Baylor's Blunder

There are three elite private high schools in Chattanooga, TN - The McCallie School, Girls Preparatory School and The Baylor School. McCallie and GPS are both single-sex schools with a brother/sister school relationship. Baylor used to be an all-boys school, but today is co-educational.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I am a McCallie graduate and currently teach at GPS.

McCallie and Baylor have a heated rivalry in all areas, from academics to athletics. There is no one event that epitomizes this rivalry more than the annual football game between the two. Unfortunately for fans of the Baylor Red Raiders, the rivalry has been a one-sided one for the past nine years as McCallie has owned its rival.

Who can say why this has happened? Maybe it was the brilliant coaching of the now-departed Ralph Potter? Maybe it was the arm of B.J. Coleman? Maybe it has been a fluke of good fortune for the Blue Tornado?

Baylor has decided it is the location of the game. For the past few years, the annual football game has not been played at either McCallie or Baylor, but at Finley Stadium, the home of the Chattanooga Mocs. The reason for moving the game was to accommodate the many fans who wished to watch it but could not fit in the high school bleachers of either campus.

This year, Baylor decided to move the game back onto its campus. Baylor is the home team and has this right, but it is an impossible decision to defend. Baylor Athletic Director Thad Lepcio attempted to explain it this way:

"We've decided to change the location of the Baylor vs. McCallie rivalry from Finley to Baylor because we feel the emphasis should be on the fact that it is a high school game and we feel very strongly that the best atmosphere for high school games take place on campuses."

In a word - garbage.

First, Mr. Lepcio fails to mention that "the best atmosphere" will exclude about 8,000 people who want to see the game. Last year, 13,000 people went to Finley Stadium to see the ballgame, but Baylor can only hold 5,500. For the kids on the field, that means "the best atmosphere" is playing in front of half the crowd they did last year. How many chances does a high school kid have to play in front of 13,000 fans? Why take that away?

Who are those 8,000 people? They are Baylor students, McCallie students and GPS students. McCallie was given 2,500 tickets for students and parents of players. GPS was given zero tickets by Baylor. "The best atmosphere" excludes an entire school. It also excludes alumni from the two schools that want to support their alma mater. "The best atmosphere" excludes the entire Chattanooga community who might want to see one of the most exciting prep sporting events of the year. What, exactly, does the word "best" mean over at Baylor?

Second, the explanation is not honest. As McCallie AD Bill Cherry alluded in this article, the Baylor folk are convinced that Finley Stadium is a home-field advantage for the Blue Tornado.

Um, what?

Finley Stadium is not on McCallie's campus. It is not even that close to McCallie's campus. McCallie does not practice there. It has no locker room there. In short, it has no advantage there.

The only reason Baylor feels this way is because McCallie has won nine games in a row. There is no logic whatsoever to the idea that Finley Stadium gives McCallie the slightest advantage, which is why Baylor won't publicly say it as a reason for the move.

Finally, Baylor has become obsessed with this one game. McCallie knows it. GPS knows it. Baylor knows it. There is no better evidence for this than the 2006 Austin Clark debacle when Baylor was willing to lose its athletic director and head basketball coach because he was not willing to fire the football coach for losing to McCallie. Clark had recently been lauded by Sports Illustrated for running one of the best athletic departments in the country, yet the higher-ups at Baylor were willing to lose him in order to find an answer to Ralph Potter. This obsession is why so many students and fans won't be attending tomorrow night's game.

Even before the opening kickoff, there have been problems with Baylor's plan. Students from both Baylor and McCallie are scalping their tickets to students not lucky enough to get them. There are also rumors of over 2,000 counterfeit tickets swirling around the city. Without excusing the people who did these wrong actions, some of the blame goes back to Baylor. This is the "atmosphere" you created. Just as they are responsible for making bad and illegal decisions, you are responsible for creating the environment that inspired them.

Like many McCallie and Baylor fans, I will be watching the game on a giant screen at AT&T park, the home of the Chattanooga Lookouts. It will be fun, but not as much fun as it would have been to see the game live. I'm sure the game itself will be fun for the players and coaches, but they are being cheated out of a once-in-a-lifetime experience of competing in front of over 10,000 people. I'm sure the game will be a blast for those who do attend, even if their friends and parents are left out of the experience.

There is no way Baylor could ruin the game, but it sure did its best.