JustRules

I've always assumed "preferred" walkon meant the player was invited to walk on and would mostly likely be able to be a part of the team at least in practice. Someone else who just walks on may likely not be allowed to stay. I'm not sure how often that happens or what kind of restrictions the teams put on it. You can't allow just anyone to come to the field and ask for pads.

Every MIC team except Pike was in the top 16 per Sagarin (just one possible measure for qualification) and CG was #4 in 6A despite their record. By almost any measure they make the tournament even with a qualifier. I don't know if sand-bagging is the most accurate term, but I can definitely tell you there isn't much excitement around games at the end of the season like there could be if playoff spots or seeds are on the line for at least one of the teams. When the team has more on the line they will put more out there to achieve what they are trying to achieve. In CG's last 2 games last year they were playing teams very likely in even with a 50% qualifier. But seeding could have been at stake. LN ended up #13 in 6A so they could have been playing for a spot, but they would definitely want to improve their seeding to get away from the MIC powers in the first round. Cathedral finished #2 in 5A which in a seeded tournament where highest seed gets home field, that would have been huge! I wasn't at either game, but I watched the Cathedral game on TV. It was a fun and exciting back and forth game, but the excitement around it would have been much more if Center Grove was attempting to improve their seed and Cathedral was trying to keep their #2 seed. It would be similar excitement around a playoff game because the winners and losers impact what happens going forward. Losing the LN game or winning the Cathedral game wouldn't have changed anything regarding playoff matchups.

For very personal, selfish reasons, as an official I prefer the games to start at 7p. After we decompress after a game, eat, and shower and drive home 1-2 hours it's often after midnight. I then have to be up by 6 or 7a to drive 2-3 hours the next morning to work a college game. If you push that back 30 or 60 minutes it's even later that I get home. Again, very personal and selfish and only affects about 20 officials so not a reason to not do it. It would just suck for me.

Coach Nowlin started a thread specifically about the QB legally spiking the ball in shotgun. Discuss the other rule changes here. https://www.nfhs.org/articles/additional-timing-changes-on-play-clock-approved-in-high-school-football-rules/ Play clock set to 40 after a defensive injury or equipment issue (assuming helmet off, sending player out missing pads) - this prevent intentional acts prevented to save time at the end of a half but also prevents defense from gaining an advantage unintentionally. Let's a play ends with 37 seconds on the game clock but a defensive player is injured. With a regular 40-second clock the half would have ended. But because the official would reset the play clock to 25 once the injured player is off the field, the offense has to run at least 1 more play. The same issue existed before the 40-second play clock, but with the 40-second play clock option they have something to use to address it. 25 second play clock following any legal kick - this is correcting an oversight when the rule was implemented last year. If the receiving team muffs the punt and the kicking team recovers, by rule the play clock is set to 40 and started immediately following the play. Since both teams will be swapping nearly full units it makes more sense to make that an administrative stop and start the 25-second play clock when everyone (officials, chain crew, ball, players) are ready. It was generally don't this way last year, but this codifies it correctly. Spiking the ball to stop the clock in shot gun is now legal - not likely to happen very often but a logical change to allow it Disconcerting signal now 5-yard rather than 15-yard penalty - an example would be the defense barking the cadence to try to cause the offense to jump. Not sure why they changed it because it doesn't happen very often, but a 5-yard penalty does seem to be consistent with similar fouls. The coach can designate who will make penalty decisions - the rules previously only listed the captain could make this decision. Most penalties are obviously accepted or declined. But if you needed to ask the first thing the captain did was look to the sideline. Many crews had given up asking the captain and just went directly to the head coach. Now he can do that by rule. Halftime following a weather delay can be shortened - very logical change. If you have a 30-minute delay with 2 minute left in the first half, that weather delay can essentially double as your halftime. Come back, do the 3-minute warm-up, play the last 2 minutes, have a 1-minute break (same as other quarter breaks), and then start the second half. Nothing major that should impact most games.

It was up for final vote again this year, but I read in an officiating forum it failed 21-31. NFHS doesn't have a defined tackle box, but they do have a free blocking zone for when you can block in the back/below the waist. The problem is it only goes 3 yards behind the LOS so the QB would be out of it immediately in shot gun and almost as fast in a normal drop back. So the free blocking zone would either have to change or another area would have to be defined. The NFHS rules committee also tries to keep things balanced sometimes to a fault (i.e. no auto first down for DPI because OPI isn't a loss of down). Many feel allowing the QB to legally dump the ball isn't fair to the defense and there isn't something they could give them that is equivalent.

It was a logical change that should have been in the rules all along. It won't likely happen very often but there is no reason to not allow it. I've been working college football for several years where this rule existed, and i don't remember ever seeing it in one of my games.

By definition a pass is intentionally losing possession of the ball. If he receives the snap and immediately throws it to the ground it's a pass and thus legal. If he never gains possession of the snap it's a muff of a backward pass (the snap is by definition a backward pass) and thus wouldn't be considered a spike.

Yes, I'm sure it does definitely vary student to student and school to school. I talked to my friend over the weekend and asked about it. He said the swimming coach told him the first time they met his son would get the $25k Presidential scholarship before he even asked about academics (he was a good student). When he got his acceptance and financial aid offer there was another $9k in grants and work study so it was a very generous offer. While it was below Purdue (his other possible school without swimming) it was still more than his parents could easily afford. They called financial aid to see if there were any further options and the answer was no. He ultimately took the offer but only lasted 1 year because of the cost. My son was offered a good scholarship by DePauw (non-athlete, decent student) but ultimately it was still nearly twice as much as the cost of Ball State where he received no financial aid. I agree being open to the smaller, private schools because we have excellent options in Indiana as well as Ohio and Illinois. It's a very different experience than IU or Purdue, but they seem to have the most loyal alumni because they are so connected to the school they attended. The sticker price is often more of a badge of honor to compare to other schools and rarely the actual cost anyone pays. It's like they determine the actual cost is $45k but publish a cost of $60k but give most students a $15k scholarship that doesn't actually cost them any money. And if someone does pay the full $60k it's gravy for them.

There is a very good possibility you were more strongly considered for some of those scholarships because you were also being recruited for athletics. My friend's son I mentioned previously was given a very generous scholarship/grant package from a local private school when he was being recruited to their swim team. I remember talking to others at the time being accepted to the same school with similar academic profiles but their financial packages weren't as generous. I assume this varies from student to student and school to school. I also knew athletes recruited to DePauw who were given similar financial aid packages to my son who was an average student and not being recruited as an athlete.

Exactly! It would definitely make it much more difficult at many of the D3 schools.

Do we know it's only been 2-3 previously and will be as big as 20-30? And even if it is who knows if those 20-30 players would have gone to one of the schools in Indiana? Even if they did that's only 2 players per team on average. The D3 schools shoot for recruiting classes of 50-75 so 2 players isn't going to make or break them. You pick the strangest things to get angry about. If it's simply trolling to find ridiculous things for people to get riled up, it's working. But that is a sad form of entertainment. This is such a non-issue to anyone involved in the college recruiting process. Allowing more kids to play college football. Oh the horror!

I believe that's what he was saying. The cost difference can vary as well. I know a football player at Franklin who was given enough scholarship money likely due to his ability to play football (he's a good student too) that he's paying very little to attend. My son had a friend who was a good swimmer and recruited to Wabash. His academic scholarships, grants, and work study got him down to $14k/year. He was also recruited to UIndy and looked at Purdue but received no scholarship offers from them. Purdue would have been more expensive than Wabash for him.

They have done well (and Indiana Wesleyan is coming hard). Ball State is up and down as a MAC school. Indiana State is improving, but they are generally a poor team in the Missouri Valley. UIndy has been ranked and does well in their conference, but they get by the first or second round of the playoffs. The D3 schools often struggle when competing out of conference. But it's still a decent level of football, and I applaud any kid willing to put in the time and effort at any level. I don't believe a few extra PWOs will impact those programs that significantly. The player choosing a PWO at IU or Purdue over a full or partial scholarship to Ball State or Indiana State is making the decision with his eyes wide open. I don't know how anyone can be critical of that.

Many of the D3 schools use athletics as a way to recruit students. When my son was a senior we were talking to Hanover and the admissions person said 45% of their incoming class each year are on one of the athletics teams. The D3 schools will try to get 75 freshmen every year knowing half of them will not return their sophomore year but hopefully a large percentage like the school enough to stay at the school. It's a good recruiting tool for those schools.

He only has 1 year left and to be honest I was surprised he still had that. Seems like he's been there awhile already. Good luck to him wherever he goes. He's had a solid career at IU. Maybe he's finishing his undergrad and wants to try something else for grad school. I don't believe he's a high NFL target so he should enjoy his college career as much as possible.

Yes, but he was suspended and they had an interim coach all season.

The Packers had a good team this year as evidenced by their 13-3 record, but they never seemed elite. Kudos for them making the NFC Championship game especially with a rookie head coach. I expect they'll challenge again next week.

Correct with one minor semantic question. The foul before and now is actually illegal formation. What changed is the number that triggers it. Essentially you've always needed at least 7 on the line and no more than 4 in the backfield assuming you have 11 players. The previous rule focus on the 7 on the line. The bad part of that is a team only sent out 10 players and the missing player was someone on the line, they committed a foul even though they were at the disadvantage. The primary thing the rule change last yea did was make that no longer a foul. As long as you have no more than 4 in the backfield you are legal. If you warned them on this once and they continued to do it, it would definitely be a foul.

The warning between plays is usually only given once. If they do it again whether it's the next play or 3 series later it will be a foul. If they are well behind the snapper it will be a foul the first time. Warnings are only given if it's close.

You realize almost every other state has had a mercy rule for a long time? We were one of the last ones. Those states seem to be doing just fine. Having worked many of those huge blowouts there wasn't much accomplished during the second half of those games. The mercy rule at least gives the players an opportunity to get some snaps in. By my experience this year it was 2-3 drives per team. The coaches didn't mind and the players still seemed to have fun regardless of what side they were on. It maybe gets me home 15-20 minutes earlier so not a major difference. This was 100% coach driven by the IFCA. If you have a beef you have it with them.

Common sense would not allow that to happen in a mercy rule situation. How to handle it would be at the referee's discretion. If it was me after the second DOG I would actually stop the clock and tell the head coach he does it again intentionally he will be flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. This would be done using what we often call the "God" rule. It's to be applied very sparingly (I've never done it that I recall), but it's there to allow the referee to rule on things not specifically covered in the rules. There's a very good chance Robert Faulkens is going to get a phone call too if he does it again. I'm guessing he'll get the message and not do it again.

And the play clock in football is not intended to be as precise as the shot clock in basketball. I would not use that for comparison purposes. DE made a correct point for all levels. Check the game clock, when it hits 0 look at the ball and if it's not moving immediately then flag it. Later in a game that's decided take a deep breath or two. Flagging DOG should be rare and obviously delayed.

I assumed by running clock he meant the clock was running when the DOG happened, not a mercy rule situation. In a mercy rule situation the clock wouldn't stop when the foul happened.

Huge improvement. For the 1 chance out of 1000 a team comes back from 35 points down at halftime I'm fine with leaving it as is. Half our games had a running clock the entire second half. Another one started with 9 minutes left in the 3rd only because the winning team missed 2 extra points in the first half. Both teams still played hard through the second half and the winning team got some valuable snaps for backups. It did exactly what it was intended to do. I will say we had a couple clock operators who "forgot" to stop the clock after the try and before the kickoff. None of the coaches complained about that.

I'm a huge fan of this idea. I'm familiar with a state that does this and it's a huge success. About half of the schools in their smallest class are co-ops. Some are a couple smaller schools joining a school that could possibly support their own team, but most of them would not exist if not for co-ops.