JustRules

How could they be excessive if they were right? Do you want us to stop calling fouls because we've already called too many in a game? And you pretty clearly said they were incorrect because there were a lot of them and many more than any other Cathedral game. That's the fact Bob was pointing out. You may be 100% right that the calls were wrong. I have no idea since I didn't watch the game.

You are guys are making different arguments. He's not saying the calls were right or wrong. He's saying that just because a team had more fouls in one game compared to another or they had more fouls than their opponent that the officiating was bad. You may be right that the calls were wrong, but they should be judged on the calls themselves and not by number.

That is the only time I've ever been at Delta. I have since been told most teams don't go to the locker room at half because of the distance. I would think there is someplace closer they can go at halftime. At a minimum they should have made it a 20-minute halftime and had us start it late so they had a little time. Good luck this Friday! This is probably one of the best games in the state this week.

I was there that night! 2-3 minutes is generous. It was probably 5 minutes. When the 15 minutes expired and no sign of Mississinewa we went to get the team. We ran into a couple coaches part way there and they were surprised to learn time had expired. It had probably 0:00 for 5 minutes already at that point. Teams almost always have someone who sets their own watch. In addition to the 15-yard delay penalty there was also a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Mississinewa RB at the end of the half so Delta kicked from the +30. I'm surprised they didn't try an onside kick. That was probably my most miserable weather night on a HS football field.

It would be very unlikely for a ball to stay in the free blocking zone long enough for this to be legal. If the QB is under center, fakes the dive up the middle to the fullback, and then runs behind the LOS staying with 3 yards of the LOS there MAY be time for a pulling guard to cut a player who started on the line before the QB gets outside the tackle or pitches the ball to a back. But I would say that would be very unlikely. And this guard doesn't now if the QB still has the ball behind him or pitched it to another back so he risks committing a foul if he cuts. I saw your later post of the QB in pistol. Assuming he's more than 3 yards behind the LOS the ball will leave the FBZ during the snap. Rules do allow a lineman to cut immediately at the snap, but any delay will usually result in a foul.

He definitely can't cut him at that point. All low blocks are not allowed once the ball has left the free blocking zone. By saying jet sweep I assume QB is in shot gun so the FBZ disintegrates immediately and low blocks are only allowed if immediately at the snap. Low blocks also must be initiated by the someone on the line against someone else on the line. Based on that your LB should never be cut unless he moves up to the line prior to the snap..

Generally speaking any equipment not listed as legal or optional could be considered illegal. If crazy eye black is not allowed then I think this should probably not be allowed. A plain version would be different if it's extremely cold and you wear it to help keep warm. But I think allowing this version could open a huge can of worms. If ti's not illegal it should be.

It would be used very very rarely, but this would be a good example. Another one is the person on the bench who runs on to the field and tackles a runner who is clearly going to score. The foul itself is illegal participation and it would be enforced 15 yards from the end of the run by rule. But if you consider that to be a travesty you could award a score using this rule. Again, this rule is used very very rarely. I've never seen it used in any game I've worked or even considered it. But it does exist if you have something truly crazy happen.

Great read! For those of you looking to continue to stay involved with football after high school, please consider being an official. Even if you are planning to be a coach after going to college you do this during school. You'll make more money than most part-time jobs and you may find you love it! If you aren't going to college it's a great way to supplement whatever job you do get. Go to the IHSAA site and request more information or get in touch with the IFOA at http://www.ifoa.us.

It is but this is not in that context. I don't believe the NFHS rules specifically ban this act, but I would hope a crew would use travesty of the game to penalize this. The unsportsmanlike conduct rule has a list of automatics, but it's not all inclusive. Same with the NCAA rule, but this pops every couple years so the D1 officials (only place this seems to happen) have been told to flag this if they see it. The coaches should know also.

I do know it wasn't the same crew in both games.

I've always thought the all-in random draw format was the worst possible format out there. Then TIFootball comes along with a state championship from the bottom 64 teams in the state using some type of ranking. That is definitely worse. I'm glad he/she came around to the qualify and split option instead. Not great but better than his original option. There is no issue with overlap from one class to the next. It happens in NCAA as well. Not all D1 teams are better than D2 teams and not all D2 teams are better than D3 teams. There is overlap there as well. That's why I think enrollment is a good starting point. It puts teams into general categories. The success factor then does some adjustments for the top programs but also allows for corrections. It could be optimized, but in general I think it does a good job. I'm a fan of a qualifying tournament but ultimately I don't care that much about it. At the end of the season most of the kids who played HS football had very positive experiences and good memories. 10-20 years from now they'll remember the good times and learn from the bad times. I do challenge everyone to tell friends and family outside Indiana about the all-in random draw process, and I doubt any of them will say, "wow, that's a great and creative way to do this." They will most likely think you are kidding and nobody would ever come up with a system like that.

Promotion and relegation may work in a professional league where players sign contracts and teams can be developed and retained over a period of time. In HS football teams turnover a large percentage of their roster every year and for the most part the kids playing varsity this year weren't on varsity 2 years ago. There is nothing wrong with overlap in quality from class the class. The top of one class can compete with the top teams of the next class, likely beat the middle teams of the class above them and the bottom teams from the class above that. The issue the success factor helps with is those teams that are significantly better than all the teams in their current class. Yes it's possible a senior class can help bump a team up, but if that's the case they probably wouldn't compete for a state championship at their current level either. That's where having overlap definitely helps.

I believe last year 143 crews applied and there were 127 games in week 1 so it was more than a handful that didn't get a game. The white hat email in week 8 indicated 146 crews applied so we are up a couple compared to last year. By my count there are 125 games in week 1. That leaves 21 crews who applied but won't get a game. There are 96 games in week 2 so 2/3 of all crews will get at least 2 games.

I believe the clusters were only 4 teams so you made the playoffs based on 3 games of the 10 you played. If you went 9-1 but your 1 loss was to another 2-1 cluster team that finished 6-4 overall you were out and they were in. That's too small of a sample size compared to the overall length of the schedule and too small of a group qualifying.

From what I've heard of the cluster system I'm not sure it's better than the all-in system we have today. But they are in on the same end of the spectrum.

Tech is wonderful and a great way to deliver content, but it's also a great way to manipulate the system. If we had on demand meetings someone could easily log in, start the video, walk away and let the video run and get credit yet not get anything out of it. A live online meeting could also be the same unless they added some kind of interactive check in process throughout the meeting to know you are still there. If they could somehow guarantee engagement throughout I think a tech solution would be great! But otherwise it makes it easier for the box checkers to not hear what they need to hear. We would also lose a lot of the fellowship gained from meeting in person. Online work meetings are great for small groups but large groups are worthless.

I wouldn't say fast tracked. Experiments are only allowed for 3 years so it would have been removed for Indiana this year if the NFHS rules committee hadn't passed it. This was the 5th year it was voted on. The first year Mr. Faulkens submitted it and it failed he wanted to do an experiment, but he found out there is a formal process to get approved for an experiment. It was voted on the next year and failed, but he got approval for the experiment. After the first and second year it was submitted again but failed again. That's why this year's vote was critical for Indiana to retain this rule everyone seems to love.

I think one of the reasons many of the coaches and administrators support the unseeded all-in tournament is the chance you'll draw another weak team in the first round if you are having a bad season. There are a handful of matchups early in the first round where both teams have 2 or fewer wins after 8 weeks. They are ecstatic because now they have a chance for a tournament win. But is that really a great accomplishment? One of them will advance while someone from Brebeuf or Chatard or Cass or Pioneer will be turning in their gear. It's one thing if you get upset in the first round and have to go through that. The format does ultimately crown a champion, but the means to get there is very flawed in many ways.

This is an unscientific poll but 100% of the people I've told about how Indiana does their tournament laughed and accused me of lying. Nobody can believe a state would do this. And I try to present it in a positive light so as to not skew the answers. The most common response is "any system where a 9-0 team could travel to an 0-9 team in the first round of a tournament is completely ridiculous."

Try this exercise. Contact a friend or relative in another state who is a sports fan. Explain the high school tournament process to them. They won't believe you. #1 and #2 playing each other in the first round? I also grabbed a couple other random oddities. Sectional 33 Boone Grove (8-0) at Whiting (2-6) and Sectional 42 Trader's Point (700) at Tri-County (1-7). Also sectional 34 Pioneer at Cass (both 7-1) in the first round of one half of the bracket and Manchester at Bremen (both 2-6) on the other side of the bracket. Nobody would ever come up with this system if they were tasked with designing a post season tournament. It happened to avoid a lawsuit. It does still crown a champion at the end, but it's one of the most ridiculous ways of doing it.

If you had a qualifying tournament you would reduce the tournament by 1 week and could add a week to the regular season. Everyone would still be guaranteed at least 10 weeks. There are many ways you could determine qualifying and I would guess under all of them CG would make the tournament as it stands today. Just using Sagarin as an example (not the one I would propose but it's measureable). They are currently #7 in Sagarin so are well within the 16 if you used it.

The MIC may be down but that means they are only very, very good and there isn't a dominant team. It wouldn't surprise me to see 3 of the final 4 teams from the MIC this year. It also wouldn't surprise me to see no MIC teams out by the semi-finals because there are good teams in those sectionals ready to take the next step. The fact the teams are more even in the MIC shouldn't indicate anything other than there is no dominant team this year. Even the "bad teams' (Pike, LC, LN) are very talented and would win or compete in every other 6A conference.

Any of these potential MIC champions are good enough to win state this year (including CG). Avon and Brownsburg have a good shot. No idea on the teams up north but this could also be the year one of them sneaks in. For the first time in a long time the 6A tournament is wide open!

Illinois had previously voted to change their football structure from a conference structure with qualifying on a complicated formula to a district structure where teams are assigned to districts (similar to our sectionals) and qualify based on the round robin scheduling of the teams in the district. It barely passed. The most recent proposal restores conferences and expands the number of teams in the playoffs. https://football.dailyherald.com/sports/20191010/new-football-playoff-proposal-goes-to-ihsa