foxbat

Yeah, they usually get the meeting room right after the Healthy Snacks In Concession Stands Committee meets. 😀

As one of my colleagues would say, "All of that jack*ssery going on. Someone's gonna lose an eye!" 😃

I don't know about that ... I might get myself in trouble tonight as I just finally broke down and got a mobile phone recently and I know I'm going to be tempted tonight to go off in a lobby or in the kitchen and, like you said, try to stream one or more of the games for "quick glimpses."

I got a reprieve. I was going to have to miss tonight's LCC-CP game as I'm being the supportive husband and dad and going to one of my wife's work functions with the kids tied to families/kids. Luckily, the LCC football game got moved to tomorrow because of the LCC girls' soccer state game. Get brownie points with the wife and still get to see the sectional game!

Perhaps not?

The hot cocoa during breaks stays warmer?

I must confess that my youth teams were responsible for a couple of these this past semester.

1 POINT GAMES Cass @ Rochester Clinton Prairie @ Lafayette Central Catholic Tipton @ Eastbrook North Newton @ Rensselaer West Lafayette @ Guerin Catholic 3 POINT GAMES Twin Lakes @ Knox Western @ Lebanon Warsaw @ Chesterton Carmel @ HSE Fishers @ Westfield Avon @ Brownsburg Boone Grove @ Andrean 4 POINT GAME Lafayette Jeff @ Merillville

That's what I tell my players when we have away games ... the one thing I love more than winning a game on home turf is taking one on someone else's home turf. Makes the ride home a lot shorter.

That part of the state isn't known for money. Maybe they have a rich alumnus ... although I think Wilkinson is probably the most famous.

If you live in the cities in Texas, it takes an hour minimum just to pull out of your driveway. It's a four-hour trip just from Dallas to Houston for the state finals. Those teams from El Paso take about 11 hours to make that same trip to NRG Stadium. Heck, you can make it from Indy to Oklahoma City in the same time.

It's not that silly a question. You are right that Texas squads and Indiana squads look different even given class levels. Realize that Texas 1A only goes as high as 104 students, after that, it goes to 2A. Also, 1A is six-man ball, so the first 11-man ball is 2A. In that case, think of 2A in Texas as being 1A in Indiana in most cases. Also, realize that we are only talking about a unique subset of teams that would be competing in a conference like the Hoosier Conference in its current incarnation where a 1A squares off against 3A and possibly 4A competition on a regular basis. Early on, the Hoosier Conference was actually a lot more 1A/2A teams with McCutcheon and Harrison tossed in for locale. Many of those teams eventually moved to other conferences and finally settled into what is now the Hoosier Heartland Conference. Sheridan made a return back to the HC in 2000 and then headed to the Hoosier Heartland when LCC left the Hoosier Heartland and entered the Hoosier again in 2011. As might be expected, when you look at the two teams that were/are in the Hoosier Conference roaming among 3A/4A types of competition as 1A teams, you are talking about two 1A teams that had/have seven state title appearances and six state titles between the two of them WHILE they were member of the Hoosier Conference. A couple of other teams have started to flex their muscle that way and I could potentially see a team like Pioneer maybe deciding to go the route that Sheridan and LCC have gone in latching into something like the Hoosier. Maybe even Linton if their numbers brought them down to 1A again, although the problem there would be how far south they are. I think what you see in most conferences nowadays in Indiana is something where the schools tend to be within a single class of each other usually a 1A/2A mix or 2A/3A mix or 3A/4A and usually tied to proximity, but again the Hoosier is rare ... which makes it a pretty intriguing/noteworthy conference. It would also likely cease to exist in its unique structure if something like districts went into effect in Indiana like in Texas.

Yeah, I know. You spent the better part of the season telling them to shutdown.

Seriously? NOW South Newton warrants attention from you outside of contraction?

Just pushed you to $3,000.

Oh, we're keeping an eye out for them. Last time they visited, the silverware was missing and half the liquor had been drunk when they left. 😁

How good is Merriville's passing game and pass protection? If they are as good as Harrison, which is probably an average passing team for 5A, then that 30 for Merriville, might be a tad low. I expect that Jeff spent most of the week off working on the secondary as that's probably the glaring chink in the armor. Also, I'm hoping that they also spent some time on kickoff too. Not sure what was going on at the Tech game, but I think there were at least 3-4 kickoffs out of bounds and most were up closer to mid-field than the goal line. Can't afford to give a 6A opponent like Merriville as short field throughout the night.

I'm not as familiar with most other conferences and only vaguely familiar with the HC due to LCC's involvement there, but I'd venture a guess that the HC is fairly unique in its make-up ... more on that in a bit. The addition of 4A Western is more recent, but it hasn't fundamentally altered the conference power structure as a lone entity. Regarding 1A teams, prior to LCC rejoining in 2011, Sheridan was the 1A lone-wolf having rejoined the conference in 200. As for titles, realize that LCC has been, recently, in the HC since 2011. If you go back to when Sheridan joined in 2000, the spread of titles is fairly broad across programs and across classifications: 1A - 9 titles spread across two programs 2A - 9 titles spread across four programs 3A - 10 titles spread across four programs 4A - No titles The numbers add up to more than 20 because in some years there were two teams that shared a title and, in some cases, like 2000 and 2001, three teams split the title. Also, in 2015, Hamilton Heights won the East and LCC won the West, a split title ... this was before the conference crossover games were implemented in 2016 to crown a definitive conference champion in the age of the two-division Hoosier Conference. The HC has also been prominently represented at LOS in the past 19 years and potentially likely this season too with West Lafayette, Cass, and LCC still looming in post-season tournament play. Since 2000, Hoosier Conference teams have been active at LOS on Thanksgiving weekend in 12 games and walking away with blue rings in 9 of them. Just in the past decade, the HC has had representation at LOS in 8 games in 6 years and walked away with 6 blue rings ... across three classes.

Thanks. I'm in a late meeting on a mobile and didn't think to search there.

Time?

The district model has been there a long time in Texas ... easily back into the 70s when I was a youngster playing junior high ball. I think, given where Indiana is with conferences and the all-in model, it would be hard to implement a district model given the disruption and/or dissolution of the conference model and the flexibility that it tends to provide. With that said, if a district model did find its way to the Hoosier state, I wouldn't be surprised if it came concurrently with a reduced-participation/qualification to the post-season. There'd actually be little reason to impose a district model, at the detriment to conferences and several potential rivalries, and still retaining an all-in model. Having come from the Texas model, I must say that I rather enjoy the all-in model, but do understand the issues of putting some "skin on the bones" of the regular season games, so I'm not adverse to retaining an all-in and doing some type of seeding or first-game homefield guarantee or even a combination to add some relevance to the regular season play ...maybe something like 1 & 2 are guaranteed to be on opposite sides of the bracket and also get home field for the first game of sectionals. Could also see, if a more pragmatic way could be determined for "ranking/rating" rather than using the bottom/top team-in-the-bracket for homefield tie breakers, you'd use use the ranking/rating. Do that into regionals and you'd see folks playing for keeps ... of course you'd have to find a ranking that takes out the differentials or scrap the mercy rule if that's the route taken.

You are correct in the assertion that the need for conferences diminishes drastically under the Texas model. If implemented in an Indiana environment, it wouldn't necessarily preclude the existence of conferences, but it could certainly alter their make-up or even the relevance of the games in those. Some folks would argue, with an all-in format, the conference model games are already diminished to playing for pride or bragging rights as opposed to post-season relevance. There are also some conferences where, because of the make-up, a district model would probably fundamentally change the conference ... almost to the point of maybe disbanding. The Hoosier Conference, which has 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A in it, would likely see about half the teams get peeled off in one form or another. There would, potentially depending on the size of the districts, be room for a couple of other non-district games thrown in, but for some programs that wouldn't help retain them in the conference. Western is currently the lone 4A program in the HC and LCC is the lone 1A program in the conference. If Indiana went to 8-team districts in class/grouping, those two teams would only be able to schedule, at most two non-district games with the rest of the HC to still potentially be able to qualify for post-season. The HC crossover game would go away and, you might find that proximity might mean that the same two teams might be scheduled over and over ... e.g., in the case of LCC, West Lafayette and Benton Central.

Most likely, like Texas, the districts would be created as artificial groupings ... usually with a tie to proximity, but not the only thing. It would potentially end up diminishing the role of conferences in some places, or as in the case of Texas, pretty much all together. Of course, new rivalries would pop up due to being forced into districts and those games carrying not just bragging rights implications, but specific post-season tournament implications.