BTF

That doesn't somehow make you an expert on how a kid who plays football for a school 100 miles away from you thinks. Young men where you are from might be taught about having things handed to them based on fairness. Some kids are taught to compete no matter what hand they are dealt. Anyway, your opinion is respected. Have a great night.

It's one thing to state facts based on records, scores, and past history. It's another to pretend to know what an 18 year old at a high school more than 100 miles away from you is thinking.

Lol, ok, now this is starting to make some sense.

Lol, sorry we've offended you Temptation. Good luck to the program you follow. Much respect to Carmel and the rest of the MIC, it should be a great year.

The deck is stacked against them, you are correct. But that is what makes the victory even sweeter when it does happen. You may be speaking for SOME programs, but not Snider. Snider has victories over Carmel, Warren Central, Ben Davis, and Penn. They've tasted it and know they are capable. I can guarantee you they WANT that challenge. And don't forget, just two years ago Snider was one mistake away from WASTING Carmel late in the 3rd quarter and ended up losing by 2. You don't think they want another opportunity? That's delusional.

Good post. Regarding Snider...…………...I know there was some disappointment bumping back up to 6a. ONLY because Dwenger got bumped up and this would be the FIRST time in that storied rivalry that they would have met in the playoffs. That disappointment is over and done with. Back to 6a and I can guarantee the Snider players are more than happy to knock heads with the likes of Homestead to have another crack at Carmel. If anyone thinks that kids at Snider are afraid at what Carmel brings to the table, they don't know the Snider program very well. New Pal? Been there done that. I'm pretty sure the Snider kids are excited for another 6a opportunity.

And what does that have to do with anything? You mean the guys who support the athletic program by attending the games with their friends on Friday nights? Those guys? It doesn't make a difference who is on the team and who isn't. The fans are difference makers. No fans, no athletic program. All opinions matter my friend. To beat "a" 6a power from the south? Or did you mean the BEST 6a power from the south? Snider has won against Carmel, Warren Central, Ben Davis, Fishers, and Hamilton Southeastern.............and they will again. As their enrollment gets smaller and the Indy Mega's get larger, the wins may be fewer and far between, but there will be wins. But to have a team that is better than EVERY Indy mega power? Your right, it might be a once in a decade thing. It used to be 6 years. Best team in the state in 1986 (turnovers), 1992 (champs), 1997 (mud), 2004 (injuries), and possibly (I say this cautiously) 2015. Let's just stop pretending that Snider's not a factor in 6a anymore. As fans, we know the road to Lucas and actually win might be a once in a decade thing. Sure, a run to a 5a title is fun, but there is nothing like knocking heads against the likes of Carmel and Penn.

Snider wins two sectionals in a row at the 6a level. They advance by defeating schools of 2300 students compared to their 1800. Congrats to them, now they get Carmel............5000. I see both sides of the coin. I'm a firm believer that if you want to be the best, you've got to beat the best. So bring on Carmel and their entire student body of 5000, it doesn't bother me as much as some others. I mean, just two years ago Snider was one mistake away from blowing Carmel out of the water. Carmel is the type of competition I personally like to see even though we've failed several times in a row against them. I'm also aware that I am of the minority in my thought process. That being said, is the new rule (the one just implemented a month ago), good for high school football? Originally, I thought it was, but now I'm starting to wonder. Overall, I do like the idea of the success factor. But I think you should dominate your class for 5 years before you bump up, then bump down after 3 for lack of success. Going 5 years instead of 2 shows that your dominance is a result of having a powerful program and not a rare abundance of athletes in one particular class. The two year cycle is, for the most part, a punishment to the upcoming classes. A five year cycle makes more sense. And if a school has 5 state championships in the cycle, so what, they deserved it. Now go up a class for 3 years and try to do the same. If not, go back down where you belong according to your student body numbers.

I'm not sure choke is the right word. Snider just normally has a better team than Homestead. My Top Ten is base on reality. I try not to get cute and make "outside the box" predictions (example: Snider placing 4th...........although possible, probably unlikely) The Top - Any order is possible 1. Snider - Maybe a little bit of bias, but if I were making a bet, this would be a pretty good place to start. 2. Dwenger - The defending champs will normally be in my top two until another program proves worthy of that spot. 3. Wayne - The Generals return a pretty solid core from a pretty good team from last year. 4. Homestead - Number four in the SAC until they prove otherwise. The Middle - Any order is possible 5. Northrop - I have to put the big school in the #5 spot. Lot's of talent at Northrop and a pretty good coaching staff. Until the Doerffler's are gone, I see improvement every year. 6. Carroll - Just because they are big school and have a pretty good head coach. And the fact that the SAC is stacked this year. 7. Luers - I'm probably being a little hard on Luers at the #7 spot. With the addition of two 6a schools to the SAC, Top 4 just isn't a guarantee anymore. Good luck to them. 8. Concordia - I think the Cadets will be solid this year. Mannigel has proven that he's a pretty good coach and his teams will be competitive every week. 9. North Side - Will they continue to improve in Coach Brevard's third season? If so, that would make NINE teams from the SAC with potential to knock off anyone else in any given week. The Bottom 10. South Side - The Archers are going to be awfully lonely at the bottom this year. I truly hope not for Coach Norfleets sake, but I have no reason to believe otherwise. Conclusion The SAC appears to be stacked this year 1-9. Look for some deep playoff runs from the Snider/Homestead winner, Dwenger, Wayne, and Luers. Every team in the SAC will be battle tested. Look for another year with a good non-conference record come playoff time.

Sectional 3 isn't Sectional 6, but it's not necessarily the weakest sectional in 6a either. If you are a sectional champion, then you have no business bumping down. The IHSAA was spot on with this new rule. The timing was interesting, but the rule is good for football. I understand your point with regard to bumping up. Success, most times, runs in two year cycles. It's the rebuilding class that ends up playing in the a class they don't belong in. With regard to bumping UP, I agree, 2 years isn't enough to prove consistency. I'd rather see what happens over a four year span before determining whether a team should be bumped up or not.

Let's just drop the idea of playing up. No one's ever done it and no one ever will. It's pretty clear that AD's and coaches are content on playing where the IHSAA places them regardless of whether they are private, parochial, or public. We can argue playing up until we are exhausted...........it's not going to happen. Certainly I'm missing something here. Why is it stupid for a team to "remain" after earning 2 points? Snider earned 2 points by winning sectional championships each year they were in 6a. A team that is good enough to win a sectional championship shouldn't be moving down a class. They failed to get past sectionals two of the past four years. Despite having a 4a enrollment, they are right where they belong..........in 5a. Agree 100%. I've criticized Snider, Cathedral, and Luers in the past for not voluntarily bumping up. But I've changed my tune. If I'm the AD, one of my responsibilities is the financial stability of the Athletic Department. The further you go in the tournament, the more you have in ticket sales. Therefore, boosting the Athletic Department. NO SCHOLL will voluntarily bump up...............not going to happen! AD's love the $$$$, Coaches love the hardware. Period.

Cathedral would get into the playoffs based on their strength of schedule.

I would be willing to debate the all-in format. But the blind draw? Nobody in their right mind can make any sense out of that. I could make a better case as to why Warren Central should add Indiana Deaf to there schedule than making any sense out of how the blind draw is better than a seeding system.

Are there any other sports that only have a nine game regular season? Every other sport allows their teams to schedule a variety of teams from different areas of the state throughout the season. I don't think you are punishing anyone. If anything, you are making the regular season more exciting for the players by giving them something to compete for game in and game out. Just like the NFL and college, every game would be a playoff game. I would even go one step further and seed the playoffs, that way, even teams at the top have something to fight for. Do we really want to continue settling or the worlds dumbest playoff format? All in is one thing, the blind draw is another level of ridiculous. Teams at the bottom are going to bow out after ten or eleven weeks anyway. So why not just let them schedule an opponent of similar skill level for that tenth game? It would also give teams in 5a and 6a an opportunity to play as many games as the teams in the other four classes. My last previous statement is debatable though. Coaches at the 5a and 6a level might appreciate the bye week for rest.

Replace the first round of Sectionals with a tenth game. Instead of getting humiliated in the first round, the 0-9 team can schedule an opponent that is more on their level. Benefits: 1. No more embarrassing losses for teams that aren't playoff worthy in the first place. 2. The regular season actually means something. 3. Island conferences like the SAC can schedule an out of conference game. I mean seriously, there is NO way the IHSAA can debate that the current format is better than a 10 game season and eliminating half the teams from the playoffs. The regular season actually means something in the NFL and college............why not high school?

Decisions like that normally aren't implemented overnight. I'm not complaining though, I felt all along that 6a was a better fit for Snider and 5a (at least) for Cathedral. And the rule is spot on. If you are a sectional champion, you shouldn't go down a class.

Makes sense. If it were to two other teams this wouldn't even be a discussion. But since it's Snider and Cathedral, they decided to implement the new rule NOW, not later. But at the end of the day, no one can argue that Snider is a 6a caliber program and Cathedral is a 5a/6a caliber program.

I would agree with that statement 100%. Every word of it. However, I do like the new rule. If a team is good enough to call themselves sectional champions (Snider), why would they go down a class? If a team is good enough to call themselves regional champions (Cathedral), why would they go down a class. This new rule is good for the game. But why wasn't it implemented for the NEXT cycle? Robert is right, normally something like this takes years to change, not weeks.

If he goes to Alabama, he gets name recognition. What player wouldn't want to say............"I played for Alabama!" He also gets an opportunity to go to the playoffs every year that he is there. If he goes to Indiana, he's probably a four year starter if he were to stay that long. He would be there for two years, showcase himself as a first round draft pick, then opt for the NFL one or two years sooner than he would had at Alabama. He could also say that he was an instrumental part of IU resurgence. Kids are always better off if they stay home. They will normally have unconditional support from the fan base. When you choose to play for a school 500 miles away, you just become another body and the fan base is more likely to turn on you. Notre Dame? Best of both worlds. Notre Dame's name recognition is on a level playing field with Alabama. Notre Dame is also known for producing first round offensive linemen. And when it's all said and done with, the education he will get at Notre Dame will pretty much guarantee him success after football. Notre Dame is the best place for this kid. But it certainly wouldn't hurt my feelings if he ended up at Indiana. Is Purdue in the running? Recruits................stay home and represent your home state!

If a ref is working for $50 per game, he's doing it for fun or exercise, not income.

It could happen. Every once in awhile all, of the 3000+ enrollment schools have an average or down year at the same time. Case in point...............2015. Not taking anything away from the great program of Center Grove, but Snider and New Pal would have had a good shot to win 6a that year. If Warsaw can put together 2000-2001 type season, anything is possible.

1. Remembering the Phil Jenson led teams from 1999-2001. Bart Curtis appears to be heading in that direction. Inches from beating Penn in 2000 and inches from beating Snider in 2001. 3. Great idea, but you'll get resistance on that like you always do. 4. Right now it's just a thought, but I hope it comes to fruition. I enjoyed watching Snider play Penn and Cathedral. It brought larger crowds than playing some of the local competition. 5. Coldwater Ohio (smaller school, but a major powerhouse) isn't too far from Fort Wayne. They came here one time. Elmhurst wanted relief from playing Snider and picked up Coldwater. Coldwater felt offended that they were a "relief" game. It was over after the first quarter. 8. It's hard not to root for a guy like Tom Allen. I hope he can keep up with what Brohm is doing at Purdue. I see that the boilermakers cracked the Top 25 in recruiting this year. And Brohm ditching Louisville? I'm a fan. 10. I love loyalty. I would like to see him stay at New Pal. But you are right, he has potential on a larger scale. 11. Fort Wayne South. Matt Land in 2005. 11-3. Three points from a state title appearance. South Side has that potential, they just haven't had a coach to get them there. 12. I remember when all you heard of from south of Indy was the city of Evansville and Bloomington South. I still have a hard time comprehending that the south has some pretty darn good football. Equal the north now?

Comparable to Ben Davis? That's what the remind me of.

That's an understatement.

I don't think they mean much either.........................until November. By then, I think the Sagarin has a pretty good handle on things. Honestly, I think they would be more accurate if they calculated the score after 3 periods instead of the entire game. Some teams keep their starters in the whole game even when it's a blowout. Others pull their starters after the 3rd. Student body in the 80's and 90's consisted of 2100-2200 kids. Nowadays it's around 1700-1800. So yes, I do agree that it is a bit more challenging. Also, many white collar families have moved out of the Snider district and into Carroll and Homestead over the past couple of decades. That makes a difference too. How far back are you going? I'm certain Snider and Penn have played over 20 games.