Originally Posted by Pwyse
Originally Posted by Bamarich2
Originally Posted by Pwyse
It is that simple. It’s EXACTLY what I said it is and you reinforced it. You said the school system limits itself on what it can spend money on. That is exactly what I said it was. They are choosing not to make it a priority.

Level the playing field… that’s exactly what the goal was when preferential treatment was given to black poor people.

You need to go read the rules per the AHSAA rule book and see exactly what private schools are allowed to do that public schools are not. Read it and please tell me what rule is keeping it from being a level playing field. You know there isn’t one. A public school can spend what they want on athletics. So can a private school. If you read it you will see that there ARE rules that put private schools at a disadvantage. 2 rules to be exact. 1. The multiplier and 2. the success penalty.

It amazes me that red blooded southern Americans don’t get this. If a public school like Hoover or Saraland has success for 3, 4, 5 years in a row everyone claps and says good job. St. Paul’s does it and people think it’s unfair and have to figure out a way to hold them back. You don’t want to raise your standard to be successful but you wanna penalize someone else for doing it. Absolutely insane.

I tell you what’s gonna happen if people keep belly aching about this. The big private schools are going to leave the AHSAA and take a bunch of public schools with them and start their own association. Then the AHSAA will be left with a bunch of crappy, poor programs that no talent is going to want to play for or against. The gap will get wider. Why do you think the AHSAA hasn’t pushed it any further? They know what will happen.

Private school’s pay the same amount of money to be in the AHSAA as public schools do. So the money isn’t hardly any different. Private schools do travel in the playoffs better and that’s the only gate money that the AHSAA gets.

No sir... didn't reinforce a thing you said and you clearly have never experienced this type of situation. If a county board system puts these restrictions in place, the schools in that county can't do what a private school can do - they can't "spend what they want". When that happens, the choice of any individual school within that particular system is taken away. That's different than a private school that doesn't have a board to tie its hands. And while recruiting does take place in both public and private institutions, private institutions I'm familiar with have several players from outside their zoned area. That's different than public schools who are limited to kids in their zone. And coaches in our HS have to come from the teaching ranks... private schools I'm familiar with can hire anyone they wish. That's different. As far as the preferential treatment idea goes, I lived when Affirmative Action was being practiced and this discussion is apples and oranges to that. AA wasn't just about "leveling the field"...

As far as the monies go, there is indeed a financial reason the AHSAA don't want to lose private schools from their association. Playoff gate money belongs to the AHSAA and as you correctly observe, private schools travel better and generally spend more. IMO, that's why there's such a reluctance to do anything about it and your point about a decrease in overall talent would be a factor as well.

Looking back at mine and your conversation on this, it basically went like this:

Me: the people running the school system need to make it a priority
You: they can’t because the people running the school system won’t make it a priority
Me: yeah that’s what I’m saying…
You: no the people running the school system is the county.

So I’ll say again. The people running the school system need to make it a priority. Coaches do not have to come from your teaching ranks. The people running the school system decided that. Public schools can also let students who don’t live in their zone come to their school. There are no laws against it, public schools do it all the time. Transfer rules in the AHSAA apply to public and private schools the same. You can’t say you aren’t allowed to do stuff that private schools do when it’s the people running your school system that won’t let you do it. You are absolutely reinforcing what my point is. All the stuff you are complaining about that you can’t do… other public schools do it. So it’s not that your school isn’t allowed, it’s that your school chooses not to.

Notice you’re from Mobile. Maybe if I had experience in that part of the state I’d see things more like you. Assuming your time has been exclusively down there, maybe you’d see things more like me if you were from around my area.

At the end of the day, my point is that no individual school in our system gets to make the decisions a private school does - that’s higher up the chain for us. And that helps create the unevenness. Possibly a solution would be to have a division that isn’t based on size… but rather what’s allowed. If you want to pump a million dollars per year into the program, so be it. If you want to allow kids who live an hour away to play… go for it. If you want to hire a retired NFL player with no ties to your school as your HC, feel free. You want to pay kids… start the cash flowing. That model works in a lot of sports groups.