JustRules

Just a hypothetical if they decide to scrap the Spring seasons. I'm not saying finishing the boys tournament is a better option than letting the spring sports play. But if they really can't get going until mid-May it probably doesn't make sense to start the new seasons, but it wouldn't be that much to have 3 additional games in each class (12 total). I doubt they would do both.

If they end up killing the entire Spring sports season, they could possibly have a 2 weekend event to play the last 4 rounds. Two regional rounds one weekend and semi-state/state the following weekend. They wouldn't be competing with Spring sports because they don't exist and having something for a couple weeks could be a nice recovery from what we are about to go through.

Some conferences have and will continue to do that. If things have settled down by 4/6 then the B1G will allow some regular season contests/meets through the end of the year. I wonder if playing some games would affect the possibility of the NCAA considering granting eligibility extensions to these athletes.

Just because championships are cancelled (NCAA or NFHS state associations) doesn't mean the regular seasons for those competitions are cancelled. Especially in NCAA I expect they cancelled all championship events because the funding they would have used to pay for them is likely lost with the cancellation of the basketball tournament. March Madness is 80% of the revenue for the NCAA and they exist to regulate policies and conduct championships. They don't do anything with the regular season or conference tournaments.

At a minimum absolutely! If these cancellations and social distancing are effective in reducing the spread the diagnosis and mortality counts will be lower. We'll have no idea how much lower and we'll never know if they were absolutely necessary (I'm trusting the infectious disease people they are). But the canceling of everything and impact on the economy short and long term will definitely be historical.

This phase will be behind us, but I doubt it will ever be a distant memory. I've told my kids they are living through and witnessing something that will be talked about for centuries.

Absolutely true! The same applies to well marked grass fields too, but less likely to be variability on turf fields. Most good officials will also spot most first downs with the nose of the ball touching the back of a yard line. This way the officials can use the lines on the field (much less arbitrary) than the sticks on the sideline (very arbitrary). If you spot the ball between the yard lines, the back stake has to estimate about where it is between the lines from at least 20 yards away. He could easily be off by a foot or two. Then you have the person setting the clip (which is used in the event of a measurement or resetting the chains). He/she is at least a little closer to the line, but still a couple yards away. That could be off by 2-4 inches. If you don't have the benefit of using the lines to determine a first down on your spot, even that becomes an estimate (if an official tells you they know exactly where the spot is to the inch, they are lying). Then add in the potential movement as they are running in to give the spot to the umpire, you could easily have a couple inches of variability. But by using the yard lines, the wing officials can now use the yard line similar to the goal line and make a judgement of whether or not the ball reached that physical line. If they do they spot it as such and we move on with a first down. If in their judgement the ball was short of the line when it became dead they can spot it as such some distance short. No need to measure in most cases. We maybe have 1 or 2 per yer now. Robert Faulkens hates this mechanic because he thinks it's a college mechanic. It's not specifically called out at any level. It's just a good mechanic most officials at all levels learn to use, especially when they have good lines on the field. Turf fields generally are going to have very good, consistent lines, and they are much easier to see and use on the field.

Every study I've heard has a payoff of 10-years when installing turf. This is based on the money saved to grass field maintenance, seeding, line painting, etc. Most fields seem to last about 10 years. The replacement cost is less than the original installation because the foundation is already there. I assume that means the pay back is even sooner. So yes it is an expense to the taxpayers, but in the long run it's no more than not installing the turf. And you get a lot more use out of it than grass. Your issue based on other posts isn't about turf. It's about schools funding extra curricular activities in general.

That's not what I said. By your account the PWO prevents them from joining a lower level team. If that's true it creates an opportunity for someone else to attend that school. That trickles down to ultimately create an opportunity for someone who maybe wouldn't have been able to do it. That's not entirely the case, because there are no defined limits to the number of players the D3/NAIA. Many of those teams have the capacity to take more players. But if the PWO going to IU turned down a scholarship to attend UIndy, that does create an opportunity for a player who only had a PWO to UIndy (or possibly only a D3 non-scholarship offer) to get a scholarship offer. That's a win for him!

At least he's in good company because most D1 programs have at least some level of PWO programs. I guess every coach is negatively impacting the smaller schools in their state. And those schools have PWO programs as well. Heaven forbid more young people get an opportunity to be on a college football team.

His sole intent is to make sure Ball State, ISU and others remain unsuccessful!

LN girls won state this weekend. The boys swim team finished in the top 20 in state swimming. Only Carmel and Center Grove in the MIC finished ahead of them. Warren Central and North Central were the other only MIC schools that scored points. 48 of the 240 schools in the state scored at the meet. Looking at the MIC vs. HCC in swimming, the HCC is stronger. Here is how their teams finished in sectional and state: Fishers - 2nd in Sectional 8, 4th in State Zionsville - 1st in Sectional 12, 5th in State HSE - 1st in Sectional 8, 6th in State Avon - 3rd in Sectional 11, 13th in State Brownsburg - 1st in Sectional 13, 17 in State Franklin Central - 3rd in Sectional 13, 22nd in State Westfield - 2nd in Sectional 9, no points at State Noblesville - 3rd in Sectional 9, no swimmers at State 3 teams in the top 10 and 6 in the top 25 is very impressive. Westfield and Noblesville also have very good swim programs, but this shows how hard it is to score at state. Meanwhile in the MIC: Carmel - 1st in Sectional 9, 1st in State Center Grove - 2nd in Sectional 16, 9th in State Lawrence North - 2nd in Sectional 14, 19th in State Warren Central - 4th in Sectional 14, 24th in State North Central - 1st in Sectional 14, 39th in State LC - 6th in Sectional 14, no points at State Ben Davis - 4th in Sectional 13, no swimmers at State Pike - 6th in Sectional 13, no swimmers at State This just shows that sports vary from conference to conference. Munster, Chesterton and Penn are 3 of the other top 76 teams. Carroll and Franklin round out the top 10. None of those teams are top 25 teams in football. If you are only focusing on football as the only sport to determine where a school should be you are not looking at it from the perspective of an athletic administrator.

One of the recent seasons, LN won a sectional title in 11 of their 17 sports. They are almost always in the middle or upper in the conference in other sports. Outside of the main sports of football and basketball, schools like BD, WC, and Pike are generally the bottom of the conference. This includes tennis, swimming, cross country. softball, etc. If you frame of reference is only football and basketball you are not seeing the entire picture.

Probably the nicest HS facility I've worked at in the state. Franklin Community is also nice on a smaller scale.

One of them is the same reason we are losing officials. You can relate on both ends...overbearing parents. They probably affect coaches even more than officials.

I've worked once at Reitz but it was a cold night and lowly attended. It was a neat stadium but would be much better with a full crowd. I like Carmel and Merrillville as they are similar. The lack of a track at Merrillville makes it unique. My overall favorite is Tech HS in Indy. It's a neat setting, and I would to work there with a full crowd some night. It's also hard to beat the environment at some of the smaller schools too. The stadiums aren't as "impressive" but it's still a cool place to be. Here are just a few where I've worked. Union City: always seems to have everyone in town at the game regardless of record Mississinewa: the cannon across the street scared the crap out of me. It's been a few years so I don't know if they still do that Corydon: beautiful setting with grilling shelter just off the field Western Boone: especially when they are good it's a packed and loud house

You are correct. Thank you! I don't feel PWOs at the B1G schools will have a major impact on the overall quality of teams at the small college level (BSU down to D3). Taylor is also a good NAIA team playing in a very tough conference. They would compete for conference championships if they played in the HCAC. I put Rose and Hanover with Franklin in recent strength in the HCAC. I also expect IWU to compete with Marian and St. Francis at the top of NAIA in the next couple years. To assume this has a significant impact assumes every player is objectively rated 1 to 100. IU and Purdue get the top 20, Ball State gets the next 10, ISU gets 31-40, UIndy gets 41-50, and D3/NAIA fights for the other 50. If IU and Purdue then take the 10 that would have gone to Ball State and Ball State takes the 10 that would have gone to ISU, etc. but that's not how this works. The ratings are subjective. It's possible BSU picks up a kid that had interest from IU but is better than one of the PWO that Ball State initially wanted. In this hypothetical it's possible BSU ended up with a better player than the IU PWO. If IU and Purdue had 60 PWOs each then absolutely it would have an impact. But that's not the case. This is nothing more than someone trying to generate discussion and debate on an internet forum with no actual basis in fact. It's not a ridiculous assumption for discussion, but ultimately I don't feel it creates any rift with the other schools than any other recruiting battles.

LN and LC very much belong in the MIC. They are competitive in all sports including football. Their record is not indicative of their competitiveness. There is no interest at this time from their administration in switching conferences.

I can only remember 1 or 2 NCAA tournament wins in the past 15 years by HCAC teams. Most of them enter the conference season 0-2 or 0-3 and they aren't all playing Mount Union or Whitewater or North Central/Wheaton. Hanover lost to Centre last year in week 1. Centre is generally a top 20 team, but they went on to finish 5-5 last year. I wouldn't say the HCAC is top heavy. The past few years 4 of the 8 teams have been battling for the title into the last weeks of the season (Franklin, Rose-Hulman, Mt. St. Joe and either Hanover or Bluffton). Even when Franklin was winning it very year some of those teams would be competitive with them. It feels more like Franklin has come back to the pack than the other teams jumping up to get them. Anderson and Manchester are improving and Bluffton and Defiance are up and down. Don't get me wrong though. It's still good small college football and the coaches and players are talented. Top to bottom they just don't compete with other conferences in the area. I expect they would have had a similar fate against Wartburg that Hope had (lost 41-3). For comparison Hope beat Defiance 80-6 and Manchester 38-21. Hanover beat those teams 42-0 and 56-7 respectively so I would have them fairly even. As another comparison, Hope beat Albion by 19 and Albion beat Franklin by 22. There are other playoff teams the HCAC could compete with but as long as they are surrounded by the OAC, CCIW, and WIAC the winner will likely match up with them most years. The MIAA and NCAC are both probably slightly better as well.

To be fair Bob. In their case they are wanting to create more excitement in the regular season to get more eyeballs and butts in the seats and the driver of that is $$. Moreso in professional sports excitement = money. That may be somewhat of a factor in HS as well, but much less.

I never said it would increase fans in the stands. It could. But the fans in the stands and the participants would experience a more exciting game in a more electric environment because there would be more on the line. Again, think of the Cathedral/CG game if the winner would be playing for home field in the first few rounds of the tournament or possibly a spot (not likely in either case because they were clearly in any qualifying tournament). There are too many other factors in play that could affect attendance. Game location (CG fans more likely to attend a home game rather than driving to Tech), weather, Fall Break, etc. You'll probably get a few more casual fans but that could vary. If you have a player with a minor injury that could otherwise play but sits out to help recover for the playoffs, he would definitely play if there was home field (seeding) or a playoff spot on the line. I'm not talking about the player risking further injury who really shouldn't play. But think about the difference in energy in the playoff games with WC/BD compared to regular season games. Yes, they are competitive, but the energy is different.

There is a decline in TV viewing of most live sporting events. The excitement around end of season games where teams are jockeying for seeding positions especially the #1 seed for 3/4 better than 5/6 for home court and the teams on the edge of the #8 seed. The atmosphere is playoff like for those games. If every NBA team made the playoffs and who you played and where was randomly drawn those end of season games would be a lot less exciting. What difference does it make if you finish as the #3 seed or #5 seed? Or #8 or #10? In the NBA that would affect TV ratings and attendance. There wouldn't necessarily be as big of a change in attendance and viewership isn't an important measurable in HS athletics. But I guarantee the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm around regular season games would be much higher if seeding and/or qualification was on the line. Even if you oppose qualifying and/or seeding (an opinion I can respect), that is not a point you should argue against.

The teams solidly in would be playing for seeding and home field advantage if done right. This would give more games more consequences late in the season. Having a qualifying tournament and/or seeding definitely helps make regular season games more interesting and exciting. I think a better argument for you would be if that is interesting or exciting enough.

I completely agree (although Rose has been pretty competitive during that time). Coach Theo has done a great job recruiting a little better athlete, plus I think he has a very good coaching staff and his players play hard for him.

Those D3 programs have made the playoffs, but in general the HCAC conference champs are lower quality than the winners of the other D3 conferences. It's very rare for them to win a playoff game and most of the HCAC teams go 0-2 in non-conference play. It's still decent football, and I don't see a few extra PWOs will have much of an impact to that.