crimsonace1

Some thoughts 6A: North is pretty self-explanatory. Lafayette Jeff had to go northwest. Someone had to go northeast, and Noblesville is the farthest north/east school in Hamilton County. The biggest question was what to do with 5/6/7 with Zionsville entering. IHSAA decided to split Pike/BD and group Zionsville with Pike, Brownsburg & Avon. That moved BD to Sectional 7 and allowed Sectional 6 (WC/LC/LN/NC) to largely stay together in a grouping that has been pretty consistent through most sports. 5A: Makes perfect sense how the IHSAA handled the Elkhart/Valpo/SB/Mishawaka situation in sectional 9/10. Again, the north writes itself. The south sees some changes - the Bloomington schools get grouped with Evansville instead of Terre Haute, but I-69 being completed changes the calculus there. I-69 now makes Evansville closer to Bloomington than Terre Haute drive-time wise, and also creates an I-70 sectional w/THN-THS-DC-Plainfield (which is pretty consistent with how the IHSAA groups other sports). That basically left two schools on islands - BNL & Seymour. IHSAA decided to send BNL south and Seymour north. 4A: Shelbyville & Beech Grove trade places, with BG going south and Shelby going north with its HHC brethren for the first time (instead of having to deal with East Central every year). Mooresville/Martinsville being grouped with the Cincinnati/Louisville area schools will be a bear of a drive. Same with Northview - which is on an island - and the Evansville-area schools. 3A: By far the toughest class to group in the south every year. The five I-74 schools in southeastern Indiana are often together, and the question is, who do they go with? This time, three schools down the I-65 corridor, which will make for some interesting travel. Southwestern Indiana being grouped horizontally along I-64 instead of vertically along U.S. 41/231 is different than normal. Marion County gets split in half, with the north side schools going toward Lafayette/Hamilton County, while the south side schools get grouped in with west central Indiana (Hendricks County & I-70). Geographically, it on the surface makes sense to send WL to 18, Knox to 19, TV to 20 and Northwestern to 21, but that would've split Northwestern away from the Maconaquah/Peru/Oak Hill clump, which is likely why WL is going south instead of north. 2A: Again, grouping southern Indiana is really difficult. Triton Central & Union County get the short straw here - especially UC, which is closer to Dayton than it is to Mitchell & Paoli. As is typical, the three northern Indiana sectionals are grouped Northwest (Region area), north central (SB/MIsh area) and northeast (FW area) with the fourth being the clump around Anderson/Kokomo/Marion. The problem is, there are 18 schools for 16 spots in Central Indiana, and two had to go south. I probably would have moved Union County into the I-70 sectional and bumped one of the Indianapolis schools (Scecina or Howe) south as those schools have easier access to I-65. 1A: Some interesting groupings. The one that stuck out to me most was Attica being sent north instead of in its usual sectional along the Wabash River. Sectionals 47 and 48 write themselves and are the two easiest to group in the class, but I would've flipped their regionals by renumbering Sectional 45 as 47. Only real change I'd make is Attica to 45, Traders Point to 46 and Sheridan to 42 ... and possibly flip South Newton and North White. [edit: Attica was moved to 45 and Traders Point to 42. I'd still flip TPCA & Sheridan for geographic reasons ,but it's a solid map]

The sectionals are now mapped. Check out the link for a map of the 2019-20 sectionals (note: for 5A/6A, the 2019 alignment is the one listed. Valpo moves to Sectional 9 in 2020, SB Adams/Mishawaka move to Sectional 10 & Elkhart moves to Sectional 2. (and if you're interested in boys basketball, here is that map. Regionals are grouped in colors - 1-4 in each class are red/orange, 5-8 are purple/blue, 9-12 are green/yellow and 13-16 are grey/black/brown).

When the IHSAA published its class assignments a few weeks ago, it published that Elkhart Central/Memorial will be 5A in 2019 and Elkhart will be 6A in 2020. Valpo will play one year as the smallest school in 6A and then replace Elkhart in 5A.

Part of the equation is that some schools simply will not schedule Cathedral - which is not uncommon for top programs (Some schools don't schedule games against P/P schools at all. Others will not schedule games where they believe they'll not be competitive). It's not easy to find opponents, even for public schools with a reputation for being powerhouses, but especially a powerhouse P/P like Cathedral. Add in the fact that most of the teams that *would* schedule them have conference schedules and thus 6 or 7 weeks of games are already locked in, and it becomes difficult. I'm not sure Cathedral's globetrotting schedule has as much to do with its willingness to test itself as simply the ability to find games (and often, against opponents that are in a similar situation). Cathedral's schedule is further hampered by the fact that it has no home field, thus has to schedule its home games around someone else's schedule. Cathedral's schedule, as Rudy pointed out above, used to largely be made up of other P/Ps in the city and IPS schools. But now that most of the P/Ps the Irish used to play are in the Circle City conference and IPS has struggled as much of its population has moved to the townships and now to the first-ring suburbs outside of Marion County (and as those schools have grown, they have traditional opponents they often play and/or are locked into conference schedules), it's harder to find local games.

Here's the map so you can try to project the sectional fields: https://drive.google.com/open?id=153gxokpw917Ny2QyJyMozaPMxkCQOyQb&usp=sharing Here's my very unscientific stab at it: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vXlagxgmD3_KwFJUNHTUeDtSd9ylMmsa&usp=sharing

That would make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons. It also makes the south come together pretty easily. 5: HSE/Fishers/LN/LC 6: Pike/BD/Avon/Brownsburg 7: WC/Tech/Southport/Perry Meridian 8: Franklin Central/CG/Columbus North/East

I'm not sure how much 8-man football would *expand* the game, but it might provide an option for some smaller schools. What it might do is, with participation numbers sliding a bit - and enrollment numbers declining at a lot of smaller rural schools - save existing football programs.

No. I'd love to see co-op programs established but that's not on the IHSAA's radar right now.

Per this story from Kyle Neddenriep, not only is the IFCA changing the Mr. Football voting process, but it is also "studying" 8-man football. I'd *love* to see 8-man football (or even 6-man) to provide more opportunities for players at smaller schools which might not have the enrollment to field 11-man teams. Several states do so for smaller schools.

MV will be 5A before long. McCordsville is one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, as both Lawrence Township & Fishers are spilling across the county line. Great facilities, decent community support. But New Palestine to the south is also growing, has a recent championship pedigree, and has been rapidly upgrading facilities.

Westfield has great facilities, great community, lots of recent success, good location and will grow. Their biggest issue is they'll always be in a sectional with Carmel and two of Noblesville/HSE/Fishers/Zionsville, all of whom have similar facilities, resources and student populations.

A stab at 1A 41: Gary Roosevelt, Lake Station, South Central, North Judson, Culver, West Central, Winamac, Triton 42: North White, Tri-County, Frontier, Carroll (F), Caston, South Newton, Lafayette Catholic, Clinton Central 43: Fremont, Churubusco, Adams Central, South Adams, Southern Wells, Southwood, Northfield, North Miami 44: Indiana Deaf, Park Tudor, Traders Point, Sheridan, Madison-Grant, Tri-Central, Taylor, Clinton Prairie 45: Wes-Del, Knightstown, Tri, Cambridge City Lincoln, Hagerstown, Anderson Prep, Monroe Central, Union City 46: Edinburgh, North Decatur, South Decatur, Milan, Oldenburg Academy, Lutheran, Tindley, Covenant Christian 47: Cloverdale, South Putnam, Riverton Parke, Parke Heritage, North Vermillion, Fountain Central, Covington, Attica 48: Tecumseh, Perry Central, North Central (F), Springs Valley, West Washington, North Daviess, Eastern Greene, Rock Creek Nope, same school. I screwed up. I missed somebody somewhere.

My stab at 2A. Again, things are a bit tricky in the south. 33: Whiting, Hammond Noll, Gary Bowman, Andrean, Wheeler, Boone Grove, North Newton, Rensselaer 34: LaVille, Bremen, Fairfield, Central Noble, Prairie Heights, Eastside, Woodlan, FW Luers, 35: Rochester, Pioneer, Delphi, Cass, Wabash, Manchester, Whitko, Bluffton 36: Eastbrook, Blackford, Eastern (H), Tipton, Frankton, Lapel, Winchester, Elwood 37: Northeastern, Union County, Centerville, Eastern Hancock, Triton Central, Heritage Christian, Scecina, Shenandoah, I. Howe 38: Seeger, South Vermillion, Southmont, Western Boone, North Putnam, Cascade, Monrovia, Speedway, 39: Mitchell, Paoli, Eastern, Clarksville, Providence, Switzerland County, Pekin Eastern, Triton Central 40: North Posey, Ev. Mater Dei, South Spencer, Tell City, Linton, North Knox, Forest Park, Crawford County Not sure what happened there but that's corrected now. If you zoom in, the ones on top of each other are separated. Each school's site is marked with a pin and some are pretty close together.

My stab at 4A 17: East Chicago, Hammond Gavit, Hammond Morton, Gary West, Highland, Griffith, Hobart, Lowell 18: Kankakee Valley, New Prairie, Culver Academy, Plymouth, SB Riley, SB St. Joseph, SB Clay, NorthWood 19: Northridge, Wawasee, East Noble, Angola, DeKalb, Columbia City, Leo, New Haven 20: FW South, FW Wayne, Huntington North, Logansport, Western, Marion, Mississinewa, Delta 21: Northview, Martinsville, Mooresville, Cathedral, Roncalli, Crispus Attucks, Shortridge, Beech Grove 22: New Castle, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, Pendleton Heights, Muncie Central, Frankfort, Lebanon 23: Madison, Jennings County, East Central, South Dearborn, Shelbyville, Connersville, Richmond, Greenwood 24: Ev. Reitz, Ev. Memorial, Ev. Harrison, Ev. Central, Boonville, Jasper, Silver Creek 3A has a LOT of gray area, especially in the north. Lots of clumps of 5-6 schools together. The realignment committee has its work cut out for it. 25: Hammond Clark, Hammond, Calumet, River Forest, Hanover Central, Knox, Glenn, SB Washington 26: Mishawka Marian, Jimtown, Tippecanoe Valley, West Noble, Lakeland, Garrett, FW Concordia, Heritage 27: Bellmont, Norwell, Peru, Northwestern, Maconaquah, Oak Hill, Yorktown, Hamilton Heights 28: Benton Central, West Lafayette, North Montgomery, Crawfordsville, Guerin Catholic, Brebeuf, Twin Lakes 29: Sullivan, Edgewood, Owen Valley, West Vigo, Greencastle, Danville, Tri-West, I.Ritter 30: Lawrenceburg, Batesville, Franklin County, Greensburg, Rushville, I.Manual, I.Washington, I.Chatard 31: Corydon, North Harrison, Salem, Scottsburg, Charlestown, Brownstown Central, Brown County, Southridge 32: Mt. Vernon (P), Ev. Bosse, Heritage Hills, Gibson Southern, Princeton, PIke Central, Vincennes, Washington

The IHSAA, historically, has not reclassified schools when they consolidate mid-cycle. Muncie Central competed in 3A basketball and 4A football with an enrollment north of 1600. But I see the IHSAA *has* reclassified schools for 2020. That's a change (and one I lobbied for a few years ago). My guess is, Elkhart will move to Sectional 2 & Valpo will move to Sectional 9, with SB Adams sliding over to Sectional 10.

Here's how I see the top two classes 1: Lake Central, Crown Point, Merrillville, Lafayette Jeff 2: Chesterton, Valpo, Portage, Penn 3: Warsaw, Homestead, Carroll, Noblesville 4: Westfield, Carmel, Fishers, Hamilton SE 5: Zionsville, North Central, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North 6: Avon, Brownsburg, Pike, Ben Davis 7: Southport, Perry Meridian, Tech, Warren Central 8: Franklin Central, Center Grove, Columbus North, Columbus East Big questions are where to send Jeff, which Hamilton County school to send north and what do do with 4-5-6 9: LaPorte, Michigan City, Munster, SB Adams 10: Concord, Goshen, Mishawaka, Elkhart Central, Elkhart Memorial 11: FW Dwenger, FW North, FW Northrop, FW Snider 12: Anderson, Kokomo, Harrison, McCutcheon 13: New Palestine, Decatur Central, Franklin, Whiteland 14: Bedford NL, Bloomington N., Bloomington S., Plainfield 15: Floyd Central, Jeffersonville, New Albany, Seymour 16: Castle, Ev. North, TH North, TH South The north bracket might be the easiest the IHSAA has ever drawn. Only major question in the south is whether to divide the regionals east/west (in which case, flip 14/15) or north/south, and which of Decatur Central, Franklin and Plainfield goes in with BNL and the Bloomington schools. Sectionals 11 & 13 will be incredible. With I-69 done, it's possible the Bloomington schools and/or BNL could be paired with the Evansville schools, but the unwillingness to split either the Bloomington or Terre Haute schools will likely leave the map like this.

From this WSBT story (and everything I've heard), the plan is to merge into one high school in 2020. https://wsbt.com/news/local/work-underway-to-improve-elkharts-memorial-and-central-high-schools

There are 33 teams in 5A because of the pending Elkhart consolidation. That was baked into the classifications because we all know it's coming (and it will be the one 5-team sectional in 5A). I believe 4A only has 63 teams.

Right on cue. Here's a map divided by class so you can begin gerrymandering (I mean, projecting the sectional fields) to your heart's content. https://drive.google.com/open?id=153gxokpw917Ny2QyJyMozaPMxkCQOyQb&usp=sharing

That's what was initially stated, but a quick check of the Executive Committee minutes showed that finalizing classes was not on the agenda last month (not sure if that's an Exec Committee thing or not - often, the sectional assignments have to be dealt with by them). Their next meeting is in mid-March. Sometimes, there are some delays in the process.

Natural enrollment classes, public schools only 1A: Pioneer (great community support, football foundation, sustained talent) / Sheridan (you don't want to be the one following the legend, but it's a football-crazy community that has long had success) 2A: Bremen (always there, has had a great football culture for generations) / Southridge (sports-crazy community, generally good). 3A: West Lafayette (probably the smallest true "college town" school in the state, but a good 3A with a generally-supportive community) / Heritage Hills (again, always there, great foundation, great community). 4A: New Palestine (suburban Indy, great admin, rapid growth, community is football-crazy, lots of recent success, will be 5A for 3rd straight cycle but is a mid-sized 4A by enrollment) / East Central (suburban Cincinnati, rapid growth, community is football-crazy, lots of historic success) / Evansville Reitz (insane community support, college-level facilities) 5A: Bloomington South (college town, football is a BIG deal there) / Columbus East (great program / pipeline / community support / open enrollment gives you access to the entire county) / FW Snider (has become the destination for public school athletes in Fort Wayne) 6A: Carmel / Warren Central / Ben Davis (gigantic enrollments, lots of athletes, chance to win a state title virtually every year) If you throw p/ps in there, Chatard, Cathedral, Dwenger, Reitz, Roncalli, Memorial, Luers would be in the mix. Those teams have a chance to win a state title virtually every year.

The only real problem I have with the rule changes are the rules requiring contrasting numbers on jerseys will not be fully implemented until 2024. There should be NO MORE than a 2-year lead time for compliance. When the NFHS changed the rules requiring basketball teams to wear white (as opposed to gold, Carolina blue, silver) when designated the home team, it gave a 2-year time frame for compliance. Five seasons of lead time is a bit much. These should never have been allowed in the first place - the point of uniforms is so fans, media and officials clearly identify who is wearing them. Numbers that are nothing more than an outline, or even those that blend in, fly in the face of that rule. They serve a functional purpose, not to be a fashion show.

To be a legal formation and be a back, the WB has to line up at least 1 yard behind the LOS, correct? I assume you're referring to a formation like a Wing-T or a double-wing where it appears WB lines up at an angle and is almost overlapping the TE's posterior.

On behalf of broadcasters and PA announcers everywhere, THANK YOU. I've been calling for this for years in all sports. Unfortunately, I'm sure there are a few coaches out there who will try to skirt this as much as they can to make it difficult to see them on film and order uniforms with, say, navy numbers on maroon with no outline (which are almost impossible to read), but at least this gets rid of the uniforms where the numbers are nothing more than a thin outline. It's very simple. If you have a dark uniform, use white (or gold/grey if they're in your color scheme) for your home numbers. For the white jerseys, use the darkest school color you have. Gold or grey on white remain almost impossible to see (but would probably fit within the rules) without a thick black outline.

Several years ago, HSE was considering a third high school that would be an early college-only-type school with no extracurriculars, similar to Ben Davis University. However, the students would still be eligible to play sports for either Fishers or HSE based on where they lived in the district, and the enrollments of the students at the third school in each half of the district would count toward the original schools. It was a way of reducing capacity without having to build an entirely new HS campus - a building without a fieldhouse, baseball field, football stadium, et al, is a lot cheaper.