BLACKGOLD2007

The higher seed plays at home?

Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate your work.

Progress is all that matters. What is so frustrating is up here, Penn is regressing faster and faster. Our record looks great, but we are paper giants. Yes we beat two top 10 5A schools, we also beat a then top 10 4A school, but those aren't accomplishments that a 6A blue blood hangs their hat on. When we play quality opponents they drop an easy 35 on us. I look back at previous scores against Carmel, Ben Davis etc, we took them to the line time and time again....now and especially in state we get beat by 50. Now, we cannot even win sectional. in the last 5 seasons we have won 1 sectional title (because Carroll was not in it at the time).

@whiteshoes sorry, see above question.

Just curious, under the Indiana section, you included the Penn score....why?

They opened everyone's eyes. cannot do that.

My step-mother went to Westfield when it was just the little 1A school, when we drive down by the school now, she doesn't even recognize the area. It is amazing how fast the Indy area is growing still.

Agreed, I just think that this decision is going to be a true indication of where the administration stands. Drop Carmel, Penn just wants to be local champs; drop Mishawaka Penn is at least interested in testing the program against the best traditional teams in the state. Now, the next decision is to move on from the NIC, that will be the next big choice that must be made.

In 6A, I know they are going off of recent loss bias because Penn lost (badly) to Cathedral weeks ago and Carroll dropped a tough game against Snider not long ago. The gap between teams 1-4 & 6-7 and teams CP and Penn are far greater than the gaps between teams 1-4 & 6-7 and FW Carroll. I am sorry, I know CP is unbeaten, but Carroll is more battle tested than CP and Penn put together.

@Staxawax Avon lost votes! What the heck!

I think the one game it could impact a bit is the St. Joe v Marian game. with the field turf at Father Bly Field, this could cause issues for a grass based Marian squad. I expect NP to go get the job done even on the field turf at Rice Field, (it may be closer than I originally thought). The rest of the games, I'm not sure it will impact the outcomes I anticipate much. But, that is why we play the game.

True, but it seems that even though Center Grove has 5 out of state games, they are still the fourth best Sagarin rated team. For example right now the bottom five Sag teams in 6A play only 1 out of state team. While the top 5 Sag rated teams in 5A do not play one out of state team.

It would be nice to be back in a class where there are schools around us that are within the same class. Until the formation of Elkhart, the next 6A school was Warsaw. Otherwise Penn was traveling to the far reaches of the DAC or Fort Wayne to play a similar sized school. Re-unifying 5A and 6A would be interesting. Keep the success factor idea, I would prefer a more relegation style system that drops and promotes teams yearly. (that would have to be based on Sagarin rankings or take final records and drop the bottom teams and promote the top teams (4 or 5 teams is a healthy change)

It must be nice to play in a conference where every team you play in conference is within your class. Envious.

I agree, but knowing our decision makers at the top, they have made some interesting decisions over the years.

Agreed. The very northern part of 6A is so thin, that no matter what travel is inevitable. in Sectional 2, we have Penn and Elkhart (the two closest teams) and Warsaw and Carroll. No matter what teams are going to travel at least an hour at some point to play in a sectional game.

Oh the bigger tragedy is that they would be playing in either week 1 or 2. You are correct 100%. I just hate seeing teams that have dominated all season long, not get a chance to compete for a "championship"

Sure, but when two of the three best teams in 6A south are playing game 1, it makes the overall tournament less interesting. But, you are correct, the best teams will typically be standing in the end.

This would be interesting to see, it also would not in any way be approved. Do away with success factor and go to yearly relegation system. Bottom 5 move down a class while the top 5 move up a class. You can base this on two ways: 1) purely Sagarin ratings. 2)the final four move up plus the best Sagarin rated team remaining. If the season were to end right now, the bottom 5 6A schools are Portage, Northrup, Southport, Indy Tech. and Jeffersonville. The top 5 5A schools are Bloomington South, Valpo, FW Snider, Mishawaka and Merrillville. This would give the 6A north a huge expansion at the top of state, but also push some of the HCC schools back into the south to balance out the state. Beyond this I haven't given this much thought about how it will effect each program, but it would be more interesting from year to year. If they don't get the points, can Cathedral elect to stay in 6A or is that not an option.

I know, just wishful thinking. So, question, is Cathedral likely to stay in 6A or are they going to be success factored back to 5A?

To take it one step further, Carroll holds Penn under it's points allowed average in their game during the sectionals. Penn, will give up at least 28 points.

I agree, Carroll is the class of sectionals 1 and 2 until the get beat. The got a tough draw in Warsaw, but I expect Carroll to come out on top. They will get a cushy home game against Penn in game 2, which based on what I have seen this year will likely turn out like it did last year. Over the past few weeks Penn's O has struggled to produce consistently; Elkhart, St. Joe and New Prairie all these games had touchdowns taken off the board or drives bog down due to penalties or lack of concentration. I feel like as the season has progressed the Kingsmen have regressed as a team.

Bremen JV at Clay, 7 pm: I want these kids to end their final regular season on a high note. I know it is against a JV team, but this program has been through so much. If the get this win...they are on a winning streak, something Clay has not done since 2012 when they beat Memorial, Washington and St. Joe. Friday, Oct. 13 Bremen at Tippecanoe Valley, 7 pm: TV seems to be the class small school in this area. Jimtown at Riley ©, 7 pm: Riley makes a strong push into the playoffs, but will likely face a Dominant Northridge in game 2 of the playoffs. Glenn at Washington ©, 7 pm: Washington's woes continue. Marian at St. Joseph ©, 7 pm: St. Joe gets the job done in a barn burner. New Prairie at Elkhart ©, 7:30 pm: NP has a lot of frustration to get out on the offensive side of the ball. I don't see them taking it easy on the Lions. Adams at Penn ©, 7 pm: Penn will probably mess around with Adams, since that is what they have been doing on offense for weeks now. Penn's D doesn't allow much from the Adams offense.

Back when they formatted the 6A class, the DAC was littered with 6A schools. Penn for like the first 4 or 5 years was a near lock for Semi-State each year because sectionals 1 and 2 were weak compared to the rest of the class.

I don't have an issue with everyone playing tournament ball. Just seed it properly and the issues take care of themselves... Does this mean the Indy domination of 6A continues in perpetuity? Yes, because it isn't going to end anytime soon. But, Brownsburg and Ben Davis are not game 1 of the playoffs. When it should be the Semi-state game.