I was thinking just the opposite on the rural versus urban thought. How many 3A schools in NKY? How many are in Louisville? How many are in Lexington? The fact of the matter is, most urban areas are playing in 4 or 5 classes. If not, then why was Highlands and Covington Catholic playing up in the last alignment?

 

How many classes are represented well in Louisville? How many classes are well represented in Lexington?

 

I believe Louisville has teams in all but 5A

I believe Louisville has teams in all but 5A

That's my point. The urban areas don't seem to have teams in all six classes and that doesn't support 78's argument.

 

Do you happen to know how many teams are each class in Louisville?

Playing up? I have absolutely no problem with a team playing up. Why not?

If you let teams play up, should some teams be able to play down also. Not all big schools are good and could do better in a lower class, for example a bad 6A school may do decent in a 5A class or a bad 3A school playing a 2A sched.

 

Playing up a class is much different than playing down.

I believe Louisville has teams in all but 5A

 

I believe Jeffersontown is in 5A because they are in John Hardins district.

How about each time a team plays up in class... the KHSAA can choose to send a team down a class for competitive purposes?

 

For example...if Pburg petitions to play up in 3A they are allowed to, but East Ridge drops to 2A and the Districts shuffle to allow it from a travel standpoint.

 

Now a good team is able to play stiffer competition if that's what they want, and a bad team is able to play softer competition.

 

Just a thought.

Ram:

Not a NKY guy but I will get to them in a min, but Louisville has (Metro area-surrounding counties) every single classification. This has more to do with consolidation than anything else. Take Ohio for instance...not many county schools, but a ton of townships within a county playing ball-Indiana and TN are the same way...less travel. In Rural areas of KY you may have to travel 30 miles 1 way to play to play anyone...regardless of class. In Urban areas it could be as little as 3 miles. I look at NKY as greater Cincy...outside of a pocket it's pretty rural (Boone and Kenton would be the pocket). You go from Grant-Walton-Trimble-Carroll-Pendleton-Bracken-Gallatin...etc you are looking at more rural county schools...Kenton and Boone are your holding your major populations. Wouldn't consider NKY metro (in terms of KY metro-they are Cincy metro) being that so many schools are county-not city. Lex has several in classification-though they mainly choose to keep larger schools, but Lex Cath, LCA...then branching down in the metro areas you have nearly all the classes...less travel. There are always exceptions...Highlands played up (I assume) due to the district they were going to be placed in was a lot of travel (those teams didn't travel well), and the class wouldn't have offered much of a challenge. In the 6 class system you have teams that needed to play up due to geography...but letting anybody do so would create a major snowball affect in my opinion and cause a major headache for all involved.

Ram:

Not a NKY guy but I will get to them in a min, but Louisville has………..

What I'm saying is, "the urban areas do not have all six classes represented. For example: NKY does not have any 3A teams, the entire area. So, NKY is playing in five classes. Lexington doesn't have any 1A teams. Lexington is playing in five classes. I'm not sure about Louisville, they may have schools to represent all six classes.

 

I was only commenting on that because of the statement you made about the six classes working better in the urban area then the rural area. The urban areas don't seem to be affected by it, because they are only playing in five classes. So, that would make it seem as if the six class system was designed to benefit the rural area. If that is the case, it was an epic failure because the six class system seem to cause more problems for the rural area.

What I'm saying is, "the urban areas do not have all six classes represented. For example: NKY does not have any 3A teams, the entire area. So, NKY is playing in five classes. Lexington doesn't have any 1A teams. Lexington is playing in five classes. I'm not sure about Louisville, they may have schools to represent all six classes.

 

I was only commenting on that because of the statement you made about the six classes working better in the urban area then the rural area. The urban areas don't seem to be affected by it, because they are only playing in five classes. So, that would make it seem as if the six class system was designed to benefit the rural area. If that is the case, it was an epic failure because the six class system seem to cause more problems for the rural area.

 

I got what you were saying, wasn't trying to be crass. My point was much like NKY, I would slot it more as Rural because they are not associated with a KY city and are surrounded by rural environments. Lex doesn't have that issue because the populations around Lex benefit. Paris is 1A, LCA is 1A, Frankfort is 1A etc....while they don't have all six classes their border counties fill those slots and have border counties (or pretty close to it) that have same sized schools. Louisville and surrounding counties fill up all the classes so travel is low. There are always examples that can be made for or against, but 4 classes had those same problems and allowing movement up in class has been allowed in both classes for geographic reasons...not quite apples to apples but close. What you notice though is that regardless of 4 or 6 classes, there were always teams that bumped because of geography...not sure we can eliminate that with particular land features that make living in parts of our state much more difficult that in some others.

I got what you were saying, wasn't trying to be crass. My point was much like NKY, I would slot it more as Rural because they are not associated with a KY city and are surrounded by rural environments. Lex doesn't have that issue because the populations around Lex benefit. Paris is 1A, LCA is 1A, Frankfort is 1A etc....while they don't have all six classes their border counties fill those slots and have border counties (or pretty close to it) that have same sized schools. Louisville and surrounding counties fill up all the classes so travel is low. There are always examples that can be made for or against, but 4 classes had those same problems and allowing movement up in class has been allowed in both classes for geographic reasons...not quite apples to apples but close. What you notice though is that regardless of 4 or 6 classes, there were always teams that bumped because of geography...not sure we can eliminate that with particular land features that make living in parts of our state much more difficult that in some others.

I didn't take you as crass, just having a debate.

 

LCA is not 1A, they are 2A. But, while they were 1A, they had to travel to Raceland and Nicholas County (both over 2 hours) for district games because there were no other 1A teams in Lexington. Paris was in the same district, but I remember some LCA fans complaining about going to Paris, due to the distance as well. I can't see Frankfort as part of the Lexington area, just can't.

What you notice though is that regardless of 4 or 6 classes, there were always teams that bumped because of geography...not sure we can eliminate that with particular land features that make living in parts of our state much more difficult that in some others.

If I'm not mistaken, Russell was the only school in the state to be allowed to move up this last cycle, due to the fact that LCA would have been their closest opponent in their district if they had stayed in 2A.

...I remember some LCA fans complaining about going to Paris, due to the distance as well.

 

Well that is just pitiful.

 

I can't see Frankfort as part of the Lexington area, just can't.

 

I don't think of Frankfort and Lexington being the same area, but they are in the same region in basketball, baseball, etc.

If I'm not mistaken, Russell was the only school in the state to be allowed to move up this last cycle, due to the fact that LCA would have been their closest opponent in their district if they had stayed in 2A.

 

Bath County was allowed to move up from 2A to 3A. Bath and Russell were originally slated to be in a district with Shelby Valley and Betsy Layne if I'm not mistaken.

I don't think of Frankfort and Lexington being the same area, but they are in the same region in basketball, baseball, etc.

I could see it being all close and cozy if 1A was LCA, Paris, Berea, and Frankfort, but in reality, those schools were in three different districts at the time. It may sound good, but LCA and Paris were the only ones in the same district.

I could see it being all close and cozy if 1A was LCA, Paris, Berea, and Frankfort, but in reality, those schools were in three different districts at the time. It may sound good, but LCA and Paris were the only ones in the same district.

 

Agree, that's because there are enough in all 4 directions. Highlands/NKY doesn't have that luxury because they are more rural by not near a KY metro but rather an Ohio metro. Which gets back to what I was trying to eventually get to...harder for Rural schools and that's where the bumps in class due to geography come into play regardless of class.