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I reached out to IFCA to get clarification 100% IHSAA approved the quarter rule to 6 quarters per week, with or without having the Mercy Rule invoked in a game HUGE for small schools still running 3 teams like Rensselaer

This is long overdue, and totally consistent with the philosophy of “risk minimization “ that permeates the rules making process these days. Most of these games that I have seen are the result of physical mismatches, whether the result of a team having low numbers, lots of injuries, or a big school vs. small school matchup. This makes injuries more likely. Take the decision out of the coaches’ hands, so he doesn’t have to justify the decision to throw in the towel to his players, the fans or parents.

At least this method provides very simple, logical explanations using Math, Science, and Geography for why some teams have to be placed in one place or another. Conference affiliation, traditional rivalries, and who is friends with who should not be factors. There does not need to be a committee that assigns sectionals. We are waiting to see what the people are going to do about an issue that can be determined without human bias and illogical reasoning. Place the grid over the state and assign sectionals accordingly. Simple geography makes this a moot point. If you look at the map that I posted earlier of the projected verses actual sectionals, you can see the flaws. Math is the other thing on the side of my approach. In the actual sectional assignments released for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the average mileage and travel times (for the two schools in each group that are the farthest apart) are 102 miles and 1 hour 51 minutes respectively. This is compared to the projected sectional alignment where the distance and time between the two schools with the greatest distance between them being, 96 miles and 1 hour 45 minutes respectively. The number of schools vs. the number of classes creates a problem for the IHSAA that I do not envy. However, this discussion would not be at all necessary if they simply geographically places schools in their sectional. my biggest issue looking at these maps is the size of the boxes on the Actual side as apposed the the projected side. Six miles and six minutes worth of travel time seems silly to argue, however in the 2019 case there are far more schools with potentially longer than necessary trips in the sectional than 3A has seen in the past.

Here is the by-law change for quarters: Interschool football participation by a player shall be limited to a maximum of: a. Thirty‐ Six (36) Varsity season quarters, limited to Four (4) Varsity quarters per week; or b. Fifty Four (54) total season quarters limited to six (6) quarters during a week with no more than Two (2) Varsity quarters included. No player can participate in more than Four (4) sub‐Varsity quarters per week. It shall not count as a Varsity quarter if a player participates only in a kicking down. A kicking down is defined as a kickoff, kick‐off return, punt, punt return, field goal and kicked extra point.

Not sure how you some of you think this is a dumb rule? It's a fantastic rule. The best part is the whole 6 quarter thing so teams can allow JV players to go in in the 3rd q. Great rule!!

My perspective as a coach where numbers can be an issue is this is based on quarters more than lack of compete from one team or another. We have been in games where some of our JV guys get half a game in, leaving them with just two quarters for the JV game. If the clock is running, then it could, in some cases, save the quarters for those kids. I have coached JV many times over the years, and keeping track of quarters can become a pain; especially if a key player has to sit the 4th quarter.

When confronted by logic what will Muda do?? A. Make a personal attack. You're the the smartest guy in the room.....blah blah blah B. Move the goal posts to some unrelated topic C. Both A and B

The real reason for this is so coaches don’t have to agree to essentially quit on their team. Some coaches will refuse to allow it because they don’t want to give up on their guys. There are arguments that big schools dont want this because they have seniors who don’t see the field much so they want as much time as possible...but I’m a person who believes if your team is capable of getting to that big of a lead vs other big schools, you are also capable or rotating those guys in when the clock isn’t running.

I know the travel issue is a complaint, but it will be neat to see some new matchups with the new sectionals.

It could be implied that Sectional 28 in 3A is already an unofficial “tweak” to the Success Factor.

I think they should have done this before instituting a mandatory mercy rule.

Yeah, because as ISIS recently demonstrated, simply having automatic rifles immediately makes you a dire threat to overcome the U.S. military....

And Hamilton Heights was State Runner-up when they were NOT in that Sectional. I'm sure you remember who they played out of the South Semi-State. Ah, the good old days!

Interesting factoid about Sectional 28. Since 2009, teams currently in Sectional 28 have won: 6 State Championships 10 Semi-State Championships 14 Regional Championships 3 of the 6 Parochial 3A teams in the State are in Sectional 28. 3 of the 4 Indy Metro Parochial 3A teams are in the Sectional (only Ritter is not) Note: Chatard was in 4A two of those years (2013 and 2014). Guerin won 2 of those Regionals in 2A

Gibson Southern was behind Charlestown 49-21 at halftime in the 2012 sectional and came back to win 57-49, Not 35 points but real close.

just this week...you missed memo!

MSNBC (inadvertently i'm sure) makes the case for the 2nd amendment. “As long as the military owns the guns, the government owns the power”.

Looks like some teams in Sectional 28 will just have to recruit better.

American Interventionists Hurt the Cause of Freedom in Venezuela: https://mises.org/wire/american-interventionists-hurt-cause-freedom-venezuela Indeed, humanitarian interventions have hardly been slam dunks even in cases like the Rwandan Genocide, as Stephen Wertheim noted: Given that the current socialism-induced disaster in Venezuela hardly rises to a level even approaching the Rwandan Genocide, it's hard to see how US's record on foreign interventions in recent decades could possibly be overlooked in favor or yet another invasion. Of course, opposing US bombing of Venezuelans — which is what "humanitarian intervention" likely means — is not the same thing as supporting the Maduro regime itself. Nor is the fact that immoral opportunists like John Bolton and Michael Pompeo hate the Maduro regime reason enough to like it. The problem with Pomeo and Friends isn't that they badmouth kleptocrat politicians like Maduro. The problem is US Bolton, et al incessantly push the line that is is either moral or effective to launch yet another "humanitarian" war. Nor do these interventionists even offer a critique that is either unique or insightful. Nearly anyone who isn't a true sympathizer with socialist regimes — i.e., Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn — can see the transformation of the Venezuelan economy from a mixed economy to a largely socialist one — known as Chavismo — has been predictably terrible for the Venezuelan standard of living. By most accounts, shortages are rampant, blackouts are frequent, the entrepreneurial economy has been decimated, and homicide rates are way up. Proving the Chavistas Right And this is why its so unfortunate the US administration has essentially declared war on the current regime. By declaring war on Maduro, the US administration only helps the regime shore up its base, play the victim, and draw on nationalist tendencies to secure its position. For example, supporters of Maduro — and his predecessor Hugo Chavez — always drew a sizable amount of support from Venezuelan nationalists who opposed any US meddling in domestic affairs, and who suspected the US was seeking constantly to essentially turn Venezuela into a puppet regime. Chavez bragged repeatedly about his ability to withstand us efforts at replacing him through various CIA machinations and coup attempts. Whether these were real or imagined, both Chavez and Maduro were able to solidify their base through fears of US meddling. Now, by explicitly declaring war on the Venezuelan regime, the US regime has only confirmed what Chavez and Maduro have claimed all along. The Administration has, in a sense, legitimized Chavismo foreign policy. Moreover, the US declaration of War against the regime has served to make it easier to accuse all opponents of the regime as US stooges. It's easy to see how this works just by observing American politics. In the United States nowadays, it's quite easy to be accused of being in service to the Kremlin — as John McCain said of Rand Paul — by taking certain political positions. Specifically, anyone who supports the Trump Administration — which is said to be in the thrall of Vladimir Putin — or who pushes a relatively restrained foreign policy, opens himself to labels such as "foreign agent" or "traitor." These terms are thrown around casually as if it's simply self-evident that anyone who opposes the CIA's latest scheme, or who points out James Comey's obvious bias and incompetence, must be doing Moscow's bidding. Now, imagine if the Russian state had come out in 2016 and said it openly supported the Trump candidacy and planned to invade the United States if Trump were not elected. Clearly, this would inflame sentiments of nationalism and whip up support for those who were seen as enemies of the Kremlin. It would become easy to accuse anyone who supported "Russia's man Trump" as a traitor. Being "pro-American" might become synonymous with opposing Donald Trump. The analogy fails in some respects, of course, because no well-informed person thinks Russia can actually invade North America. In Venezuela, on the other hand, the threat of invasion by the US is very plausible and real. Thus, the stakes in real life in Venezuela are far higher than in our imagined US scenario. Faced with a very possible invasion — and aware of the US's abysmal record on spreading "freedom" in Latin America — many Venezuelans may be even more inclined to support a regime they don't like if it's perceived as a bulwark against becoming a puppet state of the United States. Moreover, US sanctions against Venezuela provide a scapegoat for the regime's failed economic policies. As the Venezuelan economy continues to stagnate, the regime can simple say "we'd be doing much better if we didn't have these US sanctions to contend with." The same phenomenon has been observed in Iran for decades. Various US administration repeatedly threaten Iran with invasion, sanctions, and destruction, yet the residents there don't rise up to welcome their new American overlords. Indeed, the constant war of words only gives the Iranian regime a convenient scapegoat. Americans are no different. Thus, by choosing sides in the Venezuelan conflict, the US has likely made the replacement of Maduro even less likely. The internal conflict has been transformed from a fight over which factions shall control the central government, and turned into a referendum on preventing US control of Venezuela. The thought of US control, of course, isn't opposed by everyone. But given the long history of Latin American nationalism — which is often reminiscent of US nationalism — it's not hard to see why many Venezuelans have failed to take the streets to demand the current regime be replaced by the CIA's preferred candidate. The United States of America is not the world's cop.

So would I, but I can't.

All of 3A should just be glad they are not in sectional 28. I’d drive 5 hours for tournament game to avoid that thing!’

4 years ago when Guerin, Brebeuf and Chatard were lumped into the same sectional (28) for the first time, I was pretty worked up about it and was convinced that the alignment was gerrymandered. Was so ticked off that I went and did research about fair ways to district sectionals. It turns out that there is a lot more research in drawing boundaries for election voting districts and it's the same issue... how do you break voters (or schools in this case) into into evenly divided geographic areas without letting politics or bias creep into the process. Not to get too nerdy, but I discovered in voting districts a lot of research supports the a method called "Splitline Districting". The method is described here: https://rangevoting.org/SplitLR.html For example, here's a comparison of the best ways to divide voting districts in Indiana (current vs splitline method). Anywho... back at the time, I spent a couple of hours figuring out the (fair) splitline method to do 3A sectional alignment... and discovered that alignment that IHSAA came up with only had two minor differences from my method. The map that I assumed was wildly UNFAIR was actually pretty fair and splitline would have put Guerin, Brebeuf and Chatard into the same sectional that the IHSAA did. I wrote an article about it at the time and got a lot of hits and comments on that. I will say though... I'm REALLLLLLLYYYYYY confused that Tri-West Hendricks is in a Southern Indiana sectional (29) and Chatard is in a Northern Sectional (28). The most basic division of a fair alignment method is the north/south line. That line should run straight EAST<->WEST through the middle of Indiana and divide 32 northern teams from 32 southern teams. Here are the GPS coordinates of Chatard HS: 39.8618038 N 86.128051 W Here are the GPS coordinates of Tri-West Hendricks HS: 39.877131 N 86.5442741 W So.... Chartard is in a northern sectional (#28) but geographically should be in the south. Tri-West Hendricks is in a southern sectional (#29) but geographically should be in the north. This would appear to be a "fail" at the most basic level and makes me question the faith that I developed in the process last time.

While I agree with some sentiments, I would honestly like someone to find a game where a team trailing by 35 points in the second half came back to win. There might be one or two, but they are far from the norm. And if your argument is that it prevents a "chance" at a comeback, I have to ask, what about the 8 - 10 chances you had in the first half to either 1) Stop your opponent or 2) Score yourself. We claim it's a 48 minute game, so what makes 1-2 extra possessions in the 4th quarter more valuable than the ones in the first half? I could be talked into a 42 point/35 point running clock for 3rd and 4th quarters. If a team trails 35-0 at half and receives the kickoff, I would like to see them get one more bona fide chance to score. And once it starts running - let it run with the exceptions given - score, timeout, injury. Team A is up 41-0 with 6 minutes to go in the game. Do you really want to see them throw in their starting defense for a goal-line stand against Team B to protect the running clock? That's just ridiculous, IMO.

I want to clarify something I said when I started this topic. When I said I'd miss an extra point on purpose, I wasn't talking about being able to run up the score in the second half. I was going with being able to play a full game (no running clock) so your backups and JV could get more snaps of playing time. I've seen games when there was a running clock in the second half. I've also seen coaches refuse to use a running clock even though they were down by 50+ and the other coach offered it to them. I guess now it isn't a decision any more, it is a rule and will happen regardless. So what does that coach that doesn't want to give up on his team say now? How does he keep them motivated to play? I have always admired the old Dugger teams. Coach Gamble's teams ALWAYS played to the whistle and to the end of the game. Even though they were down by 8 - 10 touchdowns, they'd never quit playing. That is coaching your boys.

Sure. I had a kid do something dumb last year and we were only down 18. Wish he had waited until we were down 35.

Never forget these are teenagers and teenagers do dumb things from time to time! haha

https://indianafootballdigest.com/ It was listed here. You had to be invited.

I have faith in the coaching staff to develop athletes and get them game ready, I just wish there was more kids coming out in order to build depth. It is the same story in a lot of places, many kids don't want to put in the work.

You can say that again.

A few years ago (2016-2017?), I was asked to be on a sectional realignment committee. (I declined.) Even then the IHSAA said we want you guys/girls to set these up however you deem fair. At an Principal/AD Area Meeting, Bobby Cox asked us what was more important travel distance or travel time. In my area the answer was time. But then what they wanted to do was put me (from southwestern Indiana) on a committee to realign a Northern Sectional. The logic was ADs in the south know very little about traditional rivalries and historical sectional opponents. Therefore, we were going to shake things up. Obviously, that did not happen a few years ago but the idea was planted. You can see a lot of changes in a variety of different sports and very little consistency. My old school is in a different sectional for boys basketball, boys soccer, girls soccer (boys and girls soccer are not in the same sectionals either), and volleyball. I don't understand the purpose of completely changing every sport.

I am not a fair this or fair that kind of person. My favorite quote is, "There is nothing more unequal, than the equal treatment of unequals." That being said, the 3A alignment just does not employ any type of logic that I can come up with. The IHSAA called this a Sectional tournament, not you or I, implying that geography would be the logical way to divide teams. Therefore, split the state into half and divide each half into quadrants. This works for every class. With 64 as the magic number, group eight schools at a time geographically, so that regardless of who moves up or who moves down, this is an outcome with far less anticipation. We should not be waiting and holding our breaths to see who will go where because there should only be a handful of schools that are borderline based on their location to the location of others. There ARE politics involved in the decision of where to send everyone this time around, and we should question the logic. I am all for bucking tradition for better means, and looking for new solutions to old problems, but this process should only be about looking at lines on a map and not who benefits from this scenario and that scenario. There should NEVER be a 150+ mile, 3 hour bus ride for a sectional game.

I'm not upset about the Tigers going to Fort Wayne. No disrespect to Homestead and Carroll (and Noblesville), but none of those teams are on the level of Penn. An additional benefit for Warsaw facing those teams is the fact that I don't believe any of them face an offense like Bart Ball all season long. I outlined my alternative sectional groupings in a few posts above. Please feel free to see the answer to your question there. My "argument" was more to the statement of it being a no-brainer the way 6A shaked out, when I believe my scenario had some credibility to it as well. As @US31 states above, Patayto - Patahto 😊

3A sectionals are pretty solidly drawn.

Or a...boat ride!!

The pitch count needs to be re-evaluated IHSAA had an opportunity to do the right thing in the Scecina/South Vermillion situation last year. - Scecina Ace throws over his daily allotted pitches and Scecina advances - Indiana bylaws state that this would result in a forfeiture of that game. When the infraction is discovered, they do not make Scecina forfeit and instead force the kid to be suspended for 1 game (semi-state) instead. The blame should have fallen on the coaching staff but instead it was taken out on the kid. Not fair for anyone involved. Pitch count also forced a kid out of the game early in which he was completely dominating and they end up losing. Can't remember which 4A matchup that was. One other general issue I've seen is when faced with an Umpire who is inconsistent or has a "tight" zone. Unnecessarily jacking up pitch counts as well as putting strain on weekly pitching rotations. The rule isn't completely off base, but needs some discussion.

2. Not really germane to the conversation. You are still trying to make this a good vs. evil/moral vs. immoral issue and I have never engaged in this issue at that level. 3. I have a level 2 charger at home and top off the charge every night.

It's finally happened in Indiana. The ISHAA has a new rule. From now on, if a score is at least 35 - 0 at halftime, there will be a running clock in the second half. Hmmmmm, if I'm a coach, I'm going to only score 34 even if I have to miss an extra point on purpose. LOL Dumb rule. There are still going to be 55 - 0 and 63 - 0 scores. The explanation I heard was they want kinds to still feel good about competing. Uh huh.

1. Good to know. 2. Is willingly polluting a river, lake, the atmosphere, etc. an immoral act? 3. How many EV charging stations are there in Tiny Argos? https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2018/05/15/are-electric-cars-worse-for-the-environment-000660

For Five Bucks More Than a Nissan Leaf, You Can Get a Hellephant Instead: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2019/04/for-five-bucks-more-than-a-nissan-leaf-you-can-get-a-hellephant-instead/ Probably work great in a Chevy Bolt.

I'm concerned because the lower margins won't be caused by free market competition, but due to an effective government takeover of the system. The ends don't justify the means.

https://www.hannity.com/media-room/not-a-drill-ocasio-cortez-stunned-by-her-own-garden-says-food-that-comes-from-dirt-is-magic/?fbclid=IwAR0VwZswmZgNbTGfZnADU62tRq31V4yheTcwnD2IbX9xl9DXHabfGjK3a_I Controversial Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez left millions of Americans scratching their heads this week; saying she was “shook” and stunned by her own garden and declaring “food that comes out of the dirt” is “like magic.” “Look! Oh my god, look at this! I am shook. Honestly, gardening, food that comes out of dirt, it’s like magic. The tomatoes died though… This is so exciting!” said Ocasio-Cortez in her video. SF truly thought this was a put-on, but watch the video........She seemed amazed that she was able to grow food.....IN THE DIRT......OMG!!!!

Meh, she's a city kid, not a country kid. Millions more like her out there.

iThe Democrats struck out with their superman Robert (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Mueller. The Democrats super hero Michael (I guarantee Trump will resign) Avenatti has been featured on CNN and MSNBC over 300 times in 2018 is also a big joke.

Lots of guarantees, none of them leading to anything but earlier death and the depravities of socialism.: https://spectator.org/medicare-for-all/