HoopsCoach

I’m ok with this in the sectional, but I want to see the tournament go to neutral sites for regional and semi-state.

Ironic that you out of all people would need to pick another letter. R S T L N E

In my hypothetical semi-state post for last year, I listed two options - Friday night single games and Saturday double-headers. I didnt include the Saturday double-header alternative in my original post this year, but here is my suggestion. Saturday Afternoon/Evening - Two Games @ Logansport Andrean/Adams Central North Judson/South Adams @ Columbia City Garrett/FW Bishop Luers Mishawaka/East Noble @ Harrison (WL) Merrillville/Warsaw Crown Point/Westfield @ Plainfield New Palestine/Martinsville Brownsburg/Center Grove @ Bloomington North Indianapolis Lutheran/Linton Stockton Decatur Central/Bloomington South @ Bedford North Lawrence South Putnam/Providence Batesville/Heritage Hills

Northridge is an excellent facility and it would be a really good choice for that 4A game. I picked Wawasee because the drive time is just a little closer to equal for EN/Mishawaka. You are right that Carroll is a beautiful facility. It was actually my first choice to host the Garrett/Luers game. I have some family in the Carroll district and they said it is a nightmare to get to the school because of construction and traffic. I went with Northrop to avoid that and also give a little love to Spuller Stadium. Plainfield was my first choice over BD for the 6A game to make the drive times closer to equal. BD has a much larger capacity than Plainfield, so I listed BD as an alternative since that game may need a venue with a large capacity. The ideal host site for the 5A game is Martinsville, however, I didn’t pick it because they are still playing. Center Grove would also be a good choice, but they are still playing as well. Mooresville is much closer to Decatur Central, but it’s still only 50 minutes from Bloomington South. Greenwood was another possibility but it’s actually a few minutes more for Bloomington South to go there than it is to Mooresville.

All schools, public and private, have the ability to accept students from outside their district. Some are more active than others with their “recruiting”. The difference, which remains a disadvantage for public schools, is that private schools can both recruit and exclude. Public cannot exclude from their own district. This is what motivates many public schools to “recruit” from outside their district. If you’re stuck with the best and worst of your own, you have to try to get the best from others to compete with schools that have the choice to take only the best (or best they can get). The number of students from the North Adams district who choose to go to Adams Central make that a very unlikely possibility.

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. Here are my hypothetical neutral site semi-states for this year. All games would be at locations with turf fields. I did not pick a few sites that may have been better choices to host because those schools are still in the tournament (Warsaw, Center Grove, Martinsville). Even with a few alternative locations, 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. Neutral Site Semi-States - Friday Night 6A Crown Point/Westfield @ Lafayette Jeff Brownsburg/Center Grove @ Plainfield (or Ben Davis) 5A Merrillville/Warsaw @ LaPorte Decatur Central/Bloomington South @ Mooresville 4A Mishawaka/East Noble @ Wawasee New Palestine/Martinsville @ Perry Meridian 3A Garrett/FW Bishop Luers @ FW Northrop Batesville/Heritage Hills @ Charlestown 2A Andrean/Adams Central @ Logansport Indianapolis Lutheran/Linton-Stockton @ Bloomington North 1A North Judson/South Adams @ Maconaquah South Putnam/Providence @ Bedford North Lawrence

Here’s my hypothetical realignment of the large schools in central Indiana. Metropolitan Crossroads Conference North Division Carmel 5200 Fishers 3664 Hamilton Southeastern 3442 Noblesville 3208 Westfield 2789 Zionsville 2309 Central Division Ben Davis 4567 North Central 3616 Warren Central 3369 Pike 3192 Lawrence North 2817 Lawrence Central 2404 South Division Avon 3476 Franklin Central 3362 Brownsburg 3297 Center Grove 2893 Southport 2368 Columbus North 2267 - In football, schools will play the 5 opponents in their division, plus 1 opponent from each of the other 2 divisions for a 7 game conference schedule. This allows some rivalries or matchups schools want to keep going to continue across divisions. It may also permit schools that don’t want anything to do with each other to avoid playing. Mid-State Conference Perry Meridian 2359 Whiteland 2074 Decatur Central 2050 Plainfield 1773 Bloomington South 1656 Terre Haute South 1609 Bloomington North 1558 Terre Haute North 1467 Hoosier Heritage Conference Franklin Community 1590 Mt Vernon (Fortville) 1455 Greenfield-Central 1430 Mooresville 1398 Pendleton Heights 1353 Martinsville 1315 Greenwood 1211 New Palestine 1209 - Membership in these two conferences is somewhat divided east and west. As some of these schools grow and others decline, this alignment could change.

Personal opinion, but I think it is just as desirable as it would be if they were in a conference, including the MIC. Conferences don’t mean much beyond schedule stability. At Carmel, the goal is a state championship, not conference. Cathedral has remained a top job without any conference affiliation. Carmel will as well. Center Grove will be fine if they don’t find a conference.

Nothing against your Giants and their field, but I went with Eastbrook since it closer to an equal travel time between Adams Central/Eastern, and it is a 2A school. I think it would be good to play at venues in the class of the teams playing when it makes sense. If Lebanon had beaten Huntington North, I was going to suggest East Noble/Lebanon at Marion.

Yes. Every school hosting a game this week didn’t know they would still be playing until they won last Friday night. They figure it out, and neutral site hosts could potentially have even more notice that they will most likely host a regional game than the hosts in the current format which depend upon the outcome of the sectional finals. Schools could apply to host as they do in other sports, but geography and travel time are rarely considered by the IHSAA when selecting hosts. I’d like to see a rule that a school must make their facility available to host a regional or semi-state game to be able to host any round of the tournament. Schools that refuse are on the road for every round. That rule would never fly, and I would rather see the IHSAA increase the payout to host schools to make it more lucrative if this ever did become a reality.

Warsaw is an excellent venue, but I did not suggest Warsaw as a host because they are still playing. I am sure Mishawaka, Penn, or Elkhart would be good choices to host the Crown Point/Carroll game. I suggested Plymouth mostly based upon their location. I’ve been to the Rockpile and don’t really understand the hate for that venue, but this is all hypothetical anyway.

I forgot about that. Pike was my alternative location for that game instead of Tech. Bedford could certainly host that game, but I tried to find host locations that are a relatively similar drive time for the two teams. It’s about 30 minutes from Brownstown to Bedford, and just over an hour from Linton to Bedford. Bloomington North is right at an hour for both schools. On a related note, it was tough to choose a host with a turf field for the North Harrison/Heritage Hills game. Corydon Central or Southridge were my two choices.

I am an advocate of neutral sites to host tournament games after the sectional round, and I think the facilities in Indiana are capable of a format with neutral site hosts for regional and semi-state. Here are my hypothetical neutral site regional games for this year. All games would be played at locations with turf fields. A few hosts/venues that would be logical choices for some matchups are not selected because the host school will be playing in the regional round (Tri-West, Huntington North, Bloomington South, Warren Central). This will reduce travel times and remove field conditions as a variable. It also gives schools an opportunity to showcase the investment they have made in their facilities. Neutral Site Regionals - Friday Night 6A Crown Point/Carroll @ Plymouth Fishers/Westfield @ Noblesville Brownsburg/Lawrence North @ Arsenal Tech Center Grove/Warren Central @ Southport 5A Merrillville/Valparaiso @ Hobart Lafayette Jeff/Warsaw @ Kokomo Decatur Central/East Central @ Shelbyville Bloomington South/Castle @ Jasper 4A Mishawaka/New Prairie @ SB St Joe East Noble/Huntington North @ Columbia City Bishop Chatard/New Palestine @ Lawrence Central Evansville Reitz/Martinsville @ Washington 3A Garrett/Knox @ Northwood Maconaquah/Bishop Luers @ Wabash Tri-West/Batesville @ Triton Central Heritage Hills/North Harrison @ Corydon Central 2A Andrean/Central Catholic @ Kankakee Valley Adams Central/Eastern @ Eastbrook Indianapolis Lutheran/Lapel @ Mount Vernon Linton-Stockton/Brownstown Central @ Bloomington North 1A North Judson/Taylor @ Logansport North Miami/South Adams @ Oak Hill Sheridan/South Putnam @ Western Boone Milan/Providence @ Madison

I don’t think it’s a good practice to make decisions based upon predictions rather than facts. The population growth has been predicted for over two decades for Lebanon and it just hasn’t happened. Their enrollment in 2006 was 1024. Last year, it was 1033. It peaked at 1049 in 2023 and they had their lowest enrollment from 2006 to now in 2019 when it was 973. I’m not saying it can’t happen, but Lebanon hasn’t grown that much. Maybe they will, but that is a bridge to cross after it has been built. Danville has followed a similar trend. 760 in 2006, 820 now. Lowest was 739 in 2021 and highest was 827 in 2014.

This conference had a really balanced combination with the 6 original members. Now they’ve screwed it up because AD’s have this obsession with 8 team conferences for the ideal football schedule. 7 built-in games with 2 non-conference games. That desire for schedule simplicity often leads to competitive imbalance, enrollment disparity, poor geographic proximity, or all of the above. As you said, this is clearly a marriage of convenience. The 6 original members want 2 more members, and Greenwood and Shelbyville are eager to leave their current conferences for a home with the potential for more wins on their schedule. I think this conference should consider adding 2 more schools, which would bring the conference to 10 teams - Danville and Lebanon. It seems as though Tri-West didn’t want to bring them along to this new conference when the Bruins left the remnants of the Sagamore behind, or maybe Danville and Lebanon felt a bit betrayed and didn’t want to follow Tri-West. I have no first hand knowledge of any hard feelings on either side, but I think this conference would be better in the long-run with Danville and Lebanon. Adding those two schools could enable this conference to use a division format for football with the large schools in one division and the small schools in another. Large School Division Greenwood 1211 Shelbyville 1093 Lebanon 1033 Beech Grove 892 Danville 820 Small School Division Indian Creek 636 Tri-West 606 Speedway 571 Monrovia 503 Triton Central 468 In football, play the 4 schools in your division plus 3 from the other division to keep a 7-game schedule for the AD’s. One of the crossover games could be a protected game played every year, while the other 2 games could rotate among the other 4 cross division opponents.

Conferences exist for ease of scheduling (especially in football), moral victories (we didn’t win anything in the state tournament, but we did win our conference), and in some cases where the majority of conference members are competitive, preparation for the post-season tournament. Conference affiliation has no impact on the state tournament since Indiana has an all-in tournament in every sport. Schools can remain very competitive without a conference, it just comes with some challenges that are different from being in a conference. If it’s a good fit, a conference can be beneficial. If it’s not a good fit, and there don’t appear to be any good fits for the Bombers, then it can be better to go independent.

Illiana Christian’s enrollment was 544. The cutoff between 2A and 3A was 513, so they would be 3A.

Agree, as evidenced by my post last Friday.

It isn’t any direct knowledge I have, but it is what was shared by the IHSAA commissioner.

The lacrosse coaches do not have an interest in becoming an official IHSAA sport.

Brewer has proposed this rule before, and continues to propose it because Yorktown volleyball can’t win state in 4A. The entire reason for this is so their volleyball team can get moved back to 3A and win state again. Fortunately, it doesn’t look like the proposal is getting much support. Similar results to the polling occurred at other spring principals meetings. In my opinion, the point total to stay up was appropriate at 2 points per cycle. If your team is good enough to win 2 sectionals or 1 regional in a class above your enrollment, you are good enough to stay up. The change that was made for this year was not necessary in my opinion. It was proposed by Jeff Doyle from Barr-Reeve, who is an executive committee member, and was again motivated by a successful volleyball program. The position on the executive committee should be a good indication of how it got approved.

Yes. In the 2 year cycle of 22-23 and 23-24, there were actually 6 schools included in the 1A alignment which did not compete in the 1A tournament during the 2nd year of the cycle. Traders Point Christian, Anderson Prep Academy, Rock Creek Academy, Oldenburg Academy, Indiana Deaf, and Dugger Union did not compete in the tournament. So if 1A had started with 32 in this cycle, the tournament this year would have included 26 teams. Sectionals would start with 4 teams in each, so if one or two teams drop from the tournament, you end up with a 1 game sectional. Indianapolis Tindley could have won a sectional without playing a single game. Looking at who the 32 smallest schools were, it is very possible that a sectional would have included Traders Point, Indiana Deaf, Tindley, and Anderson Prep. That would be the definition of a participation trophy. Correct, that was my point, as further illustrated with my example above. Doing this would result in a mid-cycle change of classification for schools. There is already the potential for mid-cycle moves due to success factor (see Dwenger last season and the 3 team sectional that resulted), so the IHSAA might as well just realign the sectionals every year. The leadership group already hates doing it every 2 years, so I don’t think they want to do something that increases the need to realign more often. I do agree with the extra time for smaller schools to recover, but I think that can be accomplished by giving smaller schools the option to play an 8-game regular season.

How much value is there in a 1A state championship after 3-4 teams in the class drop football or close all together in a 2 year cycle? That is my primary reason for opposing 1A having only 32 schools.

In the past, the classifications and sectional alignments have been released after the conclusion of the winter sports season. That way success factor moves for all but the spring sports can be included.

Looks like a cross between Field of Dreams and Deliverance.