crimsonace1

Don't ask for facts and consistency from a radio talk show hot take machine. It's not about facts, consistency and logic, it's about taking some extreme, hot-take opinion and shouting it as loudly as you can. Consistency? Yesterday's bad hot take is yesterday's.

I remember BD & North Central both playing games against Illinois and Ohio teams in the mid-1990s because they couldn't fill their schedules, in the days when it was *very* uncommon to play out-of-state games.

Remember, a realignment is happening after next year. Carmel will likely always be on the north/south border. As Zionsville likely moves permanently into 6A.

We'll worry about next year, well, next week. It will be a bit of a rebuilding year for the Dragons, as CaptainHook pointed out, a lot of key players graduate. But they do return 3 starting OL (and 1 other who started a few games), Roth, Blake Austin (who had a TD yesterday and was the second-leading receiver to Hook) and 2/3 of the LB corps. Virtually everyone else graduates. Some talent in the pipeline - the JV was 7-1 this year and the froshies 6-2. And there are about 1,000 homes either under construction or approved in the New Pal district, so there's going to be some significant growth, which will likely bolster numbers at all grades. But for now, we'll revel in this one. 28 straight wins, back-to-back state titles in a class above NP's enrollment, done with several players playing both ways. It's really extraordinary what this program has been able to do. A mid-sized 4A public school playing for three 5A state titles in a five-year span - and winning two - is beyond description. We're going to revel in this and enjoy it. It's a historic run, led by an outstanding group of coaches and young men. This team has a high GPA, a high commitment level, they're involved in the community, they're great athletes. They're a group of guys who are going to be successful long beyond high school ... and that's a big reason why they've been successful in high school.

NP is "gassed." 14-0 and just beat an outstanding team that was 13-0 to win the state title *without its starting QB* after beating Cathedral 35-10, after mercy-ruling the No. 8 team in 5A, but "gassed." I've watched almost every NP game for the last decade. They're not gassed. When you're wrong, and you're constantly proven to be wrong, you just need to stop talking instead of trying to talk in circles to prove to everyone how "right" you are. All we have to go by are on-the-field results. NP beat CG 28-9 AT Center Grove, and did so by dominating up front (where CG has a tremendous DL) in the second half. ... which came one year after NP won 31-9 over a different CG team, but one with Carson Steele. We're not discussing a hypothetical game that will never happen, we're discussing the game that was played.

NP is 14-0 with a three-touchdown *road* win over Center Grove, a 6A finalist. If CG wins tonight, you can pretty well say NP is the undisputed top team in the state. NP is currently #1 in MaxPreps and will be top 40 nationally at season's end It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out in Sagarin (right now, it's Avon-Carmel-NP, but if CG wins, combined with the ratings bump NP will get for beating top-10 Valpo, there's a good chance NP will also be #1 in Sagarin if CG wins tonight)

Per the IHSAA, there are 11 Carmel 5286 (MIC) Ben Davis 4499 (MIC) Warren Central 3821 (MIC) North Central 3727 (MIC) Fishers 3509 (HCC) Penn 3338 (NIC) Lake Central 3316 (Duneland) Pike 3295 (MIC) Hamilton SE 3273 (HCC) Avon 3095 (HCC) Noblesville 3001 (HCC) 5 MIC schools, 4 HCC schools and two in Northern Indiana As far as the rest of the MIC, LN is at 2596 (16th), Center Grove at 2521 (17th) & LC at 2290 (23rd). Both Center Grove & Lawrence Central have won football state titles this decade and Lawrence North is a traditional basketball power, so they seem to hold their own despite "only" having 2,000+ students each.

The girls basketball team that won the state title two years ago? (In hoops, a MIC team has played for a state title three straight years. Girls: Pike was the runner-up in 2017, WC the state champ in 2018 & LN the runner-up in 2019; Boys: BD won in 2017, WC beat Carmel in 2018 & Carmel beat BD in 2019). Add in Center Grove playing for the football title this year, and that's six of eight MIC schools having played for a major sport state title in the last three years. (Add to that, LC has won state titles in track & football this decade; and North Central has state titles in five different sports, including boys & girls hoops, this decade, and swept the state track titles this spring).

Not to feed the trolls on what is and has been a dumb, throw a stupid idea against the wall and see what sticks topic, but LC & LN are both Sagarin Top 25 teams this year. They're competitive programs, but the MIC is a great conference. And of course, there are more sports than football (which our thread starter appears to not realize), and LC & LN both hold their own in several sports. Both have *recent* state championships on their resumes.

"A little worn down" - had 160 yards and the go-ahead score against one of the state's best defenses (if not the best). He also had two big first-down runs to seal the game when everybody in the stadium knew he was getting the rock. I've watched nearly all of Charlie's games the last couple of years. He looked anything but "worn down." Valpo is really, really, really good up front and he had to work for every yard. But consider the source ...

I thought going in Valpo would be NP's biggest test, and it was. I expected this to be a one-touchdown game (and it was). Unless you play in the MIC, every conference has 2-3 struggling teams. The HHC had 2-3 struggling teams (against which Spegal really didn't play a lot), a couple of decent teams and three pretty good ones. Spegal's biggest games came against the top teams on the schedule. He rushed for 1,200 yards and 17 TDs alone in the five tournament games.

New Palestine's field lights are on. AD Al Cooper explained at the postgame pep session why the lights were on and encouraged those in attendance to keep the Bowsman family and the WW community in their prayers and thoughts.

Any team would be fortunate to have the all-time leading rusher and scorer in state history. It takes a team to be a state champion - especially when you're a 4A enrollment school playing in a 5A tourney. He's a great kid and a great player. But he's also running behind five really good linemen. Hook was likely more in the gameplan, but when Roth went out, that took a lot of the passing game out of the playbook. Hook did a lot of damage on short crossing routes this year & then getting YAC, and you could see early he was a big part of the gameplan, but changing QBs meant changing the offense to fit Roudebush's strength. Roudebush did a *tremendous* job running the offense.

"Stats are a little bloated" ... quite the opposite. Against the lower-half of the HHC, he played a half, maybe one possession into the second half. I'm really, really tired of people claiming all of this happens because of a "weak schedule" that happened to include a regional champ and a semistate champ in the regular season. The upper half of the HHC was a Yorktown team that was ranked part of the year in 3A, a *very* good Pendleton Heights team, a similarly good Delta team and Mt. Vernon, which won a regional. He had nine 200+ games this season - against Center Grove (6A finalist), Mt. Vernon (4A regional champ), Whiteland, Franklin, Cathedral & Bloomington South - the latter four coming in consecutive games in the 5A tourney, all four against teams that were ranked at some point in the year (also against Greenfield-Central, New Castle and Delta). To insinuate he piled his yards up against weak competition isn't really accurate.

If you go back to when the MIC was formed, Ben Davis, Carmel, Warren Central and North Central were all independents, and so it largely fit. The Terre Haute schools struggled to find teams to play, so they fit into that group. Lawrence North was in the CSAC (with Pike, Decatur Central, Franklin Central and LC), which later became part of Conference Indiana. Center Grove had been nomadic - CSAC to South Central to MIC - and didn't really "fit" in a conference. At the time, Pike, Franklin Central and Decatur Central were smaller schools (Pike & FC had just moved from 4A to 5A and DC was still 4A). LC didn't quite have the athletic profile of its township neighbor. Southport & Perry Meridian moved into CSAC to replace the loss of LN, Brownsburg & CG. Of course, the MIC's formation and CG bolting the South Central led to the merger of the remnants of CSAC and the SCC into Conference Indiana (and later, the MIC & Conference Indiana swapped the TH schools with Pike & LC, which had grown into mega-schools).

Let's face it. You're completely off-base and uninformed. Again. There is more than one sport in Indiana HS athletics, and the Lawrence schools are more than competitive. LC has played in a football State Finals in the last decade and is one of the top boys basketball teams in the state this year. LN has struggled but has historically had a decent program - if not a state-level one. LN has won multiple state championships in boys basketball and was a state finalist in girls hoops last year. Both have had really good baseball teams in recent years. And, demographically, they're two large Marion County township schools, and fit very well in a league that includes *six* large Marion County township schools, all of whom are contiguous to each other. I'm sure there was a "kick North Central out of the MIC" thread, but the Panthers have turned it around. The MIC is a very good conference. LC and LN fit very well in it. I know you have a fetish for the HCC, but the HCC is - outside of Franklin Central - a league of large suburban schools outside of Marion County. Brownsburg, Zionsville, Avon, Noblesville, Westfield ... if there's a MIC team which fits in that league geographically, it's Carmel, but Carmel does fine in a league with its rivals Ben Davis and Center Grove.

New Pal has never played Noblesville. And the last game they lost - two years ago against Zionsville - was with a team full of sophomores in a rebuilding year to a very good program that just won a 6A sectional. Decatur Central *never* led against New Palestine, and trailed 28-6 at half. There was never a chance to go in for a "multiple TD lead." With regards to Michigan City, MC dominated the first quarter, NP hit a big 77-yard passing TD, and the Dragons seized control, took a lead going into halftime and then pulled away in the second half. While New Palestine has a number of two-way players, understand they condition to play four quarters. Against Center Grove, Whiteland, Cathedral - all teams who have huge rosters and no two-way players - NP has a 70-3 second-half scoring advantage (21-0 against Whiteland, 28-0 against Cathedral, 21-3 vs. Center Grove). Spegal is an X-factor, as he's a punishing runner and a difficult guy to tackle 30 times a game. His best work comes late in games. These teams are very evenly matched. Both have great OLs, really defensive fronts, aggressive defenses, good running backs, QBs who can make plays. It's going to come down to the fourth quarter. Hook, Spegal, King, Jones, Dingman ... lots of great players and difference-makers on the field.

I'm not sure NP would dominate Carmel, but it would be a competitive game. Same with Valpo-Carmel (which was a competitive game last year). And NP did beat the other 6A finalist 28-9.

Coach Ralph oversees the softball team's weight training and has been recognized with some bling from their championships, too. The football program's weight room culture is insane. Probably my favorite story from this entire run was the day after they won the state title in 2014, the guys were lined up at the weight room door ready to lift. Coach had to tell them to go home, relax and take a few days off. This group is a really special one. Their work ethic is unbelievable. Combine that with a talented group coming through, and you have a 4A team capable of competing for 5A state championships. This should be a good matchup. IMO, the score predictions are a bit high. These two teams have incredible defenses. It should be a closely-matched, low-scoring game.

Geography. There aren't a lot of 3A teams in the northern half of the state, so the Indy teams got routed through the northern semistate. Last year, Marion played in a southern semistate in Class 4A because that class is very north-heavy. If you look at the 3A map, the north/south dividing line goes right through the middle of Indianapolis. For those who want to question the geography, here are the maps, color-coded by sectional.

Of note: Roden had previously coached at Oak Hills, so he has a pretty strong connection to the program and community.

I'm never going to take a Mo Moriarity-coached team lightly. And that was the first thing Coach Ralph said to us on our postgame when we brought it up - Mo is a great coach who has been successful at the HS level and coached in the Big Ten. They've gotten to know each other fairly well recently. BHSS is in the semistate for a reason. Very good running game. They're going to be well-prepared. I would expect NP will be, too. Coach Ralph is extremely detail-oriented and his players buy in.

Once again, DT confuses college and pro sports with high school athletics, and once again speaks about things he knows little about. The missions of high school and college sports are different. The transfer had nothing to do with competitiveness and everything to do with his the family business moving from Muncie to the Indianapolis area, where there are more business opportunities. This was very well-documented two years ago (https://www.thestarpress.com/story/sports/high-school/2018/04/05/delta-star-running-back-charlie-spegal-transfers-new-palestine/486430002/). The IHSAA approves all transfers unless it is for athletic reasons (this wasn't) or undue influence was used (which didn't happen). It's what's in the best interest of the student. Students move all the time because their parents move without anyone batting an eye. It's not different because one student is an elite athlete.

Only time I saw them was a 49-7 game against the top team in 5A, so it's difficult to get a really fair read, but they do a nice job mixing the run and the pass. Their QB, who started last year as a freshman at Greenfield-Central, throws it well. They use a second QB who is more of a runner, and will put both in formation (one as a QB, one as a slot). Their RBs - Cole and Labelle - are solid if not flashy. Have a solid group of DBs. They don't score a ton of points, but their defense is pretty good.

Yes. 6 rounds of the tournament (so a state + regional or two semistates in a two-year span) would bump them up to 6A. As of now, NP is guaranteed to be in 5A through at least the 2022 season. By then, given the way the New Palestine school district is exploding in population, NP might be 5A by enrollment (neighboring Mt. Vernon will be, too, and I wouldn't be shocked to see Pendleton Heights join them).