temptation

Great stuff. Thanks for the hard work. Take the night off.

Contracts for 2022 spring sports hadn’t been finalized? BD has already come out and said they will continue to play them both…I’m betting most others will too. This whole thing was window dressing due to hurt feelings and to convince the public that the Marion County MIC schools were somehow victimized when in fact, they were just sick of getting their teeth kicked in. The only five sports in which anyone not named Carmel or Center Grove were a conference title threat in were boys/girls basketball, football and boys/girls track. Everything else was a bloodbath.

Yep. As I have mentioned many times before, schools like BD and Warren will continue to remain relevant via enrollment advantages but every other metric is pointing to the ‘burbs.

True. Holding teams to 3 is very underrated.

It’s about a 10-12% difference but the commitment to athletics is night and day.

Illustrating just one of my points above, of the last 10 NFL Super Bowl champions, SEVEN have had higher ranked offenses than defenses for the season when total yards are calculated, including the last five in a row. Perhaps at one time, the "defense wins championships" mantra was true, but the current data says otherwise. That doesn't stop folks from trotting this one out annually however.

Sure it does. Just because something is widely accepted as fact by a majority of people doesn’t make it true. We hear idioms in sports all of the time that simply have zero factual basis. ”It’s hard to beat a team three times.” ”Defense wins championships.” ”The team that runs the ball and controls the time of possession has an advantage.” These are some of the claims just off the top of my head made by many fans of the sport (and even some of the talking heads who get PAID to cover the sport) that have limited, if any factual data to back them up.

Nah, to me being a member of "the masses" means it is more likely you are an idiot in this day and age. #81million

Those same people assume that I love auto racing and go to the Indy 500 annually when I tell them I’m from Indianapolis.

LOL. I love the “college basketball is better when” take by all of the talking heads. College basketball is the last great hope for the underdog/little guy. The St. Peter’s, FGCU, VCU, George Mason’s and old Butler teams come to mind. That is why the casual fan who doesn’t care about basketball, or the regular season tunes in every March (plus the gambling element, lol). The little guy has zero to no chance in high school or college football. Hell, the closest thing we’ve had in the playoff era (Cincinnati) got their doors blown off in the CFP and just became another victim of the vaunted SEC. I will fill in the blank with my honest opinion… "High school/college football is better when TEAMS FROM MULTIPLE GEOGRAPHIC AREAS are playing at a high level and competing for the championship." College basketball has this figured out (though the Big Ten/Pac 12’s dry spell is getting concerning). The sport doesn’t “need” Indiana. The Big Ten leads in college basketball attendance numbers annually despite the Hoosiers’ irrelevance. Now, high school/college football? There is a real concerning trend that has developed. NO ONE OUTSIDE OF THE SEC/CENTRAL INDY has a realistic shot at the big prize. We can debate why all day, perhaps another conversation for another day…but the parallels are eerily similar and cannot be ignored. Just my two cents.

New Pal agrees.

I'll only speak to what I think I know well (I know maybe a shock for many of you), and use judgment rather than data. In my opinion, the only 6A blue bloods are the four MIC schools and Penn, but the Kingsmen are fading fast. They are trending in the wrong direction and a couple more poor years and they are bounced off my list. I'm just not sure you can use measurables like sectional and regional titles as a barometer due to the HUGE imbalance of strength throughout the state. A sectional/regional title for Penn does not carry the same weight as one for the four teams mentioned above. I'd say the same for Carmel actually, until recently.

Good point. I guess I have just always assumed Tennessee was a national brand. Maybe its my age of when I grew up or maybe even I (the biggest SEC hater you don't know) have some SEC bias, lol.

My rule of thumb is if the current players who are a part of your program (or if you are recruiting them at the college level) were not born or were too young to remember when you were elite, it’s expired. Indiana/Georgetown basketball come to mind. Nebraska/Tennessee football do also.

Great off-season topic. Following. FWIW: I don’t think blue blood status is eternal. Your criteria is solid but I think any such status expires after a certain amount of time without success. (We can debate the specifics of that time period all day.)

They never expire. Zero tolerance return policy.

Way before Clausen, but…I had to dig deep for this one.

Great question. I’d honestly say no. 365 days ago, Harbaugh was viewed in a different light both locally and nationally. To Jim it really doesn’t matter though. He is going to go about his business regardless of what others think. To him this move was obvious. To show current and future players and their families that he cares for them and is building lifelong relationships regardless of the circumstances. He really is a genuine guy and I’m not dismissing ulterior motives but to some (specifically Michigan’s rivals) this is purely a move for optics. I mentioned above it’s been a mixed bag but will honestly say that that bag has been about 75/25 on the positive end with Michigan fans/folks and the inverse when it comes to outsiders based on what I have seen/read. The 12 win season/conference title and OSU win earned him some grace, lol.

In summary, mixed bag.

Don’t shower for a week.

I’ve seen both sides from UM fans, alumni and donors. I’ve also seen what’s being said by players, recruits and their families about this move and they LOVE it which is what really matters. Quirky or not, Harbaugh knows exactly what he’s doing here…and let’s be real (politics aside) if you are basing your fandom or donations on this one move, you really weren’t a fan to begin with. Personally, I don’t care for the guy based on him talking out of turn and not being as educated on certain issues as many want to think he is… (like why would he try to get back in the very same league that he claims is a slave plantation?) But then again, I’m not making millions of dollars to make choice for a football program/university. Side note, where in the hell is @Footballking16? Did he take his ball and go home?

They simply cannot compete annually with the other six HCC schools due to the gap in socioeconomics. You name the sport. Avon and FC are in the bottom half of the conference if not 7th-8th in EVERYTHING. Avon places it’s priorities in the arts, FC has joined the athletics arm race but is too far behind.

LOL at asking the question and not liking the answer… Come on @Bash Riprock…we need analysis from every conference member in the FBS…so lazy.

Make the call to FC and Avon and move on…

Yep. Used to be a two horse race annually. Now the suburban schools are not only holding their own, they are winning them too. Just taking a snapshot of the last 10 years (shared titles are given to both schools) CG - 5 BD - 4 Carmel - 3 Warren - 2 The previous 16 years: BD - 7 Warren - 7 CG - 3 Carmel - 3 This doesn’t even take into account the other sports which are now also being dominated by the two suburban schools, or at least were… prior to the strongly worded letter. As I said in another thread, let’s just call this what it is.