Former Coach

Four, four team pods. 1. TX, TX A&M, MO, OU, 2. LSU, MSU, OM, ARK, 3. ALA, AUB, TN, VANDY, 4. FL, GA, KEN, SC. Teams play everybody in their pod, one permanent opponent from other pods, and play one team from each pod per year rotating through the other three pods each year. This gives you a nine game schedule and you play every SEC team every 3 years. If you look it keeps rivalries in tact within the pods. Common opponent allows for cross pod rivalries. FL-GA, ALA-LSU, etc. Easy fix so obviously won't be done.

I've heard there is a board election coming up with one of the candidates running to stop consolidation. His vote would reverse it to 3-2 other way.

Agree. You don't control your schedule except for non conference games, and those are usually scheduled years out and you have no idea how could or bad a school may be. Whether by luck of the draw or some computer algorithm Texas, Tennessee, and OM had for the most part a pretty weak SEC schedule compared to GA. GA had to play AT TX, OM, and ALA. And though they are not in the conversation MSU played at GA, TX, TN, and OM, all 4 in the playoff hunt, by far the toughest schedule.

New Albany has a member on the Legislative council. The Legislative Council does not have anything to do with the reclass. They do not have an admin on the Executive Council, which does the reclass along with MHSAA Staff.

In round three the team that has hosted the fewer playoff games host first. If that number is the same then higher seed. If same seed then higher region number, so it would be 8 over 5, 7 over 6 in your example.

Legislative council and executive committee meets in Clinton 3 times a year. Once in October then again in February and April. The executive committee meets a few more times than that and can also be called to meet on eligibility or other issues that might arise.

It was discussed at the AD conference with most in attendance in favor, then put up for a vote with all the schools voting. After all the schools submitted their votes it overwhelming passed. Was then approved by executive council.

I agree but by that logic there are SEC teams that are the same way. OM hasn't played Texas, Tenn, or Bama. Texas hasn't played OM, Tenn, or Bama. In fact only UGA has or will play the top SEC teams, in Bama, Tenn, OM, plus Clemson.

Have heard rumors that Faulkner has dismissed their coach. Any news on this. They have a big game with Baldwyn this week?

I think OM should be there, but the Kentucky loss and overall strength of schedule could hamper them. If Tennessee beats UGA they are a lock barring a major upset their last 2 games. A UGA win and they will need help.

I've been told Weis hasn't called the game since half time of OU.

An issue here is that a lot of these teams don't bring many people to away games. Most 1A schools rely on gate receipts to fund there programs. I've seen games where the visiting team didn't have 20 people attend. Now I agree 4 team regions are not good but it does allow teams more opportunities to schedule games against teams that travel better. I would put 6 or 7 football playing schools in each region and then add all non football schools accordingly. That still allows for 3 to 4 non region games.

No, they can re-enter the very next play.

In most instances it's not going to easy to identify whether it is legit or not. Easy solution is that any player that time is stopped for an injury is not allowed to re-enter until the next possession.

Talked to a member of executive council this earlier this morning. He said they think they will have numbers tomorrow and will try to release classes tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning. They will meet, I think he said, on the 12th to set regions. But this all hinges on getting numbers from MDE

If passes i would think it would be at least 2 years before they are combined.

That is true and it shows how bad our defensive recruiting actually was under Leach and Arnett. At the same time our scheme and adjustments have been terrible. If you don't have lockdown corners and can't get pressure on the QB you can not paly a 3 man front defensive scheme.

Have talked to a few coaches and AD's, and no numbers have been released to schools yet. They expect to hear something next week, possibly. I think it was the first of November when they released numbers 2 years ago.

Talked to member of the executive committee and he said that they won't get the numbers from MDE until around October 10, which is Thursday.

It was better when the payments had to be under the table. Pay'em what you want and hope you don't get caught.

There is no way for them to regulate it. When the gov't and the courts got involved the NCAA was done. No way to put the genie back in the bottle.

It has gone from players opting out of bowl games now to seasons. This and the UNLV debacle are going to be the new norm. The NCAA and all those calling for the players to be paid have created a monster.

Agreed, there is no transfer portal in HS athletics. The rule says that if a move is made for athletic purposes the move must be made 60 days prior to the start of school or you sit out a year. If the parents move into a new district for work or new housing or any other legitimate reason at any time then the athlete is eligible unless he or she has practiced with their former team. You can not participate for two different team in the same sport in the same year. It seams that this young man made the move for athletic reasons.

I will be vilified for this but in my opinion State's problems began when they fired Moorehead. I get why he was fired, lack of discipline, but it had nothing to do with on the field performance. He had winning seasons both years and beat OM twice and recruited well. Yes I know everyone's gripe that he had the best defense in the country and didn't win the West or whatever. But while the offense looked very similar to Mullen's is was vastly different. While Fitz ended up having a good year he struggled with the RPO portions of the offense. He was always a great runner but struggled at times throwing the ball. Bring Moorehead in at the end of the year and give him a year to tighten up on discipline. But when you fire a coach after two winning seasons, beating your rival twice, and two bowl games who wants to go and coach there? While I liked Leach he was a desperation hire. OM had just hired Kiffin and we needed to hire a name coach for excitement and Leach was only option. And its obvious by looking at this team our recruiting under Leach and Arnett was vastly sub par. And after firing Arnett we get Lebby, and I liked the hire and still think it was a good one, because no one P5 coach wanted the job. So where does State go from here? In this day and age of college football They may never recover. I look for the SEC to go to a 9 game conference schedule, meaning you have to win at least 3 conference games to make a bowl. You now have to essentially buy you recruits as well as pay for transfer portal guys and pay to keep the good players you have from getting poached by other teams. State doesn't have that type of NIL money. Add to that the increase to 105 scholarships and now the really good 3 or 4 star guys that you might get because Alabama, Georgia and the likes didn't have room for they now sign. These last 2 losses and the 8 or 10 to come aren't the fault of Lebby, State just doesn't have the players to match even the Toledo's of FBS football.

With the NCAA allowing an additional 20 scholarships for football, how do you think it will effect OM, MSU, and USM? I think it will hurt all 3 to an extent. It will allow the "big dogs" , Alabama, Georgia, and others to take 20 additional guys that would have gone somewhere else. That guy that in the past they didn't have room for that went somewhere else now signs with them. It's gonna remind me of the Bear Bryant before days before scholarship limits when he would sign players that he knew would never play for him but by signing them they wouldn't play against him. OM is doing well right now, but Kiffin is making a living in the portal, which I think will grow even more now. Don't really know about Lebby yet as he's only had less than a year. I think the real problem will be for USM. Generally they sign guys that the SEC guys didn't have room for. Now with 280 additional players less, I think it hurts them and all the other non Power 4 teams.