High School sports gets a new yet familiar look beginning in 2009. According to many sources, however, the action taken by TSSAA is confusing at best.

In essence the 5-football classifications will be reduced to three beginning with the 2009 season. The new district alignments are supposed to reduce travel time and cost. Yet, in reducing from five classifications to three, the number of Division I state champions will increase from five to six. Each of the three divisions, A, AA and AAA will be split into two when the playoffs begin.

Polk County High School’s new district, for example tentatively has McMinn Central, Meigs, Sweetwater, Sequoyah and Tellico Plains pending enrollment figures from this upcoming fall. The top two finishers in the district would automatically qualify for the playoffs. Sequoyah, however, would probably go to the larger half of the AA playoff brackets while Polk would stay in the smaller half.

There would be little change for Copper Basin, since the Cougars must travel long distances any way. They would still have to face powerful South Pittsburg. Basin would also likely remain in the smaller half of class A come playoff time.

Private schools offering scholarships and choosing to play in the public school division would continue to have their enrollment multiplied by 1.8 for classification purposes. A school like Boyd Buchanan, therefore, with a 1A enrollment would be forced to play in a higher classification.