foxbat

I agree. It would need to be much more holistic than Sagarin and more than just using a single season. We can't get folks to agree on using Sagarin to seed sectionals, so I doubt there's a likelihood of being able to get folks to agree to use Sagarin for placing teams in divisions.

Doesn't really matter what you call them, they will have associations. 1A, 2A, 3A, etc. is just as good as All-Star-Division, Middle Division, etc. or Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Cat, Dog, Bird even if it has a less-direct/historic meaning in a new form. Folks know what it means when you make the NIT vs. the NCAA tourney in March and it wouldn't matter if you labelled it March Madness or late-March Madness or Dog and Cat. And you have to start and then go somewhere, which I believe @Footballking16 is getting at.

I still have to believe that if you can hold a team to a limited number of points, your odds of prevailing go up. As someone whose favored the defensive side of the ball for many years, I'm not yet ready to "go gentle into that good night."

That's why Success Factor makes more sense than a multiplier. It would apply to all schools evenly, not by the privateness or limits of their enrollment, but by the content of their talent. The biggest issue with Success Factor is not that there's a "bouncing," but that the length is too short so the bouncing is more pronounced. The way the Success Factor runs now, it's more of an issue that tends to catch schools with a talented class more often than a program that's actually got an advantage or has had a more holistic program growth in competitiveness. If you go back and look at the IFCA's suggestion, a four-year window ends up with much less bouncing and much less of an issue to impact a school based on a great class. Frankly, I'd like to see the Success Factor, since the idea is really behind "leveling playing fields" also have a "Failure Factor" component to it too. If a 2A school, regardless of public/private, can be said to really be 3A in competitive level by the Success Factor, isn't it actually realistic that a 4A school could really be 3A in terms of competitiveness too? Of course, that's not going to happen because no one wants to be tagged/recognized as being relegated/demoted.

Looks like LCC, probably the best 5-3 team in 1A, will play 4A Western in the crossover game next week. Should be a nice gauge for determining LCC's run depth in tourney time. Assuming LCC goes with minimal/no injuries this weekend, the game could be a really nice tune-up with excellent timing for the tourney ... culminating a schedule, that's already seen six 3A and two 2A, including two ranked 3A and a ranked 2A, with a 4A team at home.

LCC 52 - Benton Central 7 ... Final

For the first time in a while it's not LCC and Pioneer eliminating each other early in the process. In the past 10 years, there have been eight times where LCC and Pioneer could meet, did meet, and eliminated each other ... the other two years, 2013 and 2014, LCC was in 2A. This time around it's Pioneer there.

I think West Lafayette just got thrown in there as someone saw they played LCC during the season and decided they were close enough to the cathedral to be honorary Catholics.

Sometimes even instrumentals speak ... I also provided a "making of" video that explains the backstory and the philosophy behind the song.

1 Point Games Benton Central @ Lafayette Central Catholic Cass @ Hamilton Heights Rensselaer @ Northwestern Twin Lakes @ West Lafayette Tipton @ Western 2 Point Games West Central @ Frontier Taylor @ Tri-Central Sheridan @ Eastern Adam Central @ Bluffton Andrean @ Lowell Heritage @ Southern Wells Northeastern @ Knightstown Northwood @ Warsaw Oldenburg Academy @ South Decatur Richmond @ Anderson 5 Point Game Warren Central @ Carmel

Football is religion in Texas!

Would be a nice appearance for the Twin Cities. LCC and West Lafayette split blue/red rings, respectively, back in 2015. LCC and West Lafayette last appeared and both took home blue rings in 2009. It'd be nice to see a triple sweep this year. Edit: And it would also be three from the Hoosier Conference too ... LCC, Cass, and West Lafayette.

Only the ones with sprinkler systems. 😄

Would like to see LCC - South Adams and the possible subsequent game, LCC - Indy Lutheran.

LCC 13 Twin Lakes 0 - Final LCC takes possession of 2nd place in the Hoosier Conference West with next week's home game with Benton Central left before the HC Crossover Week. Crossover opponent will be the winner of next week's Tipton/Western face-off.

Drones pending weather. 😃

Shouldn't there be a (2) behind that 1,000? ... for the second time it's been artificially manipulated? Actually it's scratching and standing around ... gotta have your priorities.

Warning: NSFW

1 Point Games Rensselaer @ Benton Central Western @ Northwestern Lafayette Central Catholic @ Twin Lakes 3 Point Games Hamilton Heights @ Tipton Harrison @ McCutcheon North Newton @ Delphi Park Heritage @ North Vermillion 5 Point Games Carmel @ Ben Davis Monroe Central @ Eastern Hancock West Lafayette @ Cass

In Little Gridiron we moved to Friday-night crews a long time ago ... over two decades ago. We used to just hire college students, but found it to be unreliable and not contributing to a positive experience. Nothing against college students, but there's a world of difference having professionals out there on the field; especially when there aren't professionals on the field. We pay more than when we hired the college kids, but the results have been worth every penny. The set of refs that we have do a great job working with the kids and also with the coaches too. We do have some situations where we have beginner refs on the field, but it has always been something like two experienced refs with a beginner ref. It has been a win-win-win all the way around. I know it's different in some other leagues as I've heard some horror stories from some of our refs that have also reffed in other youth leagues, but I hope that our league is doing its part to help make the experience more encouraging/rewarding for experienced refs and also to do our part not to run off the new guys.

Depends ... how would you say Cass matches up with RCHS? I think Cass may last longer in the first half than others, although RCHS gave West Lafayette a game in the first half, but the second half is where they can just take off.