foxbat

Were there a couple of Top 20 schools within a mile or two of these that closed recently? If not, then I'm not seeing how they end up Top 25 in the state.

??? Zionsville is the 25th largest school in the state.

Harrison squares off with LCC this week in scrimmage. As a side note, Harrison's freshman look like they are trying to slide into WL's honorary Catholic status. Harrison's freshman squad will face Brebeuf, Roncalli, Chatard, and LCC's JV team this season. Last year they faced off against Chatard and Cathedral while the JV faced off against Chatard and Brebeuf.

Up this way, RCHS kicking off its 125th season of football.

True, but Harrison got eliminated two years straight by Zionsville in sectionals, eliminating the probability of a pair of sectional titles ... and last year had a halftime lead over Zionsville before succumbing. Even if Cathedral won it all, I would have liked to have seen Harrison face off against Dwenger and possibly MC before the Peebles brothers met up in LOS.

Looking forward to a potential LCC-Andrean matchup in regionals. I don't think those two have matched-up in three decades ... if ever.

Zionsville belonged in 6A a couple of years ago based on enrollment ... they were actually #30 in the 2019 series and #31 in the 2020 series of 32, after adjusting for SF bumps, but somehow ended up playing in 5A in the 2020 and 2021 seasons despite playing 6A in 2019.

I'd be interested in seeing a survey of schools with the questions as: Have you been DIRECTLY impacted by SF? How? I would suspect that outside of the ones that moved up, the numbers would be relatively small to that first bulletpoint question. In a sectional, a team that enters 0-8 each season isn't directly impacted by the usual sectional winner being SF'd as they would have likely been knocked off by the #6 of 8 team in that sectional. Regional and semi-state foes might say "yes" too, but as you start climbing the ranks, there are other teams that are as competitive in the mix. As an example, while you can make an argument that LCC going up to 2A opened the door for Pioneer, it would miss that fact that LCC and Pioneer are pretty close to tied in their series of meetings over the years and that Pioneer's last three meetings with LCC, from earliest to latest, 2016-2018, have been 28-27, 48-20, and 70-7 wins for Pioneer. All you really have to do is look at posts in several other threads that many teams are far-removed from the discussion of winning seasons much less the SF discussion. While it's perhaps a part of the "competitive balance" argument, it's a small part compared to many other things including open-enrollment/transfer, district/school resources, general demographics, etc.

Even the details like the stitching and the white band alignment are off on the Team Issue. On the Wilson one, the bands are aligned where the seams meet and the stitching components are uniform. On the Team Issue, they aren't. Even the minor item of the lace tuck ... on the Wilson the end horizontal laces have the vertical lace tucked under them at termination ... on the Team Issue, they don't. It's minor items, to an extent, but usually those minor items also reflect the quality in the overall composition of the product and the process. As someone else pointed out earlier, you can probably be confident that there's a difference in the cost to produce.

Too bad Eastern's not a bit bigger as they might be a fit, at least from a distance perspective, for the NCC. They are right in that neighborhood between Kokomo and Marion, about an hour from Muncie and Anderson, about 75 minutes from Lafayette, and 45 minutes from Logansport. At 2A though, they would likely have a really tough time always playing 4A/5A/6A every week.

I think West Lafayette might be interesting, but right now West Lafayette already plays or played a mix of McCutcheon/Jeff or McCutcheon/Harrison as part of their OOC. Matter of fact, Harrison and West Lafayette will kickoff the season in Lucas Oil this season. As such, West Lafayette already sees a couple bigger schools as part of their OCC. Benefits might come in playing Logansport and Kokomo as well, but the question might be, "Is their much more to be gained with those two than potential mixes in the HC AND is it worth the potential shifts/changes to make that move?" Yes, WL has dominated the HC for the past few years, but just as recently as 2019, 2A Cass knocked them off right before post-season started. The potential danger to West Lafayette would be leaving the HC to join up with a mini-NCC and then a couple years later Kokomo and/or Logansport leaves. If the HCC decided to take back Jeff, McCutcheon, and Harrison ... yes, I know a very long shot ... and perhaps Center Grove, that leaves WL hanging. Again, I'm not sure from a cost/benefit and risk situation it would make a lot of sense for WL to jump ship at this point given that they play or have played three of the bigger dogs in the NCC, from an enrollment standpoint, already. The HC also provides LOTS of different offensive looks for WL even if the current argument might be that there are light versions of that set of looks. WL dominates now, but the HC is a conference that's had its fair share of headbangers from multiple classes ... LCC and Sheridan both won the HC en route to LOS blue rings as did RCHS. Tipton did so en route to a red ring at LOS. In 11 of the last 17 seasons, the HC has had a representative at LOS at the end of the season. I could see the HC attempting to bring in the likes of Pioneer who I think would benefit tremendously from being in the HC. Frankly, I'd like to see Sheridan return as well, but I just don't know where that program sits right now in terms of building back to the top-tier of 1A. Just need a couple of 4A or 3A players in there too. The other thing that would be VERY interesting, but won't happen due to the history of the NCC is for Harrison, McCutcheon, and Jeff to join the HC. Harrison and McCutcheon were once in the HC in the latter part of the 20th century. It would provide, if you you could bring in a couple of 4A players, like Logansport/Kokomo, a potential for a big-team/smaller-team divisional split and also plenty more opportunities for "sharpening knives," but the cross-division would be more by request than by rotation. To your other question though, about OOC play for the remaining folks in the NCC, I think that's certainly doable. I don't know about the other schools in the NCC, but I know that Harrison has forged undercard relationships with several schools more recently having played Chatard, Cathedral, THS, Lowell, Brebeuf, and Tri-West. Until recently, they used to play Westfield on a regular basis including the varsity level. They also played Roncalli a couple years ago in a quick-pickup and also had a quick pickup game against Hammond Central. On a side note, despite their rawness, I really liked the Hammond Central team ... never quit. Many of those undercard games came in lieu of playing the NCC undercard or punching up when they did ... e.g., the Harrison freshman squad might play the JV squad for another NCC opponent. Harrison is adding Plainfield this season in lieu of THS and I think that might be at all levels. In any case, at a minimum, Harrison's shown a propensity for having a larger circle of OOC takers. Granted, that might be more by COVID desperation or sheer happenstance, but they have had a bigger circle than just the NCC sphere. These teams have also tended to feed off of each other in terms of football success ... and to a lesser degree, Logansport.

That's take three out of the NCC, if it happens ... and the NCC announced earlier this month that Tech will be leaving after the 2022-2023 season. If Richmond, MC, and Marion depart, that puts Anderson in a world of hurt from a football perspective. The last time that Anderson has beaten what would be one of the remaining teams ... Harrison, Jeff, McCutcheon, Logansport, or Kokomo ... in football, would have been back in 2016 when they beat Logansport 35-16.

Is there really a differential posed by home field advantage on the overall score and outcome ... or at least in balance to the issue of neutral sites? Conventional wisdom says "yes," however, do the numbers support that idea? In 2021, Sagarin indicated, statistically, that home field gave an advantage of 1.28 on the odds. I did a quick back-of-the-napkin look and, last season, there were ten regional/semi games that were decided by 10 points or less across the six classes. In five of those, the home team won and in five the visitor won. Of the 10 games, two were decided by 3 points or less and the split between home/visitor was 1-1. Granted, it's just a single season and I haven't looked at historically over time, but if seasons tend to look like last season, then there's less impact on scores/outcomes and @crimsonace1's analysis looms bigger in successfully engaging fans and also reducing the potential for glitches such as not having enough volunteer/paid coverage for concessions, security, etc. to make the post-season more successful.

Possibly, but as I explained to my son, at building programs, there are folks in the wings stepping in to fill losses. I recall the angst at LCC when Chris Mills graduated and then again when Austin Munn graduated and then when Denhart graduated. I also recall the angst at WL as they progressed through classes yet folks still continue to rag on LCC's success and no one mentions personnel at WL yet WL keeps showing up in that top 5 3A group in every pre-season poll season after season. It may well be that what carried Harrison, which is arguably still building and climbing into stability, for the last couple years was a player or two, but Harrison has also seen its ranks and abilities swell. We'll have a fairly decent idea after the first couple of games and should know by the Jeff game at the end of September. Most folks watch the varsity squads rosters, but I've been watching the Raider undercards and like what I see in the pipeline.

It's my understanding that the four-year cycle was comparable/adjusted to the original two-year with regard to points needed to move up/down, but required the points over a four-year period. The big advantage/thought to the idea of the four-year approach for moving up, is it basically mitigated the concerns that once-in-a-lifetime really good class could propel an otherwise average program into the clutches of SF and punish later classes that didn't have similar firepower. @CoachGalloglycan provide more details on the reasoning though ... I'm working off of second-hand knowledge.

WL renounced their Catholic faith and were exorcised out of the Sectional of Death. Got a pretty favorable placement in S25. Will still have to likely meet Mishawaka Marian in regionals or Chatard in semi-state, but I have to imagine they will welcome the odds in S25 than the previous seasons where they had to always have that early exit at the hands of their "Catholic brethren" looming in their minds when the ping pong balls started bouncing.

I suspect that it was the issue of too much, too fast with Mr. Cox. I always got the impression that he was not a big fan of big change and SF was a big change, at least for the time, and four years probably seemed like an eternity. With some of the tweaking that we've seen recently and with some of the better understanding now that folks have actually seeing SF in action, what are your thoughts about the potential for a "re-presentation" of a four-year period ... for going up and coming down ... to the IHSAA?

That's it? Could seed the tourney and have a tipoff with a running chainsaw or a rabid raccoon. That's be pretty unpredictable.

Same here ... have always been foxbat.

Saw in one place he's 6'1" and 190 lbs. In another, the claim is that he's 6'5" and 185". He doesn't look that big, 6'1" big and 190 lbs., in the video. The kid might be good, but if FBU is using this as a scouting/promotion/recruiting video as a representation of his ability, it does him, 535, a big disservice. The blocker had no footwork/technique and, if this is a camp for the best in the country or even the area, that can't be the blocker's best work or even average effort. If he's not one of the camp attendees and just some guy they brought in to "volunteer," then again, it's a disservice to 535.

That's OK, CMA gets the Canadians ... for hockey. When Mel's been drinking, just about everything and everybody is the boogeyman.

Open enrollment now makes several of those things that used to make p/p schools the boogeyman available to public schools. When I lived in New Orleans, private schools were a dominant part of the landscape due to the condition of the public school system there. Something like one-third of the schools in the area were private school. When we moved to Texas, we moved into an area that didn't have, at that time, a nearby Catholic school. My parents, however, were less concerned because we had public school that was a nationally-recognized junior high. In essence, we ended up at a private public school ... matter of fact, the only thing I felt as the differences between the Catholic school and my public school were 1) no religion during the day, including no religion class, 2) the public school was much larger, it feeds a 6A high school, and had many more activities available, and 3) the sports teams for the public school were WAY better than the Catholic school I went to ... with that said, it probably would have been about the same at the high school level. I've been in Catholic schools that look like low-level public schools ... I've been in public schools that look like high-level private schools ... and I've been part of challenged public schools. I think that two things that are going to be problematic for challenged schools moving forward: open-enrollment with differentials and vouchers. I'm not saying that the open-enrollment with differentials is evil and I see really good opportunities for COMMUNITIES to benefit from the idea of shared resources and focus. For example, my colleague's daughter attended a school outside of her district because the other school provided better focus on performing arts that she just couldn't get at her own local school. Where I see the bigger issue is when the more fundamental core education is compromise and lopsided. I think it's great when a school has a focus in performing arts or life sciences or agriculture, but provides a big problem when math or English or basic science is severely compromised to the extent that students/family feel the need to transfer just for the basics.

Schools with open-enrollment are allowed to charge a "differential," I believe, for students that are out of the district ... especially in the case of homeschooled kids. I don't know that all do though. It would make sense that the argument is local taxes, but if I'm not mistaken, the schools themselves get their money based on DOE enrollment numbers, so whether a kid's parents pay taxes in that district or not likely doesn't play into the school's focus, but may for the district ... i.e., the school gets "paid" for the kid if they are a butt-in-the-seat whether their folks pay taxes in that district or another. I had a colleague of mine who lived in the Tippecanoe School Corp, but his daughter attended Jeff because she wanted to do arts as her high school focus and this was before the Rohrman Performing Arts Center opened up at Jeff. I don't know if it was official that students could attend outside of districts at that time or not or if it was more on a special case basis. Don't know if he paid a differential for her. I know that TSC has a differential for kids that are out of district that attend their schools.

Given the timing, they might even let them go naked.

No Pioneer in 1A?