crimsonace1

Great hire. Nick's an up and coming outstanding coach, was assistant HC at New Pal, ran an incredible special teams while being involved in everything. You're going to have someone who believes in accountability, who is young and eager, and who has won state championships as both a player and a coach.

This is why the PBA thing was created - the IHSAA knew the legislature was going to force its hand, so it wanted to get in front of the issue before the legislature screwed it up and wrote the rules (which would be tilted toward certain favored schools' desires). Same with the transfer rule.

Merrillville did move up due to enrollment.

Here are the sectional alignments in visual form. Each sectional is its own color, each class its own layer. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1k2u-A78p_SsvD9pLgQb2WNQtN-xHkHI&usp=sharing

Lawrence County has seen a bit of a dip in population, like many rural counties, but it seems the people who are there either aren't having as many kids, or they're home schooling/sending them elsewhere.

The teams that struggled to compete - Shelbyville & New Castle - have left the conference. Pendleton Heights was ranked most of last year. Yorktown gave Roncalli its best game of the tournament until Thanksgiving weekend. Mt. Vernon had a lousy year last year but has a state championship this decade. Greenfield-Central has consistently put up winning seasons of late. And new additions Brebeuf, Guerin Catholic and Lebanon are all solid programs.

There are 6A programs who have said no. They don't want to be embarrassed by losing to a "small school." Thankfully, Westfield and Center Grove have not been among them ... each has played a home-and-home with New Pal, which kinda blows holes in the "New Pal doesn't play anybody" theory. (Every non-conference opponent NP has scheduled in the Kyle Ralph era has played on Thanksgiving weekend in the last decade).

No, but New Pal streams all of its home games on IHSAAtv.

Remember that DC goes back to 5A if it doesn't win a regional this year ... so I wouldn't be surprised to see them be in the 5-team sectional just in case that adjustment needs to be made.

Thanks for weighing in. 🙄 One of the reasons a conference exists is to aid in scheduling. An independent team has to fill nine weeks - and fit those in against other teams. And when you are a top program, a lot of schools *will not play you*, making scheduling even more difficult. When you're playing out-of-state teams, it's usually because there were no in-state options. The HHC is fine, especially with the new additions. It's a competitive league with really good communities, programs and coaches. And it still gives teams the freedom to schedule two more games (and, for New Pal, East Central will be one of those two going forward).

This past season, there were 17 New Pal alumni on college rosters, including seven playing Div. I, and one on the Super Bowl champions' practice squad.

There are a LOT more 3A schools in the northern half of the state than the southern half.

To my knowledge, the majority of the conference decided to invite Guerin and Brebeuf (instead of Roncalli and Chatard). Not sure diocesan affiliation (or lack thereof) had to do with it as much as other factors, travel distance for the northern schools Lebanon/Pendleton Heights/Yorktown being one.

Guerin *is* a diocesan school, it's just in the Diocese of Lafayette (as Hamilton County is in the Lafayette diocese) and not the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Was there for basketball last week and there was a banner celebrating the schools in their diocese that feed Guerin. Brebeuf's affiliation is with the Jesuits - an order of priests that operates a number of high schools and colleges in the country. Like Cathedral, it is Catholic, but does not have affiliation with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

https://www.ihsaa.org/sites/default/files/documents/011526 Executive Committee.pdf