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A lot of teams do not value conference championships, especially really good teams like Homestead girls basketball that are focused on winning state championships. Winning your conference is important if your team knows they are unlikely to win anything in the state tournament. A conference championship is a chance to accomplish something and celebrate it. Many schools with swimming and diving know their swimmers will not win a sectional event and advance to state, so winning a conference championship is their goal. Some larger schools, like Homestead and Carroll, don’t face the level of competition in their conference that they will see in the state tournament, and it does not feel like an accomplishment to beat inferior teams and win the conference. When Carroll and Homestead joined the SAC for basketball and football, it was done for scheduling purposes, primarily in football. The SAC schools were willing to take them as long as they agreed to the gate splitting because Carroll and Homestead would bring big gates to the two revenue sports. Most of the SAC schools didn’t expect to win very often against Carroll and Homestead, but playing them would increase their much needed revenue. It appears to have cost the conference Concordia, and now Homestead and Carroll are not going to play several of the schools in certain sports anyway.

Someone can fact check me on this, but if memory serves me correctly, Homestead and Carroll were admitted into the SAC only to play football and basketball. The SAC member teams felt comfortable competing with those two programs ONLY in those two sports. And even that was just considered an experiment. So none of this is surprise. Homestead and Carroll outgrew what is now called the Northeast 8. Now they've outgrown the SAC. It's really as simple as that. Unfortunately, there's nowhere for either of them to go in football. There's a lack of similar sized schools in NE Indiana. The best they could hope for would be to form a super conference for football only and pray that programs Snider, Dwenger, and Northrop will join them. There's just not much to choose from up here. Warsaw is almost an hour away. Schools with 1800+ are few and far between, as is the case with any area outside of the Indy Metro.

Coach Hurley shouldn't say he let the conference down...he has had some help. Season SIAC Champion Won Sectional? Eliminated By 2025 Evansville Memorial ❌ Gibson Southern (PAC) 2024 Evansville Memorial ❌ Heritage Hills (PAC) 2023 Evansville Reitz ❌ Heritage Hills (PAC) 2022 Evansville Reitz ❌ Boonville (PAC) 2021 Evansville Memorial ❌ Northview 2020 Evansville Memorial ✅ Mooresville (Regional)

https://reason.com/2026/07/22/american-public-schools-lost-1-4-million-students-since-covid-their-budgets-grew-by-34-percent-anyway/ Agreed. Asking taxpayers to pay more for a government education for less students and middling results (at best) is insanity.

https://outsidethehuddle.net/2026/07/21/homestead-girls-basketball-drops-four-sac-teams-from-2026-27-schedule/?fbclid=IwdGRleATNrmlwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR5xXhsCRgZjePyhpPCyMG0EQMixEP61-8APWcPxt5A9PUg5aDe07sjDw-FPdw_aem_NKaGXWtVL2EcevjewYDSUw I know this is basketball but what’s going on here? Is the SAC about to implode? We’ve seen games get dropped in football and now we’re seeing it in basketball. If you’re not going to play games against teams in your conference then that should get you kicked out of your conference.

It's easy to wash your hands. And the move to a Central Bank Digital Currency means the end of personal freedom as we know it.

Thank you for the link. From the article: The Bears should be paying ALL the infrastructure costs, either in Illinois or Indiana. It is their stadium after all. Although the "willing" in that last statement is telling. It's basically saying we'll take whatever taxpayer sugar either state is willing to throw our way for construction costs.

It’s inevitable. And incredibly sad when I think about our own experiences with a college athlete in the family. So much will be lost, in the name of a few people making a buck.

been saying it for last 2 years.... TV money only thing to save the break off of NCAA because if they cannot get TV deals as lucrative as the ones they have while in NCAA then that would be the sticking point

I agree....but I also feel it's inevitable. I would add, the reasoning used is a good one. If the NCAA is not allowed to enforce their own rules regarding gambling, then they are basically on life support.

They’re not going (can’t) to do it without the support of ESPN. ESPN writes their checks.

I figured they’d just start their own BK tournament. This will be the end of college sports as we know them. And while it will be awesome for a handful of kids at the big conferences, but the softball/golf/tennis/every other sport not called Football or MBK, they’re the losers, you remember the student athlete right?

Cash is dirty, world is moving to digital currency/transactions. It is only a matter of time.

I doubt that's the case in Indiana, but it's always been about Illinois covering infrastructure costs for roads/sewers as well as property tax certainty. The Bears have always maintained they would pay 100% of the stadium construction in Arlington Heights. Here's a link where it was mentioned in the Arlington Heights section of the article. https://www.fox32chicago.com/sports/chicago-bears-stadium-whats-next-hammond-arlington-heights-chicago

So the Bears are now paying 100% of the stadium construction, either in Indiana or Illinois? If so do you have a link to this recent information?

Meh, I stopped reading when the author claimed the Bears are trying to get Illinois to build them a stadium. If you can't get that little piece of information correct, how can I trust the rest of your claims?

One question is how hard will the SECSPN Network try to keep them from doing this? Once one conference does it, how quickly will others follow?

Let’s hope the Chicago Bears stay in Illinois: https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/07/20/lets-hope-the-chicago-bears-stay-in-illinois/ Agreed. A Chicago Bears stadium in Indiana is a losing proposition for Hoosier taxpayers.

The not having to handle cash was given as a reason by school administrators for the change. That and the insipid "a lot of other schools are doing it so we should too" .........

I consider you a loyal fan. And at some point, East will be winning again. Maybe not at the Gaddis level, but good enough to win Conference and Sectional Championships.

This is really going to cut into their revenue. As a parent I can take my three kids to the game, give them each a $10, and not expect anything back. What I can’t do is give them each a debit card and I’m not going to make multiple trips down to the concession stand during the game. For an athletic department already facing a decrease in revenue at the gate, this seems like a very surprising decision.

Reitz Preview: https://www.14news.com/2026/07/08/reitz-football-back-action-summer-practice/ North Preview: https://www.tristatehomepage.com/sports/local-sports/north-heading-in-the-right-direction/

I’ve also heard some say it eliminates the ability for the cash to be stolen. The less hands you have handling your money the less people you have to worry about breaking your trust. Despite all of that, I still prefer the old school ways. The horror stories are so few and far between.

The East fans were parents of players at the time or were fans that only hung around here when we were winning. I’m not going anywhere though. Not my style. I was here through all the winning and I’ll be here through the losing.

At Gibson Southern week #2 Tri-West vs Reitz and Gibson Southern vs St Puis(MO)