Good job following along. This thread is about changing how HS sports in MS are separated.
My Solution to Fix Mississippi High School Sports
- Thread starter 615dawg
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Why are you entertained by a post where I tell you I don't know enrollment demographics of random schools across a state?
But you were asked why regarding changing it and your answer was why not? Basically
Being separated is only potentially hurting the one side who chooses to be separated
Bro....don't think you want to go that route.
But....to answer your question earlier in the thread.....no private school would be forced to join MHSAA. I'm sure if it ever happened, the big 6 would collectively make that decision.
And you asked why they would do this. To win something of substance, a real playoff against a bigger division - not a playoff similar to a Grand Slam travel ball tournament on any weekend in Magee.
Tennessee separates theirs just because of structure. They certainly play one another. When I was at SBEC (now Northpoint) we played some Tennessee public schools. Division games were all against other private schools. All under the same governing body but separated in different divisions.
And Tennessee has a provision where you can submit to play in a bigger classification if you want.
I cannot understand how anything is better where MAIS schools play Lewisburg, Meridian or Oxford. How are you getting there?
I can't tell if you are making fun of the idea or you are supportive.
The Division I/II split does not come until the end of the season. When the 16 playoff teams are established, the largest eight play in D1 and the smallest eight play in D2. The really big schools would always be D1, the smaller ones and the private schools would always be D2. There could be some crossover from year to year in the middle, as there is in Texas.
For example, there could be a scenario where a school like Germantown would need DeSoto Central to beat Lewisburg in order to make the D2, otherwise they would be D1 for that season. I believe in Texas, a team that made the finals the year before in D1 cannot drop to D2 the next season.
In the scenario above, I believe Hartfield gets to the final 8 out of 10 times. They may not get past Warren Central to win it, but they certainly beat Lewisburg and MRA/Oxford.
There were 23 schools playing at the highest level in the MHSAA. 16 made the playoffs.
There were 6 schools playing at the highest level in the MAIS, 6 made the playoffs.
So roughly 76 percent of teams make the playoffs. A 3-7 Southaven team made the 7A playoffs while a 5-5 Northwest Rankin team that beat one of the semifinalists sat at home.
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I don’t understand why it would be a good situation for a school with 300+ kids to have to play a school with a 1000 kids in the playoffs. That sounds terrible. Maybe I don’t understand something. The MAIS 6A is a bad situation but this doesn’t seem to help it.
Ok they can do that if they choose to but why are a bunch of never been middle aged men arguing about it on the internet?
why even have a strong opinion?
It probably makes more sense to go with a lower index like Alabama and let the MAIS schools grow into the higher classification. But an MAIS school would win volleyball, softball and probably baseball at the highest level this year. It can't be all about football.
You have to get the MAIS out of school accreditation. Its a joke and there should be some major questions asked. Some of these private schools are completely failing at educating our kids in the name of winning at sports. Unqualified administrators and teachers.
Hartfield is one of the good ones and they are SACS accredited and their average ACT is less than Northwest Rankin. What do you think is happening at these non-SACS accredited schools throughout Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee that can only exist because of the MAIS?
Another thing to ponder - SACS accreditation is not all that difficult to obtain. Every JPS school has it.
Alabama also promotes. So start teams where they should be and then promote them when a school like JA wins VB each year.
Thats another good idea. Let them compete at a lower classification, but if they win back-to-back championships, they move up in particular sports.
Because we want to? Because we have a stake in it? Because we care?
You sound like a radical democrat. "Why do you care if they are rioting and protesting, it's not about you!!!!"
Typical deflection technique.
Why do you care if we care?
They will never agree to do it but MAIS needs to merge some schools instead of opening more.
Greenwood had Pillow that pretty much served all of Leflore County so why even open Delta Streets in downtown Greenwood?
Ruleville/Drew are 8 miles for Cleveland. Why have tiny North Sunflower when they could merge with Bayou?
Greenville Christian and Washington School should merge.
Indianola and Deer Creek
Manchester and Humphries
so many more
I responded with that lazy comment because that what I thought the post deserved.
It is OK to discuss things and ask 'is this the best way, or is there a better way?' because that is how progress happens. That is how things improve.
Sitting there and crying 'why change?' is lazy and bitter. If there are good reasons to not merge, then discuss those. But just complaining that the question is being asked is pretty lame.
Do you really not understand the basic appeal of a message board? Or socializing at a bar? Or at a golf league?
F17S.
I half want to screenshot your post above and just paste it to your future posts where you argue and have strong opinions, but I doubt you would manage to connect why I was doing that so it would be a waste of time.
Clown.
I don’t care that you care.
I care that you think YOUR opinion is how it should be.
I don’t think you’ll find me telling organizations what they should do bc I want them to.
If MAIS wants to join the public school association and the public school association wants it, then great.
But no one should be telling MAIS what they need or have to do.
I’m not being a troll. I think it’s absurd that people think a privately funded organization should do anything other than what they want within reasonable law.
Has anyone here told MAIS what they should do?
...or are people just talking hypotheticals which is a normal major part of sports discussion?
Yeah, and that is different from literally sending the organization a letter and demanding they change.
It's 17ing conversation- seriously, do you have some cognitive disconnect where you don't realize you opine on how things should be?
Teams should trade for a player.
Teams should trade a player away.
A coach should be hired.
A coach should be fired.
A player needs to be be benched.
A player needs to play more.
Etc etc etc- this is how conversations on sports...and really a bunch of other stuff, works. People give their view and then you respond in any number of ways to that view. It continues and often pulls in others with more views.
It's been happening here for a couple decades now.
You realize of course that lazy and bitter is at best a lot of folks’ schtick or raison d’être at worst here…
It’s cute that you think that the MAIS (in the form of its schools) wants to be or remain privately funded.
Independent schools ask to join Mississippi court case to defend COVID relief grants for school improvements - Liberty Justice Center
JACKSON, Miss. (Aug. 12, 2022) – An association representing 125 schools and 45,000 students in Mississippi is urging a state judge to allow federal COVID-19 relief funds to reach the independent schools they were meant for. Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) argues that...
libertyjusticecenter.org
Eh. That’s the way it works sometimes.
There ain’t no perfect system. But is it good enough?
Ah… you have access to MAIS individual schools’ enrollment numbers…
This may be a wishful thinking exercise but at least it’s rooted in real data.
It’s the Circle of Life.
The Big can feast on the Small. But at least the Big Schools don’t typically play the Small Schools.
Agreed.
I’d also add possibly those folks who are in the schools in the same classification as the above four.
The above four make it a point not to play really small schools unless they’re known to be competitive (e.g., Greenville Christian 2-3 years back).
Well, lest just have a class for each school. Then nobody gets hurt and everyone wins state in everything.
For private schools that can accept kids from anywhere. It's a real problem when private schools play in the public league, and decide they will do whatever it takes to compete in sports. We had a little preview of what would happen in NE Miss.
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Any accredited private school can join MHSAA if it wants to. The Catholic schools used to play MHSAA too, until they tried to stop the Greenville and Natchez schools from taking kids literally right across the river.
Simplest and most realistic solution is go back to 6 classes. You can limit 6A to 24 teams if you want just because of the enrollment differences. But 36 in 5A, 48 in 4A-2A, and the remainder (a little over 40) in 1A. Solve 6A travel by going to 3 divisions:
Horn Lake, Southaven, Desoto Central, Hernando, Lewisville, Oxford, Tupelo, Starkville
Germantown, Madison Central, Clinton, Murrah, NW Rankin, Brandon, Pearl, Meridian
Oak Grove, Petal, Ocean Springs, St Martin, Biloxi, d'Iberville, Gulfport, Harrison Central
Horn Lake, Southaven, Desoto Central, Hernando, Lewisville, Oxford, Tupelo, Starkville
Germantown, Madison Central, Clinton, Murrah, NW Rankin, Brandon, Pearl, Meridian
Oak Grove, Petal, Ocean Springs, St Martin, Biloxi, d'Iberville, Gulfport, Harrison Central
I like that.
What do you think playoff wise?
Top four teams from each region and MAIS style powerpoints for the best runner-up to get the bye?
Or region winners and five best others determined by powerpoints?
I'd take 12 teams, top 4 from each division. Northernmost 2 central playoff teams go north, southernmost go south. 3 division champs get bye plus highest ranked runner up. That's 6A playoffs.
Other classes, top 3 from each 6-team division make playoffs. Division champs get bye & home game in 2nd round. Runners up get home game in 1st round.
Only reason is recruiting (which really only matters for Prep, JA, MRA, Hartfield, and maybe St. Stanislaus) and people being very hung up on whether public or private schools out perform.
Lot of people have a weird obsession of whether a school is public or private. Can't tell you how many people I've met that essentially brag about "supporting their public school" and sending their kid there. And it will be a place like Tupelo or Madison Central, where you get a good education for free (or at least, for taxes you're paying regardless), like it is somehow noble to do that. And I've seen people talk about how much better the environment is at their local private school when the local school is just fine and if anything it's the private school kids that can afford the "good" drugs.
So you have a lot of people that get a lot of angst about the idea of MRA or Hartfield beating up on similarly sized public schools, so they don't want private schools unless there is a multiplier that would make the huge majority of private schools completely uncompetitive, and it's not really easy to divide between the recruiters and non-recruiters because the recruiting is semi-under the table.
People will still bltch about too many people making the playoff in 6A. So I don't think it solves anything.
I think 7A (or 6A, whichever one) will just need to reach out to other states and play more big games like that before district play. There will be more travel, yes, but they also have more resources, so it is what it is. At least they will get more caloric density that way and not beat up on smaller teams. And who cares if more teams make the playoff, it'll still be an accomplishment to win 7A.
The small private schools will end up recruiting too, if they all start playing public. Best to just leave them separated from about 3A or 4A on down.
Lots of passionate opinions when it comes to education in this state. Public and private. But this past year at both the 7A MHSAA and 6A MAIS levels were complete garbage when it came to the playoffs.
But, the best team still won both.
MAIS is going to be hard to fix as long as there are only six schools playing at the highest level. MHSAA could fix a lot of issues by restructuring their playoff from a region-based to a strength-based system. Of course the DeSoto schools won't be on board with that when they have 3-7 teams making the playoffs and teams ranked No. 55 in the RPI hosting playoff games.
Region 2 and Region 3 went 7-1 against Region 1 and 4. The one win was a fluke overtime win that was horribly officiated and should result in mass firings of officials.
But, the best team still won both.
MAIS is going to be hard to fix as long as there are only six schools playing at the highest level. MHSAA could fix a lot of issues by restructuring their playoff from a region-based to a strength-based system. Of course the DeSoto schools won't be on board with that when they have 3-7 teams making the playoffs and teams ranked No. 55 in the RPI hosting playoff games.
Region 2 and Region 3 went 7-1 against Region 1 and 4. The one win was a fluke overtime win that was horribly officiated and should result in mass firings of officials.
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