Muda69

Probably. But apples/oranges.

No. Are you? But I have several friends and acquaintances who are members of the "Rossville community". And I can tell you from discussions with them over the years regarding Hornet athletics that tackle football, at any level, has the proverbial "snowballs chance in hell " of ever becoming reality.

I think I'm changing my pick to Tippecanoe Valley. The small town of Akron is in that school district, and Akron has Jonesy's Junction, home of the best BPT in the state (at least until the end of August when it is set to close. 😞 )

No, not when a co-op arrangement with Clinton Central to the East or heck, Faith Christian to the West, makes the superior 11-man man game another best option.

Ahh, thank you. My mistake.

Why? What inherent advantages would two schools co-opting have to justify such an enrollment multiplier? Well, we will just have to agree to disagree.

I watched professional wrestling as a child, but quickly lost interest in it. No, I am not a gimmick. Somebody here needs to challenge the status quo/groupthink that tends to permeate forums such as these, or it quickly becomes stale and dies. If that makes me a contrarian then so be it. The late Tim Adams, founder of the GID, recognized this and championed it.

Good for them, I guess:

May 4, 2026 IHSAA Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: https://www.ihsaa.org/sites/default/files/documents/05.04.2026 Board of Directors.pdf Getting closer to passage. Only a matter of time.

Yes, after watching numerous 8-man games I no longer have the desire to do so. I'm generally ok with that.

I understand that you don't like anybody other than tackle football coaching professionals with a sufficient amount of knowledge opining THEIR views on the GID. That's ok, just stick to your navel-gazing IFCA cohorts and let others put forward alternate workable solutions in the face of declining enrollments and waning tackle football interests in primarily rural areas of our state. Oh, that view hasn't changed. Tackle football is still a dangerous activity that should be played by adults, not children. Statistics back this up. But I'm also a pragmatist who realizes most parents don't have an issue with putting their children in such a harm's way. Are there peer-reviewed studies out their showing that 8-man tackle football is objectively safer than 11-man tackle football?

Thank you for the information. I do hope co-ops get traction in Indiana, as they have in Illinois. Finding ways for youth to play 11-man tackle football instead of 8-man tackle football should be the goal of the IHSAA and IFCA. I have watched a number of high school 8-man tackle football games via youtube, and it is pretty much Arena Football played outside. Blech.

In Indiana, yup. If you love 8-man football so much why don't you start coaching it, maybe move to Oklahoma. Or is 8-man Rensselaer's "long term strategy" as it's enrollment continues to decline: https://ballotpedia.org/Rensselaer_Central_School_Corporation,_Indiana#Students Hmm, interesting. How were these arrangements structured between the school corporations?

If any of these southern "basketball schools" are like Rossville in my neck of the woods, trying to get any sort of tackle football program to the JV/Varsity level is a lost cause. The communities are too entrenched with basketball and in the case of Rossville, also baseball, to ever support such a program. Now you may be able to get away with a co-op arrangement, as long as not too many of the "basketball/baseball" kids want to play. Can't have them getting hurt on the gridiron when they really should be practicing that jump shot.

But how long until 8-man football reaches a "critical mass" in Indiana, if it ever does? Is 8-man football recognized as an "official sport" by the MHSAA? Do they hold a state championship tournament?

Not a sports figure but an American Icon nonetheless: https://variety.com/2026/music/news/dolly-parton-dead-dies-country-music-1236842727/

Rome wasn't built in a day. If you are going to have high school tackle football you might as well do what you need to do to have the superior product. And that is 11-man tackle football. And if all may be a moot point anyway in the next 20 years or so with U.S. and Worldwide populations on the decline..................

https://reason.com/2026/08/24/forget-the-population-bomb-the-new-fear-is-a-population-implosion/ Assuming a 2.5 percent annual growth rate U.S. GDP in 2100 would rise to more than $200 trillion which divvied up among 350 million Americans would yield nearly $600,000 per capita GDP. With that amount of income, most Americans should be able to afford the luxury of a whole staff of robots to do chores and take care of any number of children. Finally, recall Ehrlich's prediction: "The birth rate must be brought into balance with the death rate or mankind will breed itself into oblivion." If the trends identified by Fernández-Villaverde and Norrick are sustained, Ehrlich might have been right after all, but for the opposite reason: Oblivion would be achieved through the failure to breed. Hmm. It sounds like the world portrayed in the excellent movie Children of Men may truly come to pass...........

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49721908/sources-big-ten-allow-players-return-nfl Good. At least an appearance of a spine from the Big Ten.

That's also because there are almost twice as many football playing high schools in Michigan as there are in Indiana:

Yes. Because 11-man is the superior product/game. How non-PC of them. Celebrating their deafness like that. Shame! Of course they had to change the name.

That's dumb. Especially if the Colts games is sold out.

Yeah, we are. And the local Indy stations, primarily Fox 59, have this annoying habit of if the Colts have a home game being shown on the CBS affiliate they will not broadcast a regional game (like Bears vs. X) in that same time slot. Instead they will broadcast insipid tripe like reruns of Modern Family.

Look like enrollment for the Tri-Creek School Corporation peaked in 2008-09 and has slowly trended downwards from there: https://ballotpedia.org/Tri-Creek_School_Corporation,_Indiana#Students How can a government school corporation continue to provide the same level of services with almost 500 less students? Taxpayers shouldn't be on the hook to fund essentially empty school bus seats and empty classroom desks.

https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/nfl-sunday-ticket-no-longer-worth-price-bobby-burack Yep, I've been debating on whether or not to re-up Sunday Ticket for the 2026 season. And with these games moving to Netflix (which I currently don't subscribe to) the equation for me also comes out to it's not worth the price. Now if I could purchase a streaming package (for my TV, not a phone, laptop, or tablet) of just every Bears and Colts game, at a reasonable price, that is something I would entertain.