crimsonace1

Just noticed that, too. Pioneer never should've been placed in 2A - they didn't have enough Success Factor points the last two years to stay up. But putting them in 41 makes what is already a weird, discontiguous 1A map even weirder. Feels like they and West Central should trade places.

That would've been me. Two Indy-area schools had to go north, and that was the most natural thing to do was send HSE/Fishers up I-69 to Homestead/Carroll.

Looking at the brackets 6A: Pretty much as I expected. Two schools had to go north, and HSE/Fishers being paired with the two Fort Wayne schools made a lot of sense because of their proximity to I-69. 5A: Again, a pretty easy map. The big question was which pairs would go with which in the south. IHSAA opted to put THS/THN with Whiteland/Franklin and BHSN/BHSS with East/Seymour. I'd have flipped the Johnson County & Bloomington schools and created an I-65 sectional and a SR 46 one, but the IHSAA was clearly looking at latitude instead of longitude. 4A: The big question was, who was going to go into Sectional 23, which was going to be a spread-out mess no matter who got sent there. The big question was which schools would go into 23 and which into 22 among EC, Connersville, Shelbyville, Beech Grove and Greenwood. Again, the IHSAA went with latitude - East Central to Edgewood to Silver Creek to Greenwood is going to be a doozy but there was really no way around it. A bit of a surprise to see Logansport go north and Huntington North go south. Sectional 20 is largely centered around SR 26 but Frankfort to Jay County or Frankfort to Huntington will be a bit of a haul. Frankfort was likely going to go into that field because there was no place else where it would fit. 3A: A few surprises that make a lot of geographic sense - West Lafayette in Sectional 25, Chatard in Sectional 28 (which was clearly created as a US 31 sectional) and thus in the north. It's a good map as you see the fourth northern sectionals are all centered around major highways (25 - I-65, 26-Toll Road, 27-I-69, 28-US 31), but somewhat surprised Delta/Yorktown go up to Fort Wayne instead of Oak Hill/Tippecanoe Valley. In the south, West Vigo & Owen Valley being sent to Evansville while Southridge/Heritage Hills get sent to southeastern Indiana is a bit interesting. What I might have done is leave Southridge/HH in southwestern Indiana, put WV/OV in with Monrovia and Crawfordsville and move Purdue Poly/Speedway into Sectional 31 (likely bumping SD/Lawrenceburg to 32). But you can see the mapmakers really considered travel and major highway corridors - Lawrenceburg/SD with schools along I-74, WV/OV moved south because they are on US 41/SR 67, Southridge/HH are close to I-64 and thus it's fairly easy to access the Louisville area. 2A: Really makes a lot of sense when you look at the map. The sectionals are about as compact as they can be and the dividing lines are sensible. 1A: As compact and sensible as 2A is, 1A is one of the weirdest maps the IHSAA has ever put out. Park Tudor and Gary Bowman could play in the same regional? Sectionals 41 & 42 aren't geographically contiguous. The sectional fields themselves largely make sense, although I would've flipped Sheridan and Park Tudor to make those two sectional fields more geographically contiguous. The change I would've made is the regional round - Sectionals 41 & 43 should be together, 44 and 45 should be paired together, as well as 42 with 46. Here are the maps, with each sectional color-coded (the northwest regional in reds, the northeast regional in oranges, the central regional in blue/green and the south regional in black/gray): https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1O6J1oaoKWSgPWgPhsL7-eng1-_vqyqEr&usp=sharing

Eastern Hancock was the school that moved up to 2A to compensate for Pioneer going back down to 1A.

Pioneer *should* be 2A because it won a regional in 2020. Curious if this was just an error on the IHSAA's part that will be rectified when they announce the sectional assignments.

I don't think Avon goes anywhere unless Brownsburg goes with them. They have a long-standing rivalry. FC would make more sense. They're a geographical outlier in the HCC and at least would have shorter roadtrips with Marion County schools than going to Brownsburg and Zionsville. Franklin Township is exploding in population, though, and will likely be, enrollment-wise, on par with the larger MIC/HCC schools before long. They'd be one of the stronger teams in the MIC in the non-revenue sports. I'd make a call to Tech, who honestly fits very well in the NCC everywhere except geography. However, IMO, they'd struggle to compete in the MIC in just about every team sport except basketball.

Kyle Ralph is New Pal's throwing coach and has been involved in track and field in some fashion since he stepped into the building in 2013. A large number of football players are involved in track.

Very simply put, Success Factor adjustments come when reclassification happens. There was a reclassification *this* summer (which was put off by a year), but SF adjustments were made last year. That put the IHSAA in a very weird spot as it tries to realign the SF and reclassification years, so it went with a bit of a hybrid system that really affects seven programs across six sports. It's mostly back in line. While I've cynically figured most SF adjustments have been aimed at Cathedral, I don't think this is. It's an attempt to use the last two years to get back on-cycle.

Long story short Pioneer: was already up due to 6 points earned in 2018/2019. This year's classifications were based on points earned in the higher class in 2020-21 *for the schools who were already up.* Pioneer got 2 points in 2020, thus it stays up because it has two points in the two-year cycle. Chatard: Moved up in 2021 due to the points earned in 2019/2020. Did NOT win a sectional (0 points). For the teams that moved up in 2021, the ones who won a sectional stayed up (Dwenger, LCC), while those that didn't (Chatard) moved back down. It's a bit odd but I understand the logic. If neither Dwenger or LCC wins a sectional this year, they'll move back down for 2022. It's really confusing because the IHSAA extended the last enrollment cycle by one year but decided to apply success factor points while extending the cycle and now needs to get them re-calibrated back to the beginning. They weren't going to go back to "straight enrollment" and reset - imagine the howling when Cathedral moves back to 4A after steamrolling 5A in back-to-back years.

That's *possible*, but there's really no great way to get from Lafayette to Terre Haute (231 to 74 to 63/41? 231 an hour south to Cloverdale and then another half-hour west on 70?). In terms of drive time, McCutcheon/Harrison are both closer to Plainfield/DC than they are to Terre Haute (because of I-65), and the Terre Hautes are closer to Bloomington than they are to Lafayette. Those two are pretty obvious sectional pairings when you look at the overall map. The rest of the state is a royal pain to figure out in 3A.

"Additionally, with the pandemic delaying reclassification for a year but the Tournament Success Factor still being applied, discussion continued on what to do with schools playing in a higher classification. The IHSAA Executive Committee has determined that the eight schools who earned at least one point this school year (2021-22) to continue playing in a higher classification due to the Tournament Success Factor, will be reevaluated after the 2022-23 school year and adjusted accordingly. Schools who failed to earn a point during the 2021-22 school year while playing in a higher class were returned to the next lower class for the next two years. This was to prevent schools from playing three consecutive years in a higher classification when their tournament results do not merit that placement." Basically, Chatard lost in the sectional last year and thus did not get a Success Factor point, so they went back to 3A. LCC & Dwenger both won their respective sectional titles last year but lost in the regional. Because they did get a Success Factor point (halfway to the two needed to stay up), they were kept up for one year and will be reevaluated next year (which could cause a bit of a mess with regards to 5A as it might leave a 3-team sectional, as I doubt Kokomo will be moved up to replace them). If they win the sectional, they stay up ... if they lose, they go back down for one year.

In the initial release of enrollments, Culver was given a 3A enrollment. That was the change - from the original projections, not from last year.

4A South is a complete mess because of South Dearborn & Madison leaving East Central on an island ... as well as Northview sitting on an island in western Indiana. 17: East Chicago, Gary West, Highland, Hobart, Lowell, Kankakee Valley, New Prairie, SB Washington 18: SB St. Joseph, SB Riley, Plymouth, Culver Military, NorthWood, Wawasee, Northridge, Columbia City 19: Angola, DeKalb, East Noble, Leo, New Haven, FW South, FW Wayne, Huntington North 17/18: six teams fit together well in 17 and New Prairie makes sense as the seventh. The question is, who is the eighth - do you send Culver, which is a longer trip and keep the SB schools together, or do you send SB Washington? 18/19: You have seven schools in the "north central" area and nine in what I consider the Northeast Corner/Fort Wayne area. One of them has to go west. East Noble would probably be the one that would fit most geographically to go west, but that would cut them off from the other Northeast Corner teams. Columbia City is the westernmost school of the NEC/FW-area schools, so they got moved. 20: Jay County, Muncie Central, Marion, Mississinewa, Kokomo, Western, Logansport, Frankfort. This one is spread-out, but pretty easy. The four southern sectionals are a problem because of the outliers. The questions - which is the 7-team sectional, what to do with East Central and what to do with Northview. Here was my best guess 21: Lebanon, Brebeuf, I. Shortridge, I. Attucks, I. Washington, Beech Grove, Roncalli, Northview (logic of placing Northview here: U.S. 40 connects it with Indy) 22: New Palestine, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, Pendleton Heights, New Castle, Richmond, Connersville, East Central 23: BNL, Jennings County, Edgewood, Shelbyville, Martinsville, Mooresville, Greenwood (made this the 7-team sectional because of the travel) 24: Jasper, Boonville, Ev. Harrison, Ev. Bosse, Ev. Memorial, Ev. Reitz, Ev. Central, Silver Creek

5A is interesting because of the "pairs" in the south that are largely interchangeable. 9/10/11 are extremely cut-and-dried and obvious: 9: Hammond Central, Hammond Morton, Merrillville, Munster 10: Chesterton, Valpo, Michigan City, LaPorte 11: SB Adams, Mishawaka, Concord, Goshen Then it gets dicey. You have three Fort Wayne schools, two Lafayette-area schools and Anderson sitting on an island. While it will be ridiculous travel, it makes sense to keep the Tippecanoe County schools together and make Anderson travel. That also makes the rest of the map fit together. 12: FW Dwenger, FW North, FW Snider, Anderson 13: Harrison, McCutcheon, Decatur Central, Plainfield (Another option would be Dwenger/North/Snider/Harrison and McCutcheon/Anderson/DC/Plainfield, but this makes less sense) The rest of the state is a bunch of pairs. Option 1 (most likely) 14: TH North/TH South, Bloomington North/Bloomington South 15: Franklin, Whiteland, Columbus East, Seymour 16: Ev. North, Castle, Floyd Central, New Albany Logic: SR 46 connects Terre Haute & Bloomington, they're about an hour apart. The Sectional 15 teams are connected via I-65 and are in adjoining counties Sectional 16 - I-64 connects the Evansville & Falls City areas. It's easier/quicker for the EVV teams to get to the Falls City area than it is to make the drive up U.S. 41 to Terre Haute. Option 2 14: Franklin, Whiteland, Bloomington North, Bloomington South 15: Columbus East, Seymour, Floyd Central, New Albany 16: TH North, TH South, Ev. North, Castle Option 3 (highly unlikely) 14: TH North, TH South, Franklin, Whiteland 15: Columbus East, Seymour, Floyd Central, New Albany 16: Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Ev. North, Castle (this would've been unthinkable prior to I-69)

6A is pretty cut and dried in the south 5: Brownsburg, Avon, Ben Davis, Pike 6: Cathedral, Lawrence North, Lawrence Central, North Central 7: Southport, Perry Meridian, Tech, Warren Central 8: Franklin Central, Center Grove, Columbus North, Jeffersonville The north is a mess because there are nine schools north of US 24 and seven south of it. 1: Crown Point, Lake Central, Portage, Lafayette Jeff 2: Penn, Elkhart, Warsaw, Carroll 3: FW Northrop, Homestead, Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers 4: Carmel, Zionsville, Westfield, Noblesville Logic: HSE/Fishers are right off I-69, so they have easier access to Fort Wayne despite being farther south than Westfield/Noblesville. Jeff fits neatly into Sectional 1 as it's off I-65 and pretty much equidistant from the Region and Hamilton County. Another option 1: Crown Point, Lake Central, Portage, Penn 2: Elkhart, Warsaw, FW Northrop, Carroll 3: HSE, Fishers, Homestead, Noblesville 4: Westfield, Zionsville, Lafayette Jeff, Carmel Here, eight of the nine northern teams stay in Sectionals 1 & 2, although they are more spread out (Penn/Elkhart get split), Jeff gets a *slightly* shorter drive and only Homestead gets sent south instead of two FW-area schools.

A few changes from what we had expected ... Bishop Chatard listed in Class 3A (instead of success bump to 4A). Adjustment in Culver Academies' enrollment pushes them to 4A. River Forest was on the 2A/3A line, they go up to 3A. Class changes New in 6A Zionsville (up) Jeffersonville (up) FW Northrop (up) Cathedral (up-success) New in 5A Chesterton (down) Merrillville (down) FW Snider (down) Hammond Morton (up) New in 4A Kokomo (down) Bedford NL (down) New Palestine (down) Ind. Washington (up) Ev. Bosse (up) Brebeuf (up) Edgewood (up) SB Washington (up) New in 3A Delta (down) SB Clay (down) Madison (down) South Dearborn (down) Ind. Chatard (down) Griffith (down) Purdue Poly - Indy (new) Woodlan (up) Speedway (up) Fairfield (up) Monrovia (up) Boone Grove (up) Western Boone (up) New in 2A Benton Central (down) Brown County (down) Ind. Ritter (down) Brownstown (down) Greencastle (down) Sullivan (down) Churubusco (up) Lake Station (up) Winamac (up) New in 1A North Newton (down) Gary Bowman (down) Dugger Union (new) NOTE: FW Dwenger (5A) and Lafayette Catholic (2A) will be reevaluated and possibly moved back down a class if they do not win a sectional title this upcoming year. Official classes Maps of each classification

Contracts are usually signed for two years and football ones especially are difficult because they require finding opponents. As late as things happened, it would be difficult for schools to find new opponents, so they'll ride by playing each other for one (or maybe two) more years, then cut ties.

Interesting that boys volleyball is played in the fall in the Region ... it's a spring sport in Central Indiana. It's almost universal in Central/Southern Indiana that if a school doesn't offer football, it has boys soccer instead (and thus homecoming is a Friday-night soccer game). Much like soccer - where some schools played a fall season and some played a spring season before the IHSAA took over, with those playing in the fall having a state tournament - I'd expect boys volleyball to be standardized as a spring sport when the IHSAA finally takes over administration of that sport (which will likely happen when it adopts girls wrestling, which is growing very rapidly).

Translation: the soccer coaches have a lot more pull in those schools than the baseball/track coaches do. Every time a new sport is added, you hear howling from the existing sport coaches in that season about "losing kids." A couple decades ago, I wrote a story about Eastern Hancock parents pushing for soccer (which never happened) and the next morning, fielded phone calls from multiple cross country coaches at other schools telling me why it was a terrible idea (the terrible idea being soccer drew kids away from cross country) ... we added boys volleyball at New Pal this spring, and I heard complaining from track coaches (again, at other schools who already have teams) about how much adding BVB "decimated" their programs.

I'm excited about 8-man football being an option for smaller schools who might not have the numbers for 11-man football. The more opportunities kids have to play, the better for the game (and for kids). Football has so much to offer. 8-man (and even 6-man) football is pretty common in the plains states where there are a lot of very small schools. Hopefully, this leads to more growth of the sport.

The college cannot host the event and third-party organizations (such as Ray Compton's group that has hosted the days at Lucas Oil Stadium and some HSBB daily shootouts at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum) are also not allowed to rent college-owned facilities, as it's seen as giving a recruiting advantage. However, a state association like the IHSAA *can* rent out a college facility. It happens very frequently - the IHSAA used Indiana State's arena for the girls basketball State Finals for a few years. It also uses Worthen Arena at Ball State for the gymnastics finals, IU's track, Purdue's softball stadium and IUPUI's swimming pool for their respective State Finals. It won't happen for a neutral semistate, because the rental costs are too high. But the idea of using larger high school facilities might work.

Bingo.

Out of curiosity, where is Cascade going? Back to the WIC?

A school conference is a voluntary association of schools and athletic directors. Because they are not spending taxpayer money for conference business (each team pays dues or shares costs for trophies, et al, out of athletic department funds that come from ticket sales), their meetings are not required to be open to the public. Most conferences are public school-only. Some are private-school only (the Circle City Conference being one). A few are a mix of private and charter schools (The Pioneer conference, which is a non-football conference, fits that bill). Some have a mix of both (LCC, for example, is a member of the Hoosier Conference. The Indiana Crossroads has two private schools among its eight teams).

Good catch, and how convenient that Park Tudor revised its enrollment to have *one* fewer student than Eastern Hancock after the revision. That should bump EH up to 2A and Park Tudor down to 1A.