No inside info, but if you are talking about why it doesn't happen in general, I don't think they could ever agree on classification rules. Private schools in places where public school is an option are generally going to be better than their enrollment numbers would suggest because borderline athletes from public school would come help fill out their teams. They should have a multiplier on their enrollment. (Although on the flipside, their true stars might go to public school for more competition, making them not as good as you'd expect). But a multiplier that would be fair for private schools with decent public schools in the area would be brutally unfair to schools in areas where everybody that can afford to sends their kids to private schools. They don't need a multiplier. And that doesn't even touch the issue of schools like MRA that recruit.
But even if you look at it individually rather than private schools in general, you'd still have a problem getting people to agree on multipliers and there's not a big incentive for anybody to reach an agreement. If a private school joins and starts dominating, the public school administrators that approved the multipler would get raked over the coals. If the private school joins and starts getting domintaed, then the pirvate school leaders will get fired. Status quo is just safer.
Huh. This is interesting. It is so foreign and is confusing and seems unnecessary, even after your very good explanation.
In my state, the privates and publics just compete. There is no multiplier even. All schools are ranked by BEDS enrollment data from the state DOE and away you go. Conferences have private and public schools together and are overall generally grouped where schools are in the same classification, though there are always 1 or 2 teams that are one class higher or lower than others in a given sport due to the yearly BEDS data.
At the state tournament level, Private schools dont dominate across all classifications in any sport that I know of and Public schools dont dominate across all classifications in any sport that I know of.
There are traditional powerhouses in every sport, boys and girls, and they are in varied classifications and some are private while others are public.
There is probably a fundamental difference though- only 1 school in the largest classification is a private school. They are really good in football and volleyball too. But all other private schools are smaller than the largest classification. I am not sure about Mississippi, but maybe the largest classification would have a lot of private schools and that is the concern?
Anyways, I know this isnt apples to apples and HS education/athletics in Mississippi will always be unique so it cant be compared, but perhaps it really isnt too unique, especially if there is a multiplier involved.
