How deep is the animosity between legit and jazz sax teachers, really?

Hey folks,

this actually kept me up last night, so I hope it's an interesting topic and not just some strange projection of my own.

If you've been following the recent thread--started by Master.America--on the "mouthpiece trick," you may be wondering, like I am, just how deep the animosity between the legit and the jazz schools on key issues like intonation, tone production, etc. really is.

I have no training in either school, although I have a sense that there's a kind of historic division between jazz and classical. I do, however, have a good ear for the kind of spleen major "academic" rifts tend to produce. And, when I see (sorry fellas, no offense intended at all) John and Grumps go at it over this issue, I'm pretty sure I recognize something from my own field.

So how deep is it? What are the key issues? Who are the names to conjure with? What are the fighting words? It would seem that "proper" tone production technique is a key battlefield, but what does it mean to experts and other people "in the know" when, for example, somebody says Dave Liebman, or Santy Runyon, or, indeed, when an innocent naif mentions Rascher?

Rory

ps. If I'm way off base, feel free to kick my **s: I'm used to it