Bobref

Then I guess things haven’t changed much since my last trip to Steele.

HC will be back. Next year they move to the NCC. Playing the likes of Andrean, Hobart & Lowell is much better preparation for a team like West Lafayette than playing Lake Station, River Forest and Boone Grove.

I don’t know. I’ve seen pretty much every big school championship game for the last 30 yrs. The 2003 Warren team’s performance was the best I’ve ever seen. Of course, I had a pretty good vantage point for that one.

Nope. #50 is ineligible regardless of where he lines up or what down it is. What game was this?

What’s the turf like at this point in the season?

The mighty, mighty Eagles of St. Edward (Lakewood, OH) continued their Ohio Div. 1 title defense. They’ve won their first two playoff games by a combined score of 91-6. Next up: the hated Iggies of St. Ignatius, whom the Eagles curb-stomped 48-6 a month ago.

No.

Speaking of the coin toss, since they changed the process to allow the winner of the toss to defer their choice, has anyone ever seen a coach win the toss and elect to defend a goal? I did last night.

As @Yuccaguysaid, the high school rule on DPI does not include a specific provision about uncatchability. However, there is no foul for DPI until the ball is in the air, and if the QB is throwing the ball well out of bounds, no one is going to call DPI because any contact did not prevent the receiver from getting to the pass. So, if the North coach was complaining that it should have been DPI, then no, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.

Somebody posted on Facebook that the outage was “several days,” and was related to the GID “funding issues.” Yes, it was DT.

That changed a couple of years ago. It makes sense since, as a practical matter the coaches make those decisions anyway. Same thing with the pregame coin toss.

So a 6A team that aspires to be the new King of the North should schedule the equivalent of a 4A/5A team (assuming your appraisal of Andrean is correct) to upgrade their schedule? Think bigger.

I have no illusions.

Way to duck the question. And I guess I didn’t realize I’m not allowed to have an opinion … after 45 yrs. of continuous involvement with high school football. Consider the possibility that coaches and players have too great an interest in the status quo to look at the issue objectively.

What does democracy have to do with football?

Officials, do you belong to the Indiana Football Officials Association? You should! The IFOA is the one statewide organization for Indiana football officials. The clinic they hold every June is the premier event of its type in the Midwest. The IHSAA has modeled its certification clinics after the IHSAA clinic. The IFOA also provides valuable in-season rules and mechanics help for football officials in the form of its Play of the Day and weekly mechanics training videos distributed to all members. The IFOA provides each of its members a Hudl account, and it was the IFOA in cooperation with the Indiana Football Coaches Association that made it possible for the Hudl video share that is now a part of many officials’ regular in-season preparation. If you’re an official looking for a crew, the IHSAA can help. Ditto if you’re a crew that needs to pick up a replacement, or new member. You can also find games, as the IFOA maintains a service that allows schools to advertise their need for officials. This season, 45 of the 48 crews working a sectional final were IFOA crews. The results in previous years were similar. That is not a coincidence. If you’re not a football official, but want to become one, the IFOA can help. Just go to https://ifoa.wildapricot.org/become_official. If you’re already a football official, but not an IFOA member, go to https://ifoa.wildapricot.org/join. It will help you take your officiating to the next level.

Yes, it actually seems like the front office actually has a plan. And next year, they have the most salary cap space of anyone in the league. Time to go get some starting offensive linemen… and draft a wide receiver.

The “God Rule” is actually a collection of several rules which, taken together, basically give the Referee the right to do whatever needs to be done to make sure one team does not obtain an unfair advantage over the other. Possible actions include everything from starting or stopping the clock, to awarding a TD, to forfeiting the game. Whatever it takes.

For what it’s worth, Sagarin has Carroll as a 2 TD favorite.

At what point in the game did this occur? If either team shares their Hudl video with the IFOA, as most schools do, I’ll be able to look at it.

Many things went wrong … but the only one you mention is your disagreement with a no call made by the guy with the best view of the play in the whole house. Were you watching on a computer monitor? From the stands? If “many things went wrong,” why single out that particular one? Everyone is looking for an excuse and the officials are an easy target. That’s what I meant by “the problem.”

This right here is the problem in a nutshell.

As I have said in a previous post, to approximately 25% of the schools, a top 50% playoff format adds only a little to the regular season, and this because of seeding, not qualification. These schools are perennial qualifiers, and are not worried about just getting into the playoffs. It’ll likely mean little to another 25% of the schools, the perennial cellar dwellers for whom winning a game in today’s tournament happens only by the grace of the ping pong balls. But for the “middle” 50% or so, teams who ordinarily can’t win a sectional or conference championship, they now have something to strive for as a marker of success and achievement. More importantly, many of their regular season games takie on enormous significance as they flirt with the 50% qualification cutoff point. That’s the chief benefit of a qualification system. To bring playoff like atmosphere into the regular season.

Sign me up for the travel mug. I don’t find the analogy of a single weekend event to a multi-month long football season particularly apt.

For a significant number of schools in Indiana, winning a conference or sectional championship is a once-in-a-generation pipe dream. A top 50% qualification format gives many of these kids a chance at an achievement that they can rightly point to with pride. It is all about the kids, remember. What would a comparable level of achievement be now? I’m envisioning t-shirts in the school colors and the legend “Won a game in sectionals because the ping-pong balls matched us up with the Little Sisters of the Poor.”