MICFan34

Believe Warren played them Week 9 two or three years ago. 

29 minutes ago, Staxawax said:

So which school cancelled?

Seems to be LN cancelled because Whiteland says they are actively looking for a replacement. 

3 minutes ago, temptation said:

This is a great set of games and I could honestly see all 8 going either direction.

 

I agree, other than CG vs DC, but I can see DC making it more of a game than they did last year. 

The three new games for week 2: LN vs Whiteland, Carmel vs Detroit King, and WC vs Chatard, are really such contrasting high-level matchups. 

Am I crazy for thinking Whiteland may win by 2-3 TDs on Friday? 

BD

CG

Carmel

Pike

HSE

Chatard

Jeff

Whiteland

Mid-State Week 1 Games: 

My picks: 

Whiteland 

Danville 

FC 

Greenwood 

Mooresville 

Decatur Central

Greenfield-Central

Martinsville

Looks like we need a Public School governor as well for all the elite public programs that have successful feeder programs.

Center Grove @ Warren Central

Ben Davis vs Brownsburg (@ Lucas Oil Stadium)

Carmel @ Louisville Trinity

Lawrence Central @ HSE

LN @ Avon

North Central @ Fishers

Pike @ Zionsville

Let's hear some thoughts about the unofficial HCC MIC Challenge in Week 1! 

Beech Grove @ Lutheran = I think that Beech Grove will be very improved but will still fall to the firepower of the Southside 1A power.

Covenant Christian @ Speedway = Covenant reloads with a new coach and continues their title defense through Week 1 of the '21 season. 

Cardinal Ritter @ Monrovia = Ritter will transition successfully with a new coach who understands the Catholic school dynamic. Monrovia should be improved this season. 

Scecina @ Pioneer = This could be the 1A-2A game of the week! Fascinating contest between two teams with a rich history of success. 

Triton Central @ Cascade = TC will be very young and inexperienced but Coach Abel will have these guys right in Week 1. 

How did both Cathedral and Westfield look in their respective scrimmages? Cathedral played FC and Westfield played BD. 

8 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

Thank you for actually doing this. I figured it would look something like this and looks even visually. This entire argument is a farce. Dummying down 6A does nothing to enhance either the 5A or 6A tournament. 

And amazingly enough, there's been several programs in the last 5 years with enrollments WHO WERE 5A programs or barely in 6A by enrollment who have won a sectional: Zionsville 2019 (played Ben Davis tough in regionals), Valpo (close loss to Carmel in Semistate), Cathedral (4A Enrollment) (lost to Ben Davis in Regionals and lost to Avon in OT in regionals), Ft. Wayne Snider (two close losses to Carmel in regionals). YET I bet fans of these programs were not complaining or moaning about losing to a team that had an enrollment advantage. 

Just now, Footballking16 said:

There's two freaking schools in the state that have 4000+ students. THOSE ARE THE OUTLIERS. Dummying down the system, again, because of two schools, for the benefit of 8 is stupid (and wrong). An overwhelming majority of 8 teams listed don't ever play Carmel or Ben Davis in the tournament because they can't get out of sectionals against like-sized publics. It's a neanderthal argument. 

Here are the sectional alignments from last year with how each of the schools rank in the state in enrollment. I did not see Elkhart's so I added their consolidated enrollments and they came in about 10th-ish. 

Sectional 1: Crown Point (12), Laf Jeff (27), Merrillville (25), Lake Central (6), Winner: Merrillville (25)

Sectional 2: Chesterton (28), Elkhart (10th-ish) , Penn (6), Portage (19), Winner: Elkhart (10)

Sectional 3: Snider (39), Homestead (20) Carroll (21), Warsaw (26th) Winner: Homestead (20)

Sectional 4: Fishers (5th), HSE (9th), Noblesville (11th), Westfield (22), Winner: Westfield (22)

Sectional 5: Avon (10), Brownsburg (13), Carmel (1), Pike (8), Winner: Carmel (1)

Sectional 6: Ben Davis (2), Perry Meridian (18), Southport (24), Tech (15), Winner: Ben Davis (2)

Sectional 7: Lawrence Central (23), Lawrence North (16), North Central (4), Warren Central (3), Winner: Warren Central (3)

Sectional 8: Franklin Central (14), Columbus East (62), Columbus North (28), Center Grove (17), Winner: Center Grove (17)

After looking at this, there's only a FEW teams that have a legit gripe about enrollment in their sectional:

1. Chesterton (They lost to a 1A school and 4A school by enrollment-albeit two quality programs) They would not win in a class below them. 

2. Westfield (They made it to the 6A State championship, beating #11, #5, #20, #25 (enrollments) in the tournament)

3. Perry (They won 1 game in a 4A-5A conference, they would not win a class below them)

4. Southport (They have won 2 sectionals in the past 10 years, losing to CG in Regionals each time. They have a respectable record over the last 10 years but would probably lose to Decatur, Plainfield, Cathedral, New Pal in sectionals each year.)

5. Tech (Socio-economic factors will make them an afterthought and would not win anything in a class below them)

6. Success Factor Teams (C-East & Snider)

The whole point of introducing a new 6A in 2013 was to give the lowest 32 teams of the old 5A a playing field of their own, yet that isn't what happened at all. 

ALL 5A State Champions and Runners-Up since the New 5A (starting in 2013) 

2013 & 2014: Cathedral (4A Enrollment) vs Westfield and LaPorte

2015: Fort Wayne Snider (Historically great program) vs New Pal (4A Enrollment) 

2016: Westfield (2nd largest school in 5A at the time) vs Columbus East

2017: Columbus East (Historically great program AND one of the lowest enrollments in 5A at the time) vs Kokomo

2018 & 2019: New Pal (4A Enrollment) vs Decatur Central and Valpo (Who made it to semistate in 6A and should have beat Carmel several years ago) 

2020: Cathedral (4A Enrollment) vs Zionsville (6A school playing in 5A who WON a sectional in 6A in 2019)

Of the 16 state finalists since the new 5A, I see ONLY three teams that legitimately benefitted from this new classification (LaPorte, Kokomo, Decatur Central). Magically bumping down the "Forgotten 8" won't make them become elite programs in 5A. The ELITE programs of 4A and 5A will keep dominating and winning 5A state titles. Don't water down the competition because your team doesn't have the necessary support to field championship-winning football teams, like Cathedral/New Pal/Westfield/East/Snider or able to compete with the big boys and win trophies in 6A (Valpo, Zionsville). 

COVID concerns with Martinsville's team. The Arties cancelled their scrimmage for tomorrow as well. 

GCA is in a pretty good location to attract student-athletes, if they so choose to create a football program. Also, there's no Private Schools w/a football program in Johnson County (Roncalli is the closest) so maybe their enrollment could gradually improve? 

Instead of IMG, let's just do a regional challenge against neighboring schools where teams can play a neutral site on a Friday & Saturday. It could bring an even bigger excitement to the first two weeks of the high school football season, with these high-level matchups.

No idea about if these matchups are truly feasible, I just got some rankings off of MaxPreps. 

NW Indiana schools vs Illinois schools (Lincoln-Way East vs Merrillville, Crown Point vs East St. Louis, Andrean vs Mt. Carmel Chicago, Warren Township vs Crown Point, etc. 

Indianapolis schools vs Ohio Schools (BD vs St. X, Warren vs Elder, Cathedral vs Pickerington Central, Chatard vs St. Edwards, CG vs Mentor, etc)

Michiana and FW schools vs Michigan Schools (Penn vs River Rouge, Marian vs Catholic Central, Warsaw vs Muskegon, Homestead vs Davison, Snider vs Belleville, etc) 

Southern Indiana schools vs Kentucky schools, which I know a lot of teams already do, so they can continue to do what they've been doing for a while. 

11 minutes ago, temptation said:

The rich get richer.

Absolutely. Not sure on the newly transferred DL having any tangible FBS offers but does have loads of interest from FCS and lower schools. 

On 4/17/2021 at 7:11 AM, temptation said:

Did I see CG picked up a DL from a fellow suburban school?

He have any offers?

And a DB with 9 offers, from the same suburban school. 

4 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

What is the difference between Pike and Warren Central. And don't you dare tell me 200 students. 

Could it be something intangible, like tradition? Except for a few years under Moyers, Pike has very little to no tradition, while WC is arguably one of the most tradition-rich programs in the Midwest. 

13 minutes ago, Indiana Fan said:

Avon would fall under the Worst category for me. Saw a game there a few years back. Small stands and old pressbox. Especially for a school of that size in a conference with some really good facilities (Westfield, Brownsburg, Franklin Central, Zionsville etc.)

Agreed! Brownsburg not having a track, new stadium, and full crowds w/a good student section make it a great atmosphere and facility. 

It amazes me how Avon's stadium hasn't been updated whatsoever, especially with the good amount of success they've had these last 15-20 years. 

Best: CG and Westfield are the crown-jewels of the new stadiums in the Indy area. Not only beautiful facilities but they have pretty elite atmospheres as well. I really like Perry Meridian's new stadium, basically built into the middle of a neighborhood. 

Worst: Just from personal perspective, I think that a few of the Mid-State stadiums (Franklin, Plainfield, Martinsville) are so blah. They're essentially carbon-copies of each other and have no real personality to them. 

16 hours ago, Bobref said:

That’ll be a war.

Absolutely! I know Chatard had a 4 year contract w/LC (before their program implosion) and went 2-2 against them, so hoping for an all-out slugfest in Week 2. 

And Chatard plays Warren too? Woo buddy. 

Awesome to see Indiana having 7 kids in the top 250 nationwide! 

MIC and HCC teams play a full freshman and JV schedule. In recent years, some teams have played Freshman B-Team games during the middle of the week, playing with kids who did not play during the regular Saturday freshman game. 

Saw Brownsburg and Cathedral are playing each other Week 2. They last played each other in Week 2 of the 2018 season.