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My solution would be that you add the gendered population from the sending school to that of the receiving school to set the co-op enrollment. So for football in this hypothetical, an Elwood/Tipton co-op would have the enrollment of Tipton plus the male students of Elwood.

Attica - Giving attica this one. Should be improved from last year, and Faith was one of the worst 1A teams last year Caroll - Seeger return one of the better QBs in the conference, but graduated a large chunk of their running offense from last year. I don't see another season like last year, although the WRC is weak enough that it's possible. Covington - Smooth sailing for the Trojans week 1 PH - I don't know much about Crawfordsville, but I do know the Wolves have improved a lot this year. Favor the WRC here NC - NC has some athletes. NV not as many. Heard Hinchee is a solid QB. NV still a year or two from winning games. RP - 15-0 Southmont - As if losing a HOF coach wasn't enough, they lose the best athlete in the conference from summer basketball. Going to be a long season for the Earls.. hopefully he learned something as an assistant under two HOF coaches in the WRC, because he will need it. SV - Still young, but returned a large core. I look for them to be competitive in the WRC this year, but not quite competitive at the 2A level yet. ---Excited for another season of WRC football. Can't wait to watch the Panthers hoisting the Lombardi trophy in November!!

This wouldn't be as bad and probably not a bad idea. In all honesty, if someone is choosing to co-op they probably aren't adding more than 10-12 guys to your roster. A 2A with 35 kids gets 10 more to put them at 45 is probably reasonable for most 3A teams to have numbers wise. The problem you run into is why would the 35 man roster team want to do that? I think the co-ops are going to come from two small, probably 1A schools or small 2A's that both teams can't get enough kids for a team. My question with co-ops is what would be the rules set in place for it? Can anyone just decide they want to co-op? What if a Valley and Rochester(never going to happen we aren't exactly buddies) decides we want to co-op just to co-op? Valley is 3A, Rochester 2A, some years we would combine for 80+ kids. We have had times where we have some studs on both teams. What's stopping someone from creating a super team? I can think of some others. What if Gibson Southern and Heritage Hills combined? You're telling me with the talent they both had last year they couldn't contend for a 5 or 6A title? Will there be rules set in place for this in co-op if it ever happens?

I think the HNAC will look pretty similar to the last couple seasons. I’ll go: 1) NJSP - Most production comes back 2) Pioneer - Lost a lot of yards, tackles, and points. But there’s a reason Royal Center hasn’t seen a truly disappointing season in the Pit for 30 years. They’ll be in the race week 9. 3-6) Some combination of Caston, North Miami, Triton, Winamac (listed here in alphabetical order). Caston looks to be very tough out for the middle and bottom classes of the conference this year. North Miami looks to take a step back. But still enough pieces to be competitive this fall. Winamac size will be a load to handle for most. Triton graduated a lot but will still be formidable I’d imagine. 7) Culver. But really solid group of sophomores 8:) South Central. But a really solid group of freshmen

Ooops forgot Princeton...

I'm with Backer, there is no way that a co-op wouldn't benefit from the larger pool of players. An enrollment penalty HAS to be tacked on. Maybe you simply make it that a co-op plays up one classification from the highest of the two. So, in this hypothetical, Elwood/Tipton would move up to 3A.

No Sagarin ratings until after Week 1. I swore he used to put out preseason ratings... but I emailed John Harrell and he said that Jeff doesn't. Hmmmm... I'm getting old.

Princeton: https://www.pdclarion.com/pdclarion/sports/local_sports/earn-it-beloat-leads-tiger-football-into-new-era/article_70af0242-0fdb-5388-8ad5-1d4975f1bfe3.html

Scrimmaged Judson, well coached, tough kids. Definition of a program. Plug and chug, doesn't matter who is in for them, they produce. Scrimmaged winamac on Friday. They were physical, good size, and had some speed. Need to fine tune some things on the defensive side of the ball, but they will be better than last year. I would want to play them early because I think they will get better and better as the season goes on.

Caston should have one of the better teams they've had in a while. Still think the championship game will be played week 9 at the Pit. The rumor is that Pioneer has a good redshirt freshman QB. What will North Miami, Winamac and Triton look like this year?

So someone like a Tipton who is usually a solid program year in and year out, gets to add 7-8 Elwood players per year without any enrollment penalty that makes their team better and stay in the same classification. You don't see how that could be an issue for anyone that is not co-op in the same class? I believe you have to play 4 games in the season to stay eligible for the tournament.

Co-op's are something that needs to be looked at more. One issue would be if a co-op wins a sectional, conference, or more title then which school gets the credit for it? If co-ops were allowed, then I think it should only be between 2 schools of same classification and it must co-op in all sports. For example Tipton is 2A so they could co-op with Elwood who is also 2A. Tri-Central is 1A therefore they couldn't co-op with Tipton or Elwood. By staying in the same classification then the co-op teams stay in the classification, which would mean with a Tipton/Elwood co-op they would stay 2A. The problem with an Elwood/Tipton co-op is when it comes to conference scheduling since they are both in different conferences. On the plus side of a co-op team, both schools would split the costs of the coaching staffs. They would also split the costs of the programs. They could go to 1 AD as well. It would be interesting to see if the schools that are struggling with fielding teams are also schools that are experiencing declining enrollment? Could we see consolidation of some smaller schools? Think about Tipton, Elwood, and Tri-Central proximity to each other. Tipton and Elwood are 10 miles apart. Tipton and Tri-Central are 10 miles apart. The distance between all 3 is less than 20 miles. If 2 or all 3 consolidate, they would move up to 3A or maybe 4A. With the recent school funding cuts, it is possible that more school consolidations will take place, so this is something that can't be ruled out. In fact, there may be some counties that will go to 1 high school for the entire county like Blackford and Huntington already are.

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I'm not sure what to make of what I saw in the battle of "who can give their best RB the ball the least" at the Dog Pound on Friday. Maybe it was all just sorcery to not show their hand. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I think the Cowboy may be right though, this might be the year for the Tiger Rats to finally get a W against Mighty EC...along with a few others. But something tells me we didn't really see what the Red and Black will be bringing. One thing is for certain though...that wasn't the EC defense we're all used to seeing! Did they leave a few Trojans in the horse? Time will tell!