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232 Eastern (Pekin) 398 233 Shenandoah 398 234 Delphi 394 235 North Putnam 391 236 Prairie Heights 391 237 Clarksville 388 238 Lewis Cass 388 239 Wheeler 383 240 Winchester 379 241 Eastern Hancock 377 242 Paoli 375 243 Linton-Stockton 364 244 Hagerstown 363 245 Central Noble 360 246 LaVille 360 247 Eastside 355 248 South Spencer 355 249 Perry Central 354 250 Eastern Greene 350 251 Churubusco 349 252 Lake Station Edison 348 253 Taylor 348 254 South Putnam 347 255 Crawford County 344 256 Sheridan 341 257 Union County 339 258 Forest Park 334 259 South Adams 331 260 Knightstown 329 261 Whitko 327 262 South Central (Union Mills) 325 263 Clinton Prairie 324 264 Parke Heritage 323 265 North Knox 321 266 Winamac 320 267 North Judson 318 268 Monroe Central 314 269 Riverton Parke 314 270 Milan 312 271 Cloverdale 307 272 Lafayette Central Catholic 306 273 Fountain Central 305 274 North Decatur 300 275 Fremont 298 276 North Newton 295 277 Tecumseh 295 278 West Washington 294 279 Carroll (Flora) 289 280 Indianapolis Irvington 286 281 Northfield 286 282 Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian 282 283 Madison-Grant 281 284 North Daviess 280 285 Indianapolis Lutheran 279 286 Faith Christian 277 287 Triton 273 288 Bowman Academy 270 289 Pioneer 270 290 Anderson Prep Academy 269 291 North Vermillion 261 292 Caston 255 293 North Miami 255 294 North White 255 295 Southwood 253 296 Southern Wells 250 297 Tri 250 298 South Newton 248 299 Wes-Del 246 300 Covington 245 301 Greenwood Christian 244 302 Springs Valley 243 303 Clinton Central 239 304 North Central (Farmersburg) 237 305 Union City 236 306 South Decatur 226 307 Purdue Polytechnic - Broad Ripple 220 308 Culver 219 309 Edinburgh 208 310 Tri Central 206 311 Tri-County 206 312 West Central 206 313 Cambridge City Lincoln 181 314 Frontier 180 315 Indianapolis Tindley 178 316 Attica 166

The DOE has finally released enrollment data from the fall count day for the 25-26 school year. This year is the second of a two year alignment cycle, so these numbers will be used for realignment this spring to set classes for the 26-27 and 27-28 school years. I am sharing this data to give an idea of the enrollment numbers. Note that there always seems to be a few schools that have slightly different numbers when the IHSAA releases their enrollments for classification in a realignment year. Schools with an * did not report their data to the DOE, so their enrollments are listed as the same number they gave the IHSAA in 2024. I am only listing the schools in order by enrollment and not including any projections for the split between classes. This data also does not reflect any potential success factor changes. Here are the enrollments for the schools that play 11-man football. Rank School Name 2026 Enrollment 1 Carmel 5203 2 Ben Davis 4365 3 North Central (Indpls.) 3664 4 Fishers 3615 5 Avon 3520 6 Franklin Central 3484 7 Penn 3476 8 Brownsburg 3460 9 Hamilton Southeastern 3381 10 Warren Central 3276 11 Pike 3259 12 Noblesville 3186 13 Westfield 3063 14 Center Grove 3043 15 Crown Point 3035 16 Elkhart 2876 17 Lake Central 2840 18 Lawrence North 2777 19 Carroll (Fort Wayne) 2581 20 Lawrence Central 2470 21 Southport 2398 22 Perry Meridian 2397 23 Homestead 2345 24 Zionsville 2314 25 Jeffersonville 2147 26 Harrison (West Lafayette) 2109 27 Whiteland 2105 28 Columbus North 2098 29 Valparaiso 2082 30 Merrillville 2081 31 Fort Wayne Northrop 2069 32 Portage 2038 33 Indianapolis Arsenal Tech 2016 34 Lafayette Jefferson 2008 35 Warsaw 1987 36 Decatur Central 1967 37 Chesterton 1905 38 Castle 1882 39 South Bend Adams 1878 40 Fort Wayne Snider 1854 41 McCutcheon 1823 42 Plainfield 1791 43 New Albany 1755 44 Floyd Central 1752 45 LaPorte 1720 46 Bloomington South 1714 47 Anderson 1693 48 Concord 1688 49 Seymour 1644 50 Goshen 1641 51 Evansville North 1618 52 Hammond Central 1611 53 Franklin Community 1558 54 Mount Vernon (Fortville) 1539 55 Terre Haute South 1502 56 Munster 1474 57 Bloomington North 1445 58 Huntington North 1440 59 Greenfield-Central 1430 60 Fort Wayne South Side 1419 61 Michigan City 1408 62 Terre Haute North 1399 63 Kokomo 1385 64 Pendleton Heights 1379 65 Fort Wayne Wayne 1367 66 Fort Wayne North Side 1320 67 Mooresville 1301 68 Hobart 1292 69 Hammond Morton 1287 70 Evansville Harrison 1283 71 Columbus East 1280 72 Evansville Reitz 1273 73 Richmond 1261 74 Muncie Central 1254 75 Mishawaka 1249 76 South Bend Riley 1249 77 Northridge 1239 78 East Central 1214 79 Greenwood 1207 80 Martinsville 1204 81 New Palestine 1202 82 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks 1199 83 Bedford-North Lawrence 1186 84 Columbia City 1180 85 Indianapolis Shortridge 1166 86 Jennings County 1161 87 Logansport 1123 88 New Haven 1117 89 Indianapolis Cathedral 1109 90 Shelbyville 1077 91 Indianapolis Roncalli 1075 92 Lebanon 1067 93 Gary West Side 1064 94 Jasper 1059 95 East Chicago Central 1054 96 Lowell 1017 97 Silver Creek 1009 98 Highland 1006 99 Evansville Central 999 100 Marion 993 101 Plymouth 992 102 East Noble 987 103 New Prairie 971 104 Kankakee Valley 951 105 DeKalb 940 106 Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger 936 107 South Bend Saint Joseph 922 108 Charlestown 918 109 Danville 903 110 Beech Grove 902 111 Frankfort 896 112 Northview 888 113 Leo 886 114 Boonville 869 115 Connersville 866 116 Hanover Central 859 117 NorthWood 855 118 Yorktown 840 119 Jay County 839 120 Culver Academies* 833 121 Brebeuf Jesuit 827 122 Delta 826 123 Wawasee 813 124 Madison 803 125 Guerin Catholic 799 126 Evansville Bosse 797 127 New Castle 795 128 Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 794 129 Washington 792 130 Mishawaka Marian 783 131 Gibson Southern 776 132 Western 773 133 Edgewood 769 134 Norwell 754 135 West Lafayette 751 136 Hammond Bishop Noll 750 137 Corydon Central 740 138 Fort Wayne Concordia 735 139 Hamilton Heights 734 140 Vincennes Lincoln 717 141 Scottsburg 705 142 Lawrenceburg 697 143 Angola 695 144 South Bend Washington 693 145 Batesville 688 146 Mississinewa 685 147 Crawfordsville 681 148 West Noble 681 149 Evansville Memorial 658 150 Indian Creek 647 151 Griffith 643 152 Calumet 622 153 Heritage Hills 621 154 Fairfield 619 155 Purdue Polytechnic Downtown 617 156 Owen Valley 615 157 South Dearborn 613 158 Twin Lakes 609 159 Indianapolis Washington 607 160 Bellmont 606 161 John Glenn 606 162 Greensburg 602 163 North Harrison 588 164 Mount Vernon (Posey) 586 165 Franklin County 582 166 River Forest 577 167 Speedway 575 168 Heritage 565 169 Tri-West 563 170 Rushville 562 171 Tippecanoe Valley 562 172 Princeton 558 173 Bluffton 548 174 Evansville Mater Dei 546 175 Garrett 540 176 Northwestern 539 177 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 538 178 Southridge 538 179 Woodlan 538 180 North Montgomery 528 181 Sullivan 526 182 Benton Central 521 183 Western Boone 513 184 Centerville 512 185 Heritage Christian 510 186 Maconaquah 510 187 Cascade 504 188 Eastbrook 502 189 Jimtown 502 190 West Vigo 501 191 Lakeland 498 192 Christel House Manual 495 193 Frankton 492 194 Lapel 492 195 Eastern (Greentown) 490 196 Greencastle 487 197 Southmont 486 198 Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter 483 199 Triton Central 482 200 Oak Hill 480 201 Knox 474 202 Andrean 473 203 Salem 467 204 Brown County 464 205 Peru 462 206 Bremen 460 207 Wabash 457 208 Monrovia 454 209 Rochester 452 210 Brownstown Central 448 211 Tipton 445 212 North Posey 443 213 Providence 442 214 Alexandria 435 215 Boone Grove 433 216 Switzerland County 428 217 South Vermillion 425 218 Whiting 423 219 Elwood 422 220 Park Tudor* 422 221 Blackford 421 222 Indianapolis Scecina 420 223 Pike Central 419 224 Seeger 419 225 Northeastern 417 226 Covenant Christian (Indpls.) 411 227 Adams Central 410 228 Mitchell 407 229 Rensselaer Central 407 230 Manchester 401 231 Tell City 400

I like 6 team conferences and I don’t think Lebanon is a bad fit for the HHC. The combination I think would have made more sense is to have Lebanon and Danville join the larger schools of the new Hoosier Legends Conference. Bring in Martinsville, who is quickly being outgrown by the Mid-State, to get to 6. Then the smaller members of the Hoosier Legends go with a 6 team league which includes Cascade. Frankfort goes to the reduced Hoosier and the Monon Conference goes on with 6. Indiana Legends Martinsville 1281 Greenwood 1223 Shelbyville 1068 Lebanon 1067 Beech Grove 914 Danville 848 Hoosier Legends Indian Creek 652 Tri-West 610 Speedway 600 Cascade 537 Monrovia 489 Triton Central 471 Monon Crawfordsville 680 North Montgomery 547 Western Boone 519 Greencastle 497 Southmont 476 North Putnam 397 Hoosier Frankfort 922 West Lafayette 752 Twin Lakes 620 Benton Central 516 Delphi 397 Lafayette Central Catholic 300 The Hoosier Heritage Conference could then pull the two smallest remaining members of the Mid-State and send Yorktown north. The Mid-State brings in Bloomington South to join Bloomington North as a conference of 6. Hoosier Heritage Franklin Community 1531 Pendleton Heights 1502 Mt Vernon (Fortville) 1470 Greenfield-Central 1413 Mooresville 1372 New Palestine 1246 Mid-State Perry Meridian 2447 Whiteland 2135 Decatur Central 1967 Plainfield 1836 Bloomington South 1676 Bloomington North 1517

What did the folks in White County do to you to deserve that kind of name calling for the Cavaliers, and Frontier doesn’t even make the list for the conference. I know that is just a typo but it gave me a good chuckle when I read it. I like that it provides further justification for the edit feature to be enabled for more than a measly three minutes.

Cascade was an interesting choice to include in the new Monon Conference. I am sure it was based upon proximity to the other schools, but Cascade has been following a similar growth trend to the three schools the SAC members were trying to get away from. Frankfort has also experienced growth just like the exiled members, but they probably led the charge to get away from the schools with stronger athletic programs. Here is the 15 year enrollment trend for the schools (growth %). Saga-No More Danville +5.66 Lebanon +4.50 Tri-West -1.97 Monon Frankfort +4.99 Cascade +4.47 Crawfordsville +0.15 Western Boone -15.22 Greencastle -20.52 North Montgomery -25.23 Southmont -35.71 North Putnam -46.60

It’s too bad Harrison and McCutcheon are so far from the rest of the Hoosier Heritage Conference schools Lebanon is joining. They would be a pretty good fit in terms of their level of competition. Even though Yorktown is quite a bit smaller, they play above their enrollment in most sports. Very similar to West Lafayette. If the schools were not so far apart, a 12 team, 2 division conference like this could be interesting. Division 1 Harrison (West Lafayette) 2193 McCutcheon 1835 Pendleton Heights 1502 Mount Vernon (Fortville) 1470 Greenfield-Central 1413 New Palestine 1246 Division 2 Lebanon 1067 Danville 848 Yorktown 836 Western 799 West Lafayette 752 Hamilton Heights 709

The fall count day enrollments for this year have not been released by the DOE yet, but they should be available soon. I’ve posted the DOE enrollments shortly after they are released for the past several years, and I am glad to continue doing so again this year.

The 1193 for East and 2075 for North from October 2024 on that chart does not match the data they reported to the DOE (1452 for East and 2360 for North) in October 2024. The number reported to the DOE must include high school students in their other programs.

I should have clarified, my suggestion of a transfer portal multiplier would be in addition to the success factor, not eliminating the success factor in favor of the transfer portal multiplier. The transfer portal multiplier would apply to all schools, not just P/P/C, so it would equally impose an increase in the school enrollment total for each student a school chooses to accept. No penalty would be applied for students a school is required by law to accept as residents of their geographic district. This would make enrollments a closer reflection of the inherent advantages some schools have from their location in, or in close proximity to, a population center they can pull students from. Where did I say anything in my post about P/P schools deliberately keeping enrollments below a certain number to stay in a lower class? For the vast majority of schools, that isn’t the reason they decline enrollment for certain students. Non-public schools can, and do, decline enrollment for students based upon a variety of factors such as historical attendance, disciplinary incidents, academic performance, services required to be provided to the student, or a combination of those factors. If a student moves into a public school district with a history of poor attendance, bad behavior, failing grades, and also happens to have an IEP, the public school has no choice but to accept the student. Non-public schools have a choice of whether to enroll that student or not. Do you think most private schools would enroll that student? There is also an high probability that the same student is also economically disadvantaged. Would any private schools offer a voucher (if they take vouchers) to that student and accept them? Is the conversation different if the student is a good athlete? That is why I am suggesting a transfer portal multiplier that would apply to every student a school enrolls that they had a choice to accept or decline. I do like and completely agree with your suggestion of a reducer based upon the percentage of special needs and FRL students. As I said above, I would be in favor of success factor for program specific success/dominance as well as my transfer portal multiplier for geographic and admission advantages. Add in your suggestion for a reducer based upon the percentage of disadvantaged students. Put those three things together and I think it brings us much closer to a true reflection of a school’s population and competitive level.

This is just my philosophy, but my application of the multiplier for P/P/C that they have no in-district students is a way to offset the advantage of being able to choose who is permitted to attend those schools. P/P/C schools have the ability to accept/decline students from anywhere, while public schools cannot decline enrollment by students who reside in their geographic district. Basically, if the school has a choice of whether to allow a student to enroll, those students would be counted twice in my formula. Students that are entitled to attend based upon residency within the geographic district would only be counted once.

Not sure where you heard about Columbus North dropping to 5A, but it is pretty unlikely. Unless they lost around 200 students from last year to this year, they will remain in 6A. They were the 24th largest school with 2360 students. Merrillville was 32nd with 2109 students, which would be the smallest school for 6A by enrollment before any success factor moves. Columbus East had 1452 students, which would have been the 29th largest school out of 32 in 5A. Greenfield-Central was 32nd (64th overall) with 1413 students. If Columbus East has lost students this year, a move to 4A could be a realistic possibility.

I think the “transfer portal” should absolutely be weighed into the enrollment number for all schools, and the data is already somewhat available to do it. Last year, I put together an adjusted enrollment for each high school based upon the percentage of students their district receives from outside the district. I took the total enrollment of the school and added the percentage of students from outside the district to their number, which basically just counts every out-of-district student twice. As an example, if a high school had an enrollment of 400 students, and their district received 10% of their students from outside the district, then the adjusted enrollment for the school was counted as 440 students. Private, parochial, and non-public charter schools receive all of their students from outside their district since they do not have a defined district, so their enrollments have a 100% addition to their total. Since all schools, public and P/P/C, can receive and benefit from out-of-district transfers, I felt that this may be a way to add a multiplier to all schools rather than just P/P/C. The result really wasn’t a significant impact on many schools, but it did reflect some of the advantages of schools who benefit from being in a larger urban area or in close proximity to one they can receive students from. I’ve thought about posting it, but I may wait until the enrollment and transfer data for this year is posted and just include it with that data as a comparison.

Where did you find those enrollments from 1984?

It has been an option for teams to elect to play up, they just have to make it known prior to the alignment of classes. The North Daviess boys basketball team did that a few years ago. They won a state championship in 21-22 and returned all of their starters with a good chance to repeat for 22-23. However, 22-23 was a new alignment cycle and they were going to be moved to 2A by enrollment. They were not happy and felt that the IHSAA was taking away a very strong chance to win a second state championship because their enrollment really had not increased, but the shrinking of some other schools close to the 1A/2A split led to ND being in 2A. Their path to a state championship in 2A would be much more difficult than 1A (Linton, Brownstown Central, Blackhawk Christian), so somewhat in protest of being required to move to 2A, they decided to go up a class to 3A. They did end up winning a regional in 3A and lost in the first semi-state game during the 22-23 season, which was probably further than they would have advanced in 2A. The choice was probably made just to save face and have the excuse of playing up in 3A as a reason why they didn’t win a second state championship. If Chatard really chooses to stay up, that would be admirable.

The travel is prohibitive to your suggestion in my opinion. This year, you could have semi-state games between SB St. Joseph and Heritage Hills, and Knox and Gibson Southern. If you’ve read my other material, you know I am in favor of neutral sites for each round after sectional, but even with centrally located neutral sites, this would require some significant travel that deters fans from attending. Mixing things up for the regional is probably more likely and more practical, especially since the IHSAA already does it for volleyball and basketball, but I agree with Coach Nowlin, it is silly. The IHSAA does not care about travel, or the cost of travel to schools and their fans, so this is probably something they would legitimately consider. Splitting the semi-states into north and south just makes sense in Indiana because the potential north-south distances between opponents can be much greater than the east-west distances.

Personal opinion - any team that gets moved up a class (or more) and wins a sectional should not get to drop back down a class. They’ve proven they can compete and find “success” in a class above their enrollment classification. No team should be eligible to drop back down a class until they do not win at least a sectional. They should stay up until they lose a sectional. It is silly to me to let a team drop to a lower class when they’ve been winning in a higher class. Barr-Reeve’s principal was the driving force behind the rule change to 3 points so their highly successful volleyball team (which has been success factored from 1A to 3A but couldn’t win a state championship in 3A) could move back a class to 2A. Wouldn’t you know it, Barr-Reeve volleyball dropped to 2A for the current cycle, won a regional last year, and a state championship this year. Don’t be surprised if there is a push to move the point total back up to 4 points to stay up a class after the Vikings don’t win 3A the next two years.

I thought about putting Adams Central & South Adams together, and Bishop Dwenger & Bishop Luers together. I went with some combinations that have slightly better travel times. Rivals like those pairings may have some fans who will cheer for each other and other fans who would rather go sit on the side of their rival’s opponent.

On the neutral site regional topic, playing the semi-state round as 2 game double headers was mentioned. This is my suggestion for hypothetical semi-state hosts with a double header format. Saturday Afternoon/Evening - Two Games North @ Warsaw Andrean/Adams Central Knox/FW Bishop Luers @ Plymouth SB Saint Joseph/FW Bishop Dwenger Merrillville/Concord @ Marion Pioneer/South Adams Carroll/Westfield South @ Center Grove New Palestine/Bloomington South Brownsburg/Warren Central @ Shelbyville South Putnam/Milan Lapel/Brownstown Central @ Bedford North Lawrence Cascade/Gibson Southern Roncalli/Heritage Hills

As I said in my regional sites post, I am an advocate of neutral sites to host tournament games after the sectional round. I think the facilities in Indiana are capable of a format with neutral site hosts for regional and semi-state. All games would be at locations with turf fields. This can reduce travel times and limit the impact of field conditions as a variable. Just like the regionals, it would give schools an opportunity to showcase the investment they have made in their facilities. Here are my hypothetical neutral site semi-states for this year. Neutral Site Semi-States 6A Carroll/Westfield @ Marion Brownsburg/Warren Central @ Ben Davis 5A Merrillville/Concord @ LaPorte New Palestine/Bloomington South @ Franklin 4A SB Saint Joseph/FW Bishop Dwenger @ Wawasee Roncalli/Heritage Hills @ Silver Creek 3A Knox/FW Bishop Luers @ Warsaw Cascade/Gibson Southern @ Bedford NL 2A Andrean/Adams Central @ Logansport Lapel/Brownstown Central @ Whiteland 1A Pioneer/South Adams @ Huntington North South Putnam/Milan @ Triton Central

Huntington is an excellent choice. I went with Wabash for that game since it is closer to being centrally located between TL/Luers. 1 hr 25 mins to HN from Twin Lakes and only 40 minutes or so from Luers. Wabash is an hour from both schools. Either location would be an improvement compared to the 2 hour trip Luers will have Friday night. Huntington North would still get to showcase their facility by hosting the North Miami/South Adams game.

Most schools that host sectional events in basketball and volleyball have 4 locker rooms, but those are in/near their gym and may not be close to the football field. It’s a logistic that could possibly be overcome, but it would also be a factor to consider when deciding which schools are chosen to host.

I’ve thought about football semi-state games being played as a double header on Saturday like the basketball semi-state used to be (which was far better than the current basketball semi-state format) instead of Friday night single games at a host school. Fans could attend 2 games if they choose with game 1 played at 2:00 p.m. and game 2 played at 6:30 p.m. Lunch before game 1 and dinner before game 2. The start times should permit enough time for the first game to be played, celebration, facility cleared, and approximately an hour of pregame warmups before the start of game 2. I prefer single games at neutral sites on Friday nights, but it would be interesting to see what the Saturday double headers could look like.

BNL was an option I considered for that game, and it is probably a better fit to host a 3A game. I went with Mitchell since it is a little closer to being centrally located between Indian Creek and Gibson Southern. I already had a 4A game at Washington, so I looked at schools with turf a little closer to Indian Creek. Where is “here” and who are “we”?

As 23andCounting said, the state championship games are played on turf at Lucas Oil Stadium. It would be beneficial in my opinion to play on turf before the state finals. Do you think those teams that have played on grass all year will choose not to play in the finals because it is on turf, or complain that the conditions are not fair to them? Playing on turf is technically a field condition. You are right that there are reasons my suggestion for regional and semi-state is not currently done, but I think those can be overcome someday. This is just my hypothetical based upon my preferences for the regional and semi-state rounds. Some will agree with my suggestion for neutral sites on turf and others may prefer the current home game format. It’s like a Dave Portnoy pizza review. He likes some styles more than others and issues his rating based upon what he likes. You and I might like different styles of pizza. I go with New York style and Detroit deep dish.

Crap, that is my mistake with Yorktown hosting the Dwenger/Lebanon game. I had it as the first option in my tentative list before the games last night and forgot to change it to Maconaquah. I can’t edit my original post, but this is the correction. Bishop Dwenger/Lebanon @ Maconaquah