JustRules

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.

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.