed. I don’t know if Louisiana still does it, but they used to seed a 32 team bracket NCAA tourney style. All wins and losses mattered more there for seeding.
For all the grief I give the MHSAA and MAIS
- Thread starter 615dawg
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It's because of enrollment. Many of the 7As would just pummel some of the smaller 6As. The population is swelling around a certain few areas creating this parabolic swing.
I agree the divisions are weird but I'm not seeing any other option besides crossing state lines or something.
Another reason why the MAIS schools likely won't dominate if they play public......the enrollment difference and schedule grind would get them.
Go to regions instead of smaller divisions. Of course that would cut back on the money for the MHSAA office.
As a West Jones alum, I never saw it as anything but a big-time series between 2 pretty good football teams. But to your point, there is a private school in Laurel, but they don't play football. Kids go there for academic or religious reasons, not sports. It might be different if it was like Madison Central, where you've got 3 private schools wanting to recruit your players (not that Madison hasn't recruited its own share players too).
You are just looking at football, and you don't know the particulars even there. I think they are still on probation. It only took 20 years to get them there., when they finally pulled some shenanigans with Tupelo baseball. There is no multiplier that I'm aware of.
Obviously cheating must be stamped out. Any league is only as good as its integrity and ability to keep the playing field level.
If there isn't a multiplier, that should be changed. Many states successfully do this, including Alabama.
LOL. Plans change.
Schools go back and forth between 8-man and 11-man all the time in MAIS.
I expect Chaos.
My old school Heidelberg Academy could attract the occasional Jones County-based student - football player (maybe most notably former MSU OL Stan Sims).
It was only a matter of time that it would close when LCS opened.
The Jackson area public schools will not play the Jackson area private schools because of the recruiting aspect. Madison, for example, will not play MRA in anything starting in middle school.
Jackson Academy recruits the top talent out of Madison and Germantown to their volleyball program, then forces out kids that have been at JA since kindergarten to go to Prep. Its mind boggling how that is good for JA.
I suppose that there is a segment of the populations at the Big Four that are happy with just being the Big Four. It doesn't seem healthy, but is it all that bad? The MAIS model (serving as an athletic body as well as an accrediting body) is antiquated and will be the change agent. You have the same group of bozos making football playoff districts that are accrediting schools and licensing teachers. The schools that can't meet SACS/SAIS accreditation need the MAIS to be allowed to grant diplomas.
Jackson Academy recruits the top talent out of Madison and Germantown to their volleyball program, then forces out kids that have been at JA since kindergarten to go to Prep. Its mind boggling how that is good for JA.
I suppose that there is a segment of the populations at the Big Four that are happy with just being the Big Four. It doesn't seem healthy, but is it all that bad? The MAIS model (serving as an athletic body as well as an accrediting body) is antiquated and will be the change agent. You have the same group of bozos making football playoff districts that are accrediting schools and licensing teachers. The schools that can't meet SACS/SAIS accreditation need the MAIS to be allowed to grant diplomas.
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Yep, that's the culture issue I was talking about. It's deeper than just a little sports rivalry.
Oh yeah, they love that insulation. You talked about the blowouts that would happen if the regional MAIS deal went through? They don't care, they'd love that. You're talking about a group of people (Hartfield, in this specific example) that would rig friggin' Upward basketball leagues in elementary school to keep all their kids together, who practiced together at Hartfield's gym any time they wanted, for the purpose of winning vs. all the other teams who had been made up by blind drafts. I watched that go on for years.
Ahh, accreditation - the biggest racket this side of the western hemisphere. But I recognize it's a perceived reality, have to deal with it.
If any of the Big 4 are gonna pull out of this thing, it'll be Prep. They need to be leaders on this thing.
Great insight.
I don’t anticipate it will be fixed because no one on either side wants it fixed.
That's the reason the river Catholic schools (Cathedral, St. Al, Greenville St. Joe) left MHSAA. They started winning and some northern public schools in 1A started complaining. A decent % of the enrollment lived across the state line and MHSAA started enforcing the rule of no out of state kids. A lot of the schools had long time students that had been attending since elementary school. I want to say of Catherdral's 180 kids in 9th-12th, 80 of them were from Louisiana at that time. The 3 schools had to quickly move to MAIS. They made the decision in the summer to move and added to MAIS schedules that same summer for the upcoming school year.
That's what I meant there is nothing to gain. I was specifically mentioning the public schools in the metro. Although I would be curious to see it.
The big 4 including prep want no part of it. They dont want to leave a league where they have all the power to join in MHSAA where they'll have to follow all the rules and have zero influces over anything.
Prep and the big 4 would be OK initally in the public school athletic space, but once the championship and such get a few layers of dirt on them, they'll be viewed moving forward for younger generations would be a lot different and would be costly for them.
It benefits Prep zero to move out of the bubble they are in
Prep and the big 4 would be OK initally in the public school athletic space, but once the championship and such get a few layers of dirt on them, they'll be viewed moving forward for younger generations would be a lot different and would be costly for them.
It benefits Prep zero to move out of the bubble they are in
You're not wrong. I'm just curious why this phenomena is so pronounced in Jackson, rather than other places. It's like the petty stuff goes by the wayside once you get in an area that has more going on.
st joe will never be able to win in football whether its mais or mhsaa. the other sports matter to them though so they might go back just so they can win 13 soccer championships in a row(or whatever the number was)Texas let a 1-9 team in the playoff and got this result:
In MHSAA 7A, the Region 2 teams swept the Region 1 teams and Ocean Springs pulled out a 24-17 win over Northwest Rankin to avoid Region 3 sweeping Region 4. Its ridiculous what we are dealing with. Regions 1 and 4 are atrocious.
MAIS 6A - All six teams made the playoffs. Final Four was again Prep, MRA, Hartfield and JA. Prep and Hartfield play for the state title.
Realignment is happening next year in both MHSAA and MAIS. Looks like MHSAA 7A will be 25 teams instead of 24, with Harrison Central making the move up. Region 4 will have seven teams.
PCS has announced they are going to MHSAA, so it will be interesting what MAIS does with its largest classification. 5 teams, all in Jackson Metro? Do they drop the charade that St. Joe can keep up with the other four in anything? (St. Joe was outscored 326-40 this year against other 6A schools) Does St. Joe go back to the MHSAA?
Yes it is. I officiated several of their football games, all played at Louisiana College (nice stadiumn, by the way, with artificial turf). We are assigned out of McComb. There and Central Private were the two longest trips for us.
I don’t think anyone loves blowouts. Especially having to travel a significant distance. Yall are over blowing that. Most private school families recognize it’s a waste of time. That’s why most do their best to schedule well. It’s just hard to do bc few schools take them up on it. And as noted the metro MHSAAs have blackballed them in every sport.
As they should.
I've heard from people that would know, that Prep will only play in certain sports on certain conditions.. and when those conditions are favorable to them.
For example: i was told in baseball they were offered to play a single game on Friday and a double header on Saturday as a 3 game series. Prep was not interested in it.
Prep is only willing to take a shot at the bigger schools when it is set up for them to be successful. Which is why there is no way they are going to give up that control.
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