slice60

Maybe...but you couldn't tell the difference between June & July about a week ago. Maybe...but the Luers Coach went to the press when he should have left it up to the IHSAA to make an announcement.

Well, based upon all of the basketball transfers this summer, we are moving towards this.

Whew! I don't owe somebody a million bucks! (And I was right all along) Did the IHSAA let this drag on too long? Yes. But as far as I can tell, the Luers 2a vs 3A controversy started when the Luers Head Coach popped off to some local sportsnews website. So maybe he will learn a valuable lesson not to spread rumors.

Snider & Carmel are not in the same Sectional -- they may face each other in the Regional. And in 2020, Carmel moves to the southern Semistate.

Success Factor is a form of the Promotion system used by professional soccer leagues all over the world. Fans of clubs who earn promotion celebrate wildly at the prospect of playing 1 level up, even with little chance for much success at that higher level.

Fair enough. For the record, you played the 'Socialist' card. *** I believe that something like the Success Factor Rule was instituted for competitive balance, not to "punish" successful teams. That's my belief, I know that you & many others disagree & won't be convinced otherwise. Hey, here's an interesting statement which will surely royally piss you off -- I maintain that FW Bishop Dwenger may not have won the 4A State Championship in 2015 & 2018 without the Success Factor Rule. Using your own words, the IHSAA punished the successful teams listed below & let Dwenger win 2 State titles. Look at the competition that the IHSAA bumped up out of 4A in those years: New Pal -- bumped up to 5A for 2015-18. Cathedral - bumped up to 5A in 2013-14, up to 6A in 2015-16, down to 5A in 2017-18. Col East - bumped up to 5A in 2015-18 (unlike New Pal & Cathedral, they probably jumped up into 5A by enrollment in those years anyway) In 2015, New Pal was 5A runner-up to FW Snider in the 64-61 shootout. (Granted, Dwenger beat Snider 20-17 in week 8.) Cathedral won a 6A Sectional. In 2018, undefeated New Pal won the 5A State title with the closest game being 29-17 at Zionsville. Col East won a 5A regional.

So you want to take away healthcare & SS benefits from seniors because you believe in pure capitalism??? Ok, if you say so. But you are heartless & cruel.

So using your "best team wins, so don't punish the winning team" logic, why don't we just go back to single class sports? Heck, let's do that for every sport including football. If your team isn't good enough to beat Warren Central football or Carmel basketball or Andrean baseball, then you just need to work harder & get better, right? Having a fraction of their enrollment is just an excuse, so work harder. Not being able to recruit from a large metro area is just an excuse, so work harder. I posted this Pennsylvania link for all of those folks who say "Success Factor is NOT FAIR to my school because we shouldn't have to play against bigger schools to win our 10th state championship". The IHSAA Success Factor is pretty minor compared to Illinois' Private school multiplier or states that don't even allow Private & Public schools to compete for the same title.

0-10, 4-5, 5-6 in my illustrious career. Sad part is I blew out my knee halfway thru Senior season & then the team went 3-2 without me. And then 7-2/top 10 the next year!

https://statelinesportsnetwork.net/2019/06/12/pennsylvania-bill-introduced-to-separate-public-and-private-schools-state-championships/

Gone mine at the Greenwood Barnes & Noble today. They have some behind the checkout counter.

Just saying Socialism is everywhere. With school vouchers, Private Education should probably be in there too.

Teams were bumped up by Success Factor starting with the 2013-14 school year. For football, they used the 2011 & 2012 seasons to determine if a team would get bumped up. (teams who earned 6+ points in 2011 & 2012 listed below) I remember for a fact that Cathedral won 4A in 2011 & 2012 which moved them up to 5A. Then they won 5A in 2013 & 2014 which moved them up to 6A. Found this on ihsaa site. Schools Moved Up from 2011‐12 and 2012‐13 Due to Rule 2‐5 Indianapolis Cathedral 5A Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 4A Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 3A Indianapolis Scecina Memorial 2A Lafayette Central Catholic 2A

Can I change my bet? Maybe the IHSAA is totally screwed up. I stood up for them...boy, do I feel foolish now.

You guys are right-- the Success Factor system is not a perfect system. Maybe it should be longer than a 2-year window. However, if you change it to 4 years. a school might win 3 or 4 titles with a "golden generation" before they get bumped up. And then that next group of kids has to play in a higher class for the next 4 years. So the same critics of the 2-year window would criticize the 4-year window for mucking up the entire HS career for some kids. You're right. Winning 2 back-to-back Sectionals isn't the definition of "dominance". But it is the definition of "being competitive". Looking at the big picture (& not just at whether your school is playing up or not)-- If a program is so Dominant in Cycle #1 that they earned enough Points (6 or more) to get bumped up & then they were Competitive enough in Cycle #2 to earn enough Points (2, 3, 4 or 5) to remain in that higher class, it makes sense to me to keep that program up in the higher Competitive class instead of dropping them into the lower Dominant Class. Social Security is a Socialist rule. Medicare/Medicare/VA healthcare are all Socialist. Public Libraries are Socialist. Highways, Roads & Bridges are Socialist. Farm Subsidies are Socialist. Public Education is Socialist.

IHSAA did the right thing by also implementing the rule change for the fall sports. If the Luers Coach is too dim to understand the rule, he & his AD should call the IHSAA so they can explain it to him.

I will bet you ONE MILLION DOLLARS that Blitz's tweet from the Luers coach are wrong. The 2-Point Minimum Success Factor rule ONLY applies to programs that are CURRENTLY BUMPED UP TO A HIGHER CLASS AFTER EARNING 6+ POINTS IN THE PREVIOUS CYCLE. Luers won the 2A State title in 2011 & 2012. That bumped them up to 3A for the 2013-14 cycle. They earned only 2 Points in 13-14 & would have fallen back into 2A except their enrollment had jumped up into the 3A level. So they stayed in 3A due to enrollment for 2015-16 (0 points) & 2017-18 (3 points). For the 2019-20 cycle, they will be in 2A due to enrollment. Even though Luers earned 3 points in the previous cycle, they can & will drop to 2A because they were in 3A due to enrollment, not due to the Success Factor. I repeat-- For the 2019-20 cycle, FW Luers will be in 2A due to enrollment.

Frankly, I'm not even sure if you are referring to Moore or Sharp. If it's referring to Brock Moore, the Indystar article noted that he transferred (I am not sure which school he previously attended) for academic reasons & then stayed behind 1 grade for academic reasons. Makes perfect sense if a student is struggling academically, dealing with his mother's serious illniess, etc. This change has obviously been very good for him both in the classroom & on the baseball field too. After the transfer, it appears that he was allowed to participate in athletics immediately. For IHSAA member schools, each student-athlete is eligible for 8 semesters of high school sports. Based upon the ruling of the IHSAA Review Committee, Moore had used up his 8 semesters of eligibility at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Please let me know if any of those facts are incorrect. As you suggested, I did some more research & found that the connections leading up to the Reese Sharp transfer is pretty darn interesting. Lots of facts below. Chris Estep has been the Head Baseball Coach at University HS for 11 years. Estep is not a teacher, he is the founder (1993) & owner of the Roundtripper Sports Academy in Westfield. According to his bio on the Roundtripper website, "Chris is currently the Head of Player Training and Development for the Indiana Mustangs baseball organization, while also serving as a coach." Also from that same website, "RoundTripper Sports Academy is home to several local sports teams in Westfield, IN. These teams include the Indiana Mustangs organization, the University High School baseball and softball teams, the Colts Baseball Club, the San Francisco Giants Scout Team, and PBR’s Team Indiana." Roundtripper's facilities include a 40,000 sq ft indoor facility, youth baseball & softball fields & a regulation high school baseball field. The University baseball team practices & plays its home games at Roundtripper. (Opinion here-- I bet that no other 1A baseball program enjoys those kinds of facilities...in fact, maybe no other team in the entire state.) All Mustang players are provided with a Roundtripper Academy membership that includes unlimited cage use, mound use, and indoor field use. Mustangs players will also have access to some of the finest baseball instructors in the midwest. Reese Sharp has been a member of the Indiana Mustangs Elite Travel baseball club for at least 7 years. I found this May 2016 article when Sharp was a varsity pitcher for Noblesville HS as a freshman: https://millermedianow.org/3123/sports/pitching-the-way-to-varsity/ From that article, "In Sharp’s seven years of playing baseball, a moment that has stuck with him took place during a travel game for the Indiana Mustangs, the only other team Sharp has played for besides Noblesville." https://www.mustangsnation.com/alumni - Sharp is listed as a Mustangs alumni who has committed to play at IU. From MaxPreps, here are Sharp's stats during his 3 years playing varsity at Noblesville. (Hmmm...only 14 innings on the mound as a Junior) https://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/reese-sharp/_VjrL0AiEeW-8KA2nzwbTA/gendersport/baseball-stats.htm Lots & lots of facts there. Unfortunately, I can't confirm that as a fact but, at the state title game, I overheard a University parent say that Sharp had a falling out with the Noblesville Coach. So, based upon those facts & a bit of spy-work, my conclusion is this-- after the 2018 season, Reese Sharp wasn't happy in his role at Noblesville. Based upon many years of training at Estep's Roundtripper Academy & playing elite travel ball for Estep's Indiana Mustangs, Sharp already had a good relationship with Chris Estep which eventually led to a discussion about transferring to University for his Senior year. With a solid squad returning after being 1A runner-ups in 2018, it was a great fit for both the student-athlete & the baseball program. Obviously, it would have worked out even better if Noblesville had signed off on the transfer or the IHSAA gave their approval so that he could have played the whole season. But he was still able to practice every day at Estep's first-class facility until the 365-day ineligibility ended plus he had already committed to play at IU. Based on being drafted in the 28th round, professional scouts surely stopped by to watch him workout too. After University clobbered each Sectional opponent, he became eligible to play starting with the Regionals-- Sharp started on the mound in all 4 of their remaining tournament games, he was the winning pitcher in 3 games, threw 21 2/3 innings (out of 28) & allowed just 2 runs total. As you correctly pointed out, there are personal & family issues which I am completely unaware of. In your first post, you mentioned gun violence. Are you referring to the May 2018 shooting at the Noblesville Middle School? Assuming those personal & family issues were pertinent to their athletic eligibility review, the student's family & legal counsel certainly submitted that information on their transfer application & to the IHSAA Review Committee. In both cases, the Committee ruled against the transfer applicants-- because facts often outweigh feelings.

How can I "research" any of that? I do not know which family you are talking about but I don't recall any reference to an unsafe environment &/or family deaths in either IndyStar article about Sharp or Moore. If it was in those articles, please point it out to me.

How do you figure? The change from 3 Points to 2 had an impact on several schools (both public & private) in a number of sports. Does Bobby Cox also "dislike" Gibson Southern softball? And Marquette boys basketball?

https://www.elkharttruth.com/sports/high_school/an-open-letter-to-ihsaa-commissioner-bobby-cox/article_841397d2-7b3c-5682-880d-c3a3017a275e.html Here's an article that backs up your point that the bigger schools are dominating 4A & those other sports like tennis, track&field, cross country, soccer, etc. *** Here are my own thoughts on why Football has more than 4 classes. 1) Fewer schools play football. 320 currently, compared to over 400 in Boys Basketball. By placing no more than 64 teams in each class for football, state finalists play no more than 6 tournament games & the tournament always takes 6 weeks. With 9 regular season games, nobody plays more than 15 games. Conversely, all other team sports can play multiple games during the same week or even 2 games in the same day sometimes. And it's no big deal for a team to play 7 or more tournament games in those other sports. 2) In general, enrollment is more important to Football than other sports. Smaller schools with 3 or 4 very talented basketball players or even just 1 super-phenom pitcher can compete with anybody. In Football, you need depth to compete in the higher classes-- teams with a solid 22 almost always beat a team that has a lot of players playing Off & Def plus injuries wreak havoc as the season goes on. When the IHSAA looked closely at who was having success in 5A Football from 1985-2012, they realized that the larger enrollment schools were completely dominating. And that's why they added 6A. Check out the 5A results from 1997-2012 - it's almost all 6A names here.

FW Snider won their Sectional in 6A in each of the past 2 years. They seem to be pretty competitive to me. Marquette boys basketball has won the 2A Sectional for 4 years straight. If the Minimum Points were still at 3, they would have dropped back down to 1A. To me, that's the best example of why the change to 2 Points make a whole lot of sense.

Good point-- Cathedral won the 6A Sectional in 2015 & 2016 but then dropped to 5A. We will never know how they would have fared in 6A during the 2017 & 2018 tournaments.

New Pal is right where they should be. Winner of Cathedral / Decatur Central will be a challenging Regional matchup. I don't know the far south very well but Castle is a possible Semistate opponent. And 6A battle-tested Valpo could be the representative from the north. If you're saying that New Pal (enrollment 1,175) should choose to join the 6A tournament in order to face schools with 3, 4 & 5 times their enrollment just to challenge themselves, then you're just being silly. But the Dragons may earn the 6+ points to get all the way up there in 2 years, just like Columbus East did.

Cathedral & Snider forced to stay in higher class...& as a special treat, Carmel must go thru the South Semistate in 2020. Not so happy about my Slicers being in the same Sectional as Valpo & Michigan City starting this fall.