PDB26

Dude, you can't be serious, right?

If I were to list factors for success, I'd have the enrollments of any school's opponents above any single school's enrollment. I think Center Grove is a great example.

This is a really good point that can be traced through the history 5A/6A ball. I think Penn's 21-0 over Center Grove in 2000 is the only time that a "true north" team took a championship over an Indy area school by more than a score. The Indy area teams have always had more, I don't know what to call it, "blowout potential" in these matchups.

To be fair, there's a world of difference between high school scouting in 2002 and 2022. Also, I'm not speaking with the conspiratorial, anti-Indy bias that most northerners seem to adopt. Not that it really matters, but I think it would have made a difference where he played. I think we held him to three catches across two games his senior year. Now, we basically doubled him in many scenarios and completely took away the quicks that they liked to get him on so he could work in space. Must have been a lot of pressure on the QB to get away with going 1 on 1.

Absolutely true, and fit is important for just about every prospect. He was certainly helped by Willingham's departure. But this evaluation--if it's not way off--is a miss in my book. If he's an Indy product he's easily a 4 Star. He was probably already 6'3'' or 6'4'' in high school, had good not great wheels, but he made up for it by being pretty shifty, especially for his height. He played every down. He wasn't James Banks, but he was an extremely talented high school player in this state back then. He was also hilarious on the field, but I know that's not taken into account.

I always felt like being Co-Champions with a team you didn't get to play was a worthwhile price to pay to get more out of conference games.

That Samardzija eval is so off it's not even funny.

This is great. The Week 9 format seems like a bit of a miss to this outsider when you could have an additional OOC game, but that's merely a quibble.

I think "fall short" was an inelegant way for me to conclude that point. I think there are any number of factors that reduce a program's ability to compete, but relative enrollment among the 6A schools would be at the very bottom of my list. You often draw attention to SES--free and reduced lunch numbers, specifically--and that is a factor that can only be ignored by the obtuse. The idea of reducing 6A into two separate classes based on enrollment would do nothing to change the fact that the best football is played in the Indianapolis area, and programs--especially those in suburban Indianapolis--there are in a position of relative strength when compared with 6A programs outside of the Indianapolis metro area. They would be if they only had 2000-2500 students now that the competitive environment is built up the way that it has.

It's understandable that so much focus is on enrollment. It's the simplest and cleanest way to class schools, and football is the most numbers-dependent sport. Focusing on enrollments in 6A is a waste of time. Those schools all have enough material to compete. They fall short elsewhere. This should be so obvious by now it hurts. We don't even have to look that hard for good examples. How about we take two weeks of Merrillville's 2021 season? Merrillville (2187) 39 - Penn (3338) 7. Westfield (2334) 48 - Merrillville (2187) 19. I'm just using the IHSAA numbers, but Penn's enrollment is actually more like 3800 if that helps any. With you here for sure. Diluting 6A is definitely not a solution to any problem, if one exists. This would be akin to class basketball in my opinion. The Indy area football programs have traditionally dominated the largest class, and, to some degree, the second largest class in football. Creating an additional class does nothing to change that. Large schools outside of Indy are disadvantaged because of their competitive environments, but that doesn't necessitate the creation of an additional class to give them the chance at a state championship they "deserve". There were at least five. Penn has had 3000+ students for two decades, and a lot of good that's done them in that time.

Yup, right along with the "Lady Kingsmen" 🤔.

Dude.

EHHHHHHHHHHH

I like your analysis, and I am also unsure about these variables. I'm really unsure with regard to critical mass and geographic location. I think it's still better than no football, or the IHSAA telling teams they can't play because their team isn't big enough. I especially agree that 6-man isn't football on anything but a spiritual level, but I think 8-man and 9-man are close enough to avoid being "not football". It's odd, but I might actually prefer alternative formats to co-op teams. Co-op just feels too much like hockey to me. However, I'd be for any scheme that gets more players who want to be on the field on the field.

I'd rather see the creation of voluntary 6-man or 8-man format before the establishment of an exclusion scheme to tournament access. Some arbitrary number would be required for qualification purposes, but maybe there'd likely be more football being played in places where they can't play now.

The '03 team was impressive in its own right I think. Lewis was tough, even as a sophomore, and they had another explosive back that I can't name for the life of me. Justin Wynn was the QB, and the three of them had a ton of yards that year. To your point, the '04 team was great and absolutely took Penn apart in the semi-state. It's a shame Lewis was out for the final that year.

Trojans are 52-1 in state title years. Three unbeaten seasons. Quite an achievement, really.

My mind went to the teams that were leading the pack from 1999–2004--just leading into that run of dominance from Warren--that I would like to be in a game with this CG team. Ben Davis, Penn, Snider, Valpo, Warren--obviously--were all physically impressive teams. Ben Davis went three out of four from '99–'02. Incidentally, that same stretch was when Penn was as close as they ever got to playing at Ben Davis's level. A championship loss to Ben Davis in '99, win against CG in '00, and a couple of tough beats at the hands of Valpo in '01 and, especially, '02. That '02 team was ranked in the top ten nationally--after a big win at Ben Davis--and, despite getting eliminated in the Regional, was possibly the best team Penn ever fielded. Valpo had a mini-moment in 2001 and 2002. They were big and ran well with Samardzija leading a trio of guys on the outside. Snider, short of some ball security issues in '03, I think in a year when they had three 1000 yard rushers, was super talented and could just have easily made back to back trips to face Warren that year and in '04. I think it would be fun to see those teams out there against this CG squad. Who knows what the results would be, but those teams could play today.

I was secretly hoping I'd imagined the whole thing all these years! Still a chance to reach some even more rarified air for a couple of coaches this weekend.

The infallible local newspaper. Sorry, been on the other end of a Kevin Wright buzzsaw.

Kevin and Bud Wright?

Did that game get played on Friday night?

Penn played Portage in the regional in '95. The game got stormed out on Friday and rescheduled for Saturday. Woke up to what seemed like a half foot of snow on the ground. I was young enough then for these details to be fuzzy, so if anyone has a better recollection I'd be interested in hearing it. What about the other regionals in the north that year? I know that Bremen and Jimtown played, and St. Joe had a home game that night too. Anyone out there remember this?

In the general sense, losing the ability to schedule some games of your choice is likely bad--especially when it requires you to play games against some inferior opponents--but I probably disagree that playing Homestead and Carroll affects Snider or Dwenger negatively. Homestead and Carroll would be two reasonable programs to add in an OOC scenario if they weren't already required to play them.

Terrifying to see in person from the perspective of 6A northern football. I'm not sure that Elkhart's athletic ceiling is all that different than Merrillville's despite the size disparity between the two schools. I thought Merrillville was athletic enough to be there with Westfield last night. To your point, though, if a school in the north is going to have a special group come through for a big run, Elkhart is as good a candidate as any other. As it concerns mounting a sustainable challenge to the central powers, I'm not sure how Elkhart's future is any different than any of the other northern Indiana 6As if it stays in the NIC.