Kentucky High School football realignment

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association is about to realign its six classes and Commissioner Tackett sent out an e-mail Friday to the schools outlining the process.

Surprised the word hasn't gotten out yet.

By the numbers:

JUMPING
5-6: Dixie Heights, Oldham County
4-5: Boyle County, Bullitt East, East Jessamine, Franklin County, Logan County, Madison Southern, Martha Layne Collins, North Bullitt, Shelby County, West Jessamine
3-4: Moore, North Oldham, Spencer County, Taylor County
2-3: Corbin, Fort Campbell, Heath, Knott County Central, Monroe County, Morgan County, Shelby Valley
1-2: Ballard Memorial, Betsy Layne, Bishop Brossart, Clinton County, Crittenden County, Gallatin County, Lexington Christian, Trimble County, Walton-Verona
I-3: South Warren

DROPPING
6-5: Apollo, Conner, Graves County, Greenwood, North Hardin
6-4: Cooper
5-4: Ashland Blazer, Clay County, Covington Catholic, Doss, Highlands, Johnson Central, Letcher County Central, Madisonville-North Hopkins, Mercer County, Owensboro, Waggener,
4-3: Bell County, Bourbon County, East Carter, Lawrence County, LaRue County, McCreary Central
3-2: Butler County, McLean County, Russell, Shawnee, Somerset, Union County
3-1: Russellville

CLASS NUMBERS
6: Dropping from 36-32
5: Dropping from 38-37
4: Growing from 38-41
3: Growing from 36-40
2: Growing from 33-40
1: Dropping from 40-32

62 schools will change classes

Big-name schools changing classes: Highlands (nationally ranked reigning 5-A champ will go to 4-A), Fort Campbell (three-time defending 2-A champ will go to 3-A), Lexington Christian (reigining 1-A champ will go to 2-A), Somerset (last year's 3-A runner-up would drop to 2-A), Bell County (2008 4-A champ dropping to 3-A).

 

Attempting to give a damn ... damn not given.

 

TooMuchCoffeeMan's teams will be involved. So will be KySportsWriter's (of course, he works with me).

Hasn't hit the state's three major preps forums yet, but when it does, there will be plenty of pissed off folks as well as a lot of unintenional humor.

Plus, with Kentucky not having pro sports, it's a preps and college-heavy state.

 

Why would anybody outside of Kentucky give a shit?

 

Kentucky doesn't need six classes.

That is all.

 

I hate classes so much. It's just a magic "here's a title to a team that would have been at the bottom if they'd had five more kids in their school" button.

 

Kentucky's four class system was pretty much perfect, though you could argue that even four was too many. It doesn't matter how you divide the classes, the two Catholic schools (Louisville St. X and Louisville Trinity) and one or two public schools (Louisville Male, usually) are going to dominate the top class. With four classes, the Lexington, NKY and Louisville public schools bitched that they couldn't ever win, so you get the watered down six class system where everyone gets a trophy.

CKK, didn't they move the state title games out of Louisville this year?

 

So the Bullitt County schools are up a notch to 5 ... with a Bullitt?

 

I suppose Eminence (the smallest football-playing school) puts on a good front.

Who?

 

Even with ten public 11-man championships awarded, Texas thinks that's pretty weak sauce.

6A — 705.5 and above
5A — 525.5-695.5
4A — 419.5-524
3A — 330.5-417.5
2A — 200.5-330
1A — 199 and below

 

What is the point of having classes with 30-40 teams in them? IN and IL have about 64 each, and that seems to be too few.

 

Politics. Before they split to six classes, something like 15 of the last 16 4A state title games had been won by three Louisville schools (St. X, Trinity and Male). The public schools were pissed that they couldn't compete with X and Trinity (even Male had begun to fall behind), so they fought to get the Catholic schools separated into their own class. When people began to point out that those schools would then be traveling hundreds of miles every weekend, and that the private schools in Lexington, Louisville, Western Ky. and Northern Ky. had virtually nothing in common, that idea fell through. So they split into these random classes where the same schools still dominate, there are just more classes so more teams get trophies.

It's like cheerleading. Every gym you go to has a cheerleading national championship flag because there are so many competitions and divisions. That's what Kentucky football is turning into.