foxbat

If you get a chance, take a look at Texas state finals; not so much for the game ... although they are entertaining ... but for the crowd. Unfortunately, last season, with COVID, they capped the games at 17,000 attendance per game. Back in 2019, the 6A DI game attracted over 47,000 which eclipsed attendance totals at almost 3/4 of the college bowl games played that season leading up to the national championship game.

I kind of figured that, but was just curious more about the gate item than anything else. I think you are right that Cathedral has more flexibility as an independent and more opportunities for cross-state play with OH and KY than if they were tied to the MIC. I also suspect they like having the game with Chatard as well as, as you've mentioned, a chance to renew with Roncalli. Those things would likely fall by the wayside if they joined the MIC. I'd also venture a guess that, if an opening did appear on Cathedral's schedule, even without joining the MIC, they might get one or two of those MIC teams to consider a home-and-home two-year deal every once in a while.

Would Cathedral strike a deal to play "all away" if they entered the MIC ... at least for football? MIC may not want to play at Arlington, but I suspect that home gates would increase at the various MIC schools when Cathedral came to town.

The second president? @Yuccaguy's old, but I don't think he's that old. 😀

Of interest is that three of those four schools have gotten smaller compared to their 2019-2020; with GS being the exception and increasing a couple of dozen. I'm surprised that WL numbers are down; especially given the growth on that side of the Wabash.

I know that Benton Central had yo-yo'd a couple of cycles from 3A down to 2A and are now back up to 3A. I think their freshman/sophomore classes back in 2019-2020 classification were larger than their junior/senior class, so I'm assuming that they are going to be staying up in 3A. I'm wondering though about whether Seeger will be dropping back down to 1A. I think there was some talk about that possibly happening right around the time that COVID started up. Don't know if anyone has any details on those areas.

I think WL will beat Tri-West to 4A and may also be moving with Danville.

Perhaps an unintended consequence of SF? As you point out, despite the typical discussion of "recruitment," parochial schools have a decent amount of self-restrictions placed on them; especially between themselves. In a sense, with open-enrollment across the state, a school like Cathedral might be just the first in the "arms race" category to climb the ladder. While the focus is on a school like Cathedral, there are certainly some public schools out there that look like Cathedral from an SES and resource standpoint that may well be in a position to see a more permanent move upward too. As an example, a school like CG has under 20% FRL. Granted, they played Westfield which is even lower at around 16% FRL, but CG passed through 64% FRL Ben Davis and Westfield passed through 61% Merrillville en route to LOS.

With the pinned gameday thread on GID ... and even recently when it isn't pinned, there are enough dedicated folks to start it and keep filling it ... GID itself has been my go-to location for scores around the state. The exception is Sam King's, local J&C reporter, Twitter feed for local coverage. Even then, I find myself on the GID site more than King's Twitter feed on game day; especially given the ancillary conference thread chatter on GID at game time.

Will be interesting Along with Danville and Tri-West, I'd toss West Lafayette into that mix. WL has been at the top of that 3A pile for a long time ... just teetering on tipping to 4A. At one time, I believe that WL used to be a closed-district, but talk on the street is that they may be lifting that closed-district restriction. If that's the case, they were only a couple dozen off from 4A back in the 2019-2020 classification, and with the growth in the county just to the north, a couple of dozen can't be too far away.

If you look at the IHSAA site, there's a file that shows the 2019 classes for each school in each sport: https://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/schools/School Classifications by Sport.pdf. Zionsville is, oddly, listed at 6A/5A. If you look at the 2019-2020 / 2020-2021 numbers, Zionsville was actually listed as #30 in 6A; right above Valpo. I suspect, again with the same caveat that I had for Harrison, unless there's a lot more movement at the top of 5A, Zionsville might be seeing 6A regardless of SF. https://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/quick resources/Enrollments & Classifications/football schools 19-20.pdf

We knew numbers were going up in the Harrison area before COVID as there are two developments that started up to the east and west of Harrison. I think the one to the west already had houses and families moving in and the one to the east was just completing the grating around the time that COVID hit. Passed by the other day and the houses are going up in the one to the east. If I recall correctly, I thought someone said there were some 300 homes going up between those two. I know at the parents of athletes meeting at the start of the school year, they mentioned that Harrison had passed Jeff already this season. I imagine that the gap, once those developments are completed, will be much bigger.

Welcome @snootto the CFWM Winners Circle!

Not sure when the numbers come out, but there should be some movement in 6A as currently 5A Harrison passed 6A Jeff in the Lafayette area during COVID and is now the largest school in the area. That means that Harrison should be moving up to 6A unless there was a lot of explosion in the upper ranks of 5A. If there was a lot of explosion, and Harrison remains 5A, that would then mean that Jeff would be coming down to 5A too ... otherwise, could be seeing a pair of 6A schools from the Lafayette area.

I'm hoping that it's Westfield increasing its profile and sustaining it ... for selfish reasons. Harrison had two losses this season: Westfield and Zionsville. Harrison took Westfield to 19-11 in the 4th before succumbing. Last season, Harrison's freshman squad dropped a 7-point game to Westfield's freshman. This season, the Harrison JV squad, with many of those same freshman, took Westfield to the end, dropping a 1-point game on a 47-yard field goal by Westfield's sophomore kicker to win it. Unfortunately for Harrison, they are "land locked" in the NCC. I'd like to see Harrison pick up some 6A competition besides Jeff; however, they'd have to drop THS and the NCC schedule leaves no other wiggle room. Not sure which conference they could go to that would welcome them with open arms that would help them compete; especially if it meant Jeff, and possibly, McCutcheon bouncing along. Not sure they'd go by themselves is an option.

Based on enrollment numbers, Zionsville was showing in 6A/5A back in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 classification PDF: https://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/quick resources/Enrollments & Classifications/football schools 19-20.pdf Don't know what Zionsville's new numbers look like now, but they were on that 5A/6A bubble without SF back in .

Was around a couple thousand for cutoff cusp. I think Harrison's moving up to 6A as well next year as they just passed Jeff in enrollment to make them the largest school in the Lafayette/West Lafayette area.

Efficient Catholics ... Vigil Mass.

Lutheran only has 44 listed on their MaxPreps roster. Accounting for injuries, etc. 40's not bad ... just under 20% of the student body is on the field. 😀

CE's tracking around 33% FRL. For comparison, that's roughly around Mooresville, Monrovia, Tipton, and South Adams.

Pioneer's FRL is roughly around 42%.

I'd couple that with also keeping Cathedral from putting up a couple of quick scores. Zionsville let Harrison shock them with 21 points in the first quarter and a halftime lead in sectionals. They were able to have a big second half to subdue Harrison, who just couldn't get anything established in the air, but I think if they were to spot Cathedral three TDs in the first quarter that would pretty much be it for that game.

Kiser's a heck of an athlete, but Pioneer's been a staple in 1A football for a while. The thing that has hidden that is that LCC and Pioneer have met so often, typically early in the post-season, and ended each other's seasons when they've both been highly-ranked. Those two teams have ended each other's seasons 12 times in the last two decades and, in four of those years, they didn't even have an opportunity to play because one or the other was in 2A via SF while the other was still in 1A. Over those two decades, those two teams also ended up at LOS ten times. They were ranked #1/#2 at the same time in 1A in four of those seasons ... in essence, the #1/#2 meeting in 1A occurred in a section or regional between the two of them. Pioneer's been ranked in the Top 10 1A final poll in 16 of the last 20 seasons and #1 six times ... and that's with three of those seasons hanging out in 2A. By contrast, LCC's only finished Top 10 1A final poll in 11 of the last 20 seasons and #1 four times ... likewise, with three of those hanging out in 2A. I think Pioneer easily deserves the "more with less" consideration.

LCC would be in that same group as they are at 287 by last count. I did a quick look at 1A a couple of years ago and, oddly enough, the schools in the lower half of 1A held 12 of the 20 spots available at LOS over the past 10 years compared to those that were in the upper half. The lower half teams also had 8 blue rings to show for it. Furthermore, when a school in the lower half played a team in the upper half, the larger team only prevailed once ... Linton over Pioneer in 2017.

I'm not sure what we're using for measuring more with less, but I'm going to go outside the box and say Indiana School for the Deaf. In addition to traditional issues associated with fielding teams, toss in academics plus hearing-impairments ... classroom-related, field-related, and life-related ... and then throw in that the school has 121 students. Hats off to the families, admin, and kids for making it happen!