crimsonace1

Dwenger will be in 5A (Success Factor) and Kokomo in 4A (because Dwenger bumps them down)

One thing - putting 4A South together is going to be a headache because Madison & South Dearborn both moved to 3A and you have a bunch of schools on islands (East Central, Jennings County, Silver Creek, BNL, Northview, Edgewood). The IHSAA has to figure out what it's going to do with the southeastern part of the state especially, and then can put the rest of the state together. There are 24 schools in 4A in the Region (6 teams), SB/Elkhart area (8 teams) and the Fort Wayne area (10 teams). That's three sectional fields. Sectional 20 is a challenge. You have Logansport-Kokomo-Western-Marion-Mississinewa (and likely Muncie Central) who will almost assuredly be together. Of the remaining schools, do you put two of Jay County, Frankfort or Pendleton Heights with them? - and the key to that is what you do with Connersville, East Central and Shelbyville (do you send them in with Richmond/New Castle/Mt. Vernon/New Pal/Greenfield ... if so, then where does Jennings County go? If not, JC & Frankfort likely go north, PH goes into its old sectional and Shelby likely stays in). There are 7 in SW Indiana. The issue then comes as to which "island" school do you group with them - Silver Creek, Northview or BNL? That, then, is the key to the rest of the southern 5 sectional fields and how you split them up. And one other question - is Chatard part of 4A or not? That could be another key.

With 6A, it's a matter of trying to figure out what they're going to do with Jeff & the Fort Wayne-area schools. There are 9 schools in Northern Indiana, Jeff is on an island, and then six in the Hamilton County/Zionsville cluster. The south is pretty cut-and-dried. 1: Lake Central, Portage, Crown Point, Lafayette Jeff 2: Elkhart, Penn, Warsaw, Carroll 3. Homestead, Northrop, Westfield, Noblesville 4: Carmel, Zionsville, HSE, Fishers OR 1: Lake Central, Portage, Crown Point, Elkhart 2: Penn, Warsaw, Northrop, Carroll 3: Homestead, Noblesville, HSE, Fishers 4: Westfield, Zionsville, Carmel, Lafayette Jeff 5: North Central, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, Cathedral 6: Pike, Ben Davis, Brownsburg, Avon 7: Tech, Warren Central, Southport, Perry Meridian 8: Columbus North, Jeffersonville, Center Grove, Franklin Central

One thing the IHSAA could do, since there's one bumped-to 4A (Chatard), 3A (WeBo) and 2A (LCC) school in this situation and by my count 317 football-playing schools. Put those three in their current classes for this year, so 4A would have 64 schools and the others 63 each. If they get their two points, they stay up for next year. If they don't, they drop back down next year. Design the sectionals so they can drop back with little disruption (e.g., Chatard move into WeBo's sectional, WeBo into LCC's, create a 7-team sectional in 1A where LCC would go).

Or maybe it's because, unlike DT, they realize high school football is about education and opportunity, *not* about "competitive balance" and "making a few programs stronger." It's not "easy" to drive two towns away because your school killed your football program because of "competitive balance." And a LOT of the schools on DT's asinine contraction list are from low-SES backgrounds where kids need opportunities, positive role models and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They can't just "go to a neighboring school" without having transportation. The true worth of a high school program is in the young men it develops and what happens between Monday and Thursday afternoons on the practice field, not so much what happens on Friday night. And great things happen at Connersville with their 34 players just as much as they happen at Center Grove with their 200. We should be talking about expanding opportunities with 8-man football for smaller schools, not getting rid of programs.

Trolls don't "pay attention." They make wild predictions and ridiculous assertions in the name of "creating content."

Once Zionsville permanently moves up to 6A (which it will likely do in the next realignment) and assuming Carmel/CG get accepted into the HCC, *half* of 6A will be the MIC and HCC. It's somewhat unavoidable to have single-conference sectional fields. That encompasses every 6A school south of Hamilton County's northern border except Tech, Southport, Perry Meridian and Columbus North (and geography dictates Southport, PM, CN and CG will likely be a sectional unless someone else in southern Indiana moves up).

682? There are 407 IHSAA members and that includes nearly every public high school in the state. While there are a few private schools who are not a member of the IHSAA (yes, LaLumiere, but they're mostly small Christian schools), that number is somewhere around 40-50, not 275.

Huntington North is a separate school - it was a consolidation of Huntington High & a number of county schools. It kept the color & mascot and so some may consider it as continuing the athletic history (a la Bloomington / South & Columbus / North), but it is a consolidated school with a different name.

As the former sports editor of the Daily Reporter, I do need to clarify ... the office is in Greenfield but it is a *county* paper. We strove (and the current editors do the same) to provide equitable coverage to all four of the county schools. At least for the last 25 years, priority coverage has gone to the best teams, not necessarily to the county-seat school. Mt. Vernon, New Palestine and Eastern Hancock get the same level of coverage as Greenfield-Central (which, at least in my time there, did upset a small handful of people in that community who expected us to be homers for their school, but was appreciated by most in the community, given the majority of the newspaper's subscriber base lives in the NP & MV school districts). They cover the majority of varsity football games from each school and their sports editor has been on hand for nearly every MV game this season (and was on site for nearly every one of NP's games during our state title runs).

I believe the mercy rule is also not in effect in the semistate, unless a rule change happened in the last couple of years.

It was originally 4 when the SF was first created prior to the 2013 season, then dropped to 3 in spring 2017 (which kept New Pal in 5A for two more years when the Dragons had won a semistate and gained 3 points in 2015). The other made in 2017 was a team that had been bumped could only drop *one* class, which immediately impacted Cathedral (which otherwise would've dropped from 6A to 4A, but instead put them in 5A). Not long after, the change was made to two points to stay up, I believe in spring 2019. That also affected Cathedral, which had two points (one regional title) in 5A the previous cycle. That kept Cathedral in 5A rather than dropping to 4A. (had it been two points in 2017, Cathedral would've remained in 6A for the 2017 & 2018 football seasons because it had won two sectional titles in 6A. That might have been the impetus for dropping the threshold).

New Pal played Decatur to a two-point game in Week 1, outgaining the Hawks by a lot and had a chance to win with a field goal attempt at the gun that was inches wide of the goalpost. So to say they're a few rungs down the totem pole wasn't borne out on the field when they actually played each other. Cathedral's a favorite, for sure, but NP compares very favorably with DC.

No. If Cathedral wins, they are up in 6A for the next two years (and New Pal drops to 4A). 2021-22 means the 2021-22 school year, not the 2021-22 football seasons. This summer will be a reclassification year with success factor points applied from the last two years.

New two-year cycle begins this summer. There will be no Success Factor movement in 2023. I need to check with the IHSAA to see if the teams that got bumped but didn't win a sectional this year (like Chatard and WeBo) stay up for the next cycle or if they go back down. I don't know of a video webcast but assume there will be one. WNDE (Cathedral) and NewPalRadio.com (New Pal) are both producing audio broadcasts. I'll be doing play-by-play on the New Pal broadcast.

If New Pal wins, yes, they'll likely butt heads for two more years. If Cathedral wins, the Irish go to 6A and Dragons to 4A for the next two years.

Only available outside of the Bally Sports Indiana viewing area.

There is no national contract. It's a local contract with what is now Bally Sports Indiana. There is no connection to Fox Sports - and WXIN does not televise the games in Indianapolis. If you don't have FSI (and many of us cord-cutters don't thanks to Sinclair Broadcasting's running feud with the streaming services), you're out of luck.

That's great. The logistics of hosting a football game are significantly greater than any other sport, due to the number of people, medical staff that have to be on hand, et al. At most schools, administrators *must* be on hand to oversee it. Not only that, but you need an army of ticket takers, press box personnel, chain gang, security, et al. Basketball and other sports require a little bit smaller commitment because it's in an indoor facility or (in the case of soccer/baseball), have smaller crowds. That's a lot to ask of a school, especially if they a) have no chance of ever having a team in that game, and b) there is a possibility your school might be playing elsewhere that same night. Schools sign up to host basketball, et al, because they are guaranteed a home-court advantage if they play. They won't be granted the same in a totally neutral football world. And from the IHSAA's perspective, going fully neutral means a likely smaller crowd because it's effectively a road game for both teams.

This winter. They exist, but it's up to the host school administration to follow and enforce them. Some treat the tournament games like typical home games. Others are a lot more strict.

DC is good - Stevens is an excellent dual-threat player and they have a couple of threats to go to the house on every play - but Cathedral is otherworldly right now. That's typical. When you have a really good team that *should* win, but are facing a quality opponent, you give the opponent a lot of respect and have cautious optimism. Right now, Cathedral is at least 2-3 TDs better than anyone in 5A except maybe Valpo.

You can certify every single player in your program, but you can only dress 75 per game. That's consistent with other sports (for basketball, for example, you can only dress 12 per tournament game). When the IHSAA tournament was first created in 1973, the dress limit was 33. There is a somewhat infamous story where Phil Eskew was at a tournament game (I believe, in Mishawaka), and a fan started complaining about the 33-player limit. Eskew asked the fan, "then why doesn't a player run out of bounds and then come back in before scoring a touchdown?" The fan replies, "because that's against the rules." Eskew comes back with, "so is playing more than 33 players." I'm sure it's to create some equity but also to ensure that players who participate are certified and eligible. There is a tournament roster deadline - and yes, that prevents any move-ins or ringers from showing up after the entry list deadline, but the main reason is to ensure the players are academically eligible (you have to provide the number of classes each student is taking and passing on the entry list, as well as verify their age). You can make changes and pay a fine, but that's usually because a coach forgot to roster someone, not because a student enrolls in your school after the tournament begins. I do remember an incident a couple decades ago where a soccer team sent out a player for a penalty shootout who was not on the tournament roster - likely an oversight on a little-used player. He buried the winning goal and it wasn't discovered until after the game. The player was suspended for the next game (and I believe, the remainder of the tournament) and the coach was reprimanded, but the team was allowed to advance. Roster limits are not uncommon. The NCAA only teams in all divisions to dress 58 players in tournament games.

Yes. Southridge gained 2 points for winning a regional in 2020. Success factor points gained from 2020 and 2021 will apply to the reclassification this coming year, so yes, Southridge will be in 3A through 2023. Some schools are going to spend an extra year "up," some will go down a year earlier than originally expected (New Pal, for example, goes back to 4A next year if it doesn't win the regional this year. If there had been a full reclassification last year, NP would've been in 5A through at least 2023).

No. The success factor points gained in the last year or two will be applied to the 2022-24 reclassification. At that point, everyone's points reset to zero and a new two-year cycle begins. Southridge should remain in 3A through the 2022 and 2023 football seasons because it gained two points in 2020. COVID confuses things a lot because the IHSAA extended the classification cycle by one year but implemented success factor points.

Here's the way I understand it. 2020-21 and 2021-22 are the two-year cycle. So points earned last year and this will count toward reclassification for hte next two years. In summer 2022, all points reset to zero and a new cycle begins. The sticky wicket is LCC & Chatard. Teams that got bumped this year, I think, only accumulate SF points in their current class (so, for example, if LCC or Chatard wins a regional, they'll stay up, but they can't get the 6 points necessary to bump up to 3A/5A). I'm not sure what happens if they *don't* get the two points necessary, but I assume they'll go back to their natural enrollment classes. Curious if they win a sectional and the IHSAA decides to keep them up for the next two years saying that would be similar to winning two sectional titles in the old system. COVID has created a lot of really weird dynamics and extending the cycle by one extra year (while also bumping teams due to SF without a reclassification) is one of them. It's also led to a three-team sectional in 6A, which means someone is going to play Nov. 5 after *two* weeks off. But once we get through this year, everything should go back to normal next summer.