Leaderboard

Because the idea is half-baked to start?

Richmond, Muncie Central, and Anderson are some pretty lengthy bus rides from Tippecanoe County. Marion and Tech aren’t terrible, but not trips that are easy to make on a weeknight. The tradition and history of the NCC will keep schools like Kokomo and Logansport from leaving. Football has never been the focus of the NCC, but the current alignment and schedule format really doesn’t benefit very many of the teams. The non-revenue sports are not very competitive either. I don’t think the 10 or 12 team conferences have worked out very well. This past season showed what schedule flexibility (mostly out of necessity rather than choice) could look like and there were several interesting matchups that wouldn’t normally happen. AD’s hate the prospect of 6 or 7 team conferences because they see it as more work to schedule non-conference games. Personally, I think 6, 7, or 8 teams in a conference is good for high school sports. I thought for a while that a conference of Kokomo, Logansport, Jeff, Harrison, McCutcheon, and West Lafayette would be a nice combination with relatively limited travel. It would also leave some openings in the schedule for Kokomo and Logan to keep the traditional rivalries with schools like Marion. The eastern schools of the NCC could combine with a few of the larger schools in east central Indiana and two from the Hoosier Heritage. That conference could include Marion, Mississinewa, Anderson, Yorktown, Delta, Muncie Central, Jay County, and Richmond. The Hoosier Heritage would then have 6 teams with Pendleton, New Castle, Mount Vernon, Greenfield, New Pal, and Shelbyville. They wanted 8 teams when they went after New Castle. Maybe they look at a school like Beech Grove to fill one of those spots. Note: absolutely none of this will ever happen.

There shouldn’t be any talk. The Evansville schools need to play each other in all sports, while schools in the hinterland need to find what’s in their best interest. This applies all over the state. Sure, it would be great to have a Premier League of football teams, but other sports also matter.

Snider played Penn in 2012 (one of the four seasons you speak of) and beat them in the regular season. Maybe that prepared them for their victories over Fishers and Merrillville en route to the state title game?

I’m extremely wary of superconferences as they would apply to all sports, not just football. Therefore, adding the Lafayette schools to the 812 menagerie probably isn’t the best idea. Why not put Marion and Richmond in the Hoosier Heritage and re-name the North Central the Mid North with Jeff, Harrison, McCutcheon, Kokomo, Logansport, and new members Frankfort and Lebanon?

Well, it just occurs to me that you may have not accounted for a variable or two in your determination of causation, rendering the conclusion a little suspect.

Also, a better way to reduce the travel times for the Lafayette schools would be to move Richmond and Marian to the Hoosier Heritage Conference. At one point, not that long ago, these points also applied to Madison.

How do you know it “didn’t benefit them one bit?”

Is there a reason McCutcheon was not included? They are a package deal with Harrison. Maybe you left them out to leave room for Southport and the parochial schools. Jeff, Harrison, McCutcheon, TH North, TH South, Bloomington North, Bloomington South, and Columbus North have quite a bit in common. If they were closer together they would be a pretty competitive league.

The rivalry started when Myron moriority was hired at south from up north. He was a star athlete at St Joseph in Rensselaer. Then coached up north at lake central, if I’m not mistaken. Maybe not. But anyway he came to Bloomington and went up against his high school coach at Martinsville. Was a big rivalry game for several years, with both programs producing multiple all state players and D1 recruits. Bloomington north never has had the coaching to create a good rivalry. They came into existence in ‘74. So martinsville was always the challenge for Bloomington High School up to that point in football and basketball. Not so much now.

On behalf of the folks here at GID, take moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and everything else in between. May you all enjoy this time of year. Cheers Coach Nowlin

Chip has been the Superintendent of the Duneland School Corp. for about a year and a half now.