scarab527

- Merrillville will be too much. Might be close early but I think they’ll pull away in the second half like last year. The Pirates by 14 seems reasonable. Andrean has a legitimate shot at starting the year 0-3. - Morton gets the W. Most likely will be a defensive struggle like last year. I could see this in the 7-0, 14-7, 14-0 range. Won’t be pretty. - Hobart beats Cheesetown. The Brickies are young but I think the Trojans will be down this year. - New Prairie by 14. I think the Cougars have a legitimate shot at coming out of 4A North this year. LaPorte could be be better than expected as the season continues on though. - Crown Point by 14. For the first game of the year, Lowell lost too much production and CP returns too much for me to see this going another way. But these games are always close. - Warsaw by 7. I want to take City but I’m not sure how they’ll be this year. They lost a lot of production from last year and their best returning players have been hobbled throughout summer. With that in mind I’m giving the Tigers the edge at home. I’m interested to see how this one plays out. - LC should win handily. - Valpo has beat Penn 4 straight times. I don’t think they’ll make it 5. Give me Penn 21-10. Definitely one of the more interesting week 1 games. Are the Vikings rebuilding or reloading? We’ll find out.

Don't think think they ever have, at least in the post season I'm pretty sure. I agree, a couple of my fraternity brothers were LCC guys and we would always shoot the sh** about a potential matchup. Might actually get to see it.

Combo of both? Definitely had some very good talent his first couple years and then even more so during the recent run, but Ralph is one of the best coaches in the entire state either way. Even last year in a 'down' year they still won sectionals and played Cathedral tough in the regional. You don't win over 100 games before you lose 10 for no reason.

People need to stop saying Andrean is a lock or anything close to that. They've got a lot of talent returning but lost just about the same amount of talent to graduation. Eastbrook, Tipton, and Luers are all contenders to knock the Niners off in the North and their sectional got harder with LaVille and Bremen in it. It's going to be a much tougher road for them to be able to get there this year I believe. As for the South, I think Mater Dei will be solid but the team I think that can make a run and shock some people is Heritage Christian. They've got talent coming back along with a very good QB who got hurt at the end of last year. Sullivan is another team dropping down from 3A that I think could potentially make some noise. All in all I would say 2A is absolutely wide open and it's hard to really give any sort of prediction for who will be meeting at LOS.

I've heard Dwenger is expecting to be a little down this year. Snider I know returns quite a bit of their team from last year so they should be a threat. North is just a complete wild card I think. Hard to really predict how they'll be even though they've got some good (and some elite) talent. It's gonna come down to the DAC vs the SAC in the North. I think it'll be Snider vs Merrillville, but that matchup is not a lock at all.

I know they lose almost all of their offensive and defensive production in terms of yards, tackles, etc. Not sure what they have returning on the o-line. I think they'll take a slight step back this year just because it's hard to replace all that they lost.

Valpo?

He was a starter on defense and had a good year. Good defensive player for sure. Not sure I can judge his RB abilities because I never saw him play it. To expect him to be a DAC powerback right now I think is a little much though.

The Stephens kid played OLB and weighs 185lbs... I wouldn't call him a powerback

Give me Chatard over Tri-West in the finals. This class would be a lot more interesting if the Trojans were still in 4A...

I agree, but the rest of the conference loses a lot as well, especially the teams with the best chance of beating Merrillville (Valpo, MC). Honestly, CP might be their biggest threat to the DAC title this year. We'll see what happens. Like you said, I would doubt the Pirates will be anywhere near as dominant as they were last year.

23 points vs 29 points isn’t really anything to write home about. It’s hard for me to buy into Carroll when they lost to a 2A team. Merrillville completely ran over everyone they played last year until Westfield. The Sagarin Ratings had Merrillville about a 2 touchdown favorite on a neutral field, I think that’s a pretty accurate prediction for a hypothetical game between the two.

“17 D1 players”

Give me New Pal to win it all. East Central deserves a mention too. 4A North doesn’t matter as it’ll be another blowout at Lucas Oil.

I don’t wanna argue about this because there’s no definitive way of knowing, but having seen both teams play, I think saying that would’ve been a pick ‘em game is just not accurate. I think the Pirates were far and away the best team outside of the Indy metro area last year, which shows just how far ahead Indy is of the competition.

You should look that up yourself. I’ve provided plenty of evidence. You’ve been talking out of your behind and backtracking, you knob.

West Side is what I heard. I know a couple of their guys went over there after the old coach left for Hobart.

Read the thread again. You’ve been making claims that the same 2-3 teams have kept winning every year. I showed you that wasn’t the case. Then you said the same 4-5 teams. Even though 3A/4A have each been won by 7 different teams in 9 years. 3A had 11 different teams appear in a title game and 4A had 14. Previous 9 years before SF 3A had 5 different winners (4 for Chatard) and 10 different teams appearing. 4A had 4 different winners (5 for Cathedral, 2 for Reitz) and 9 different teams appearing. That’s pretty straightforward evidence that it’s balanced things out a bit. No one ever said it was going to balance every team in the state out. That would impossible. It probably needs tweaking. But in the aggregate it’s accomplishing what it set out to do, which was competitive balance. I know you’re a cathedral guy, but winning 4A every year until eternity would’ve gotten old at some point.

Look through the thread again, I refuted your points as you made them, had you backtracking and everything. Judging by your debate skills I’d be shocked if you even have a complete grasp on the English language, let alone another…

I showed you all the evidence you need. I’ve seen you refuse to accept losing an argument on other threads. I hope you overcome your desperate need to be right in the face of all information provided.

You went from the same 2-3 teams winning every year to the same 4-5 teams winning every year in a couple posts. Keep backtracking.

3A and 4A have had 7 different winners since the SF lol. I don't know how you can get that from the actual state championship results but sure.

When has that happened?

During the SF, has any team replicated the sustained dominance of LCC, Luers, Chatard, and Cathedral all had simultaneously in the immediate years prior to the SF's implementation? All those teams have had success, but not nearly the complete domination they had been having. Out of those teams, only Cathedral has moved into a higher class than they had been previously and won state. I think the proof is in the pudding.

Of course there is. Just said it's not perfect. But I'm guessing you don't remember how it was before the success factor was implemented. You said name one thing the IHSAA has done to promote competitive balance, and I did. Don't know why you're getting so salty about it lol.