Lysander

I can’t speak to the relative academic strength between NAIA vs. NCAA....not something I know much about or would dare speculate on. That said, I think (solely an opinion from my observations) the whole comparison between Division I (FCS), Division II, Division III and NAIA is relative to the sport (and maybe geography). As regards college football in Indiana, my sense is that outside of DI Notre Dame, IU, Purdue and Ball State the next best teams would be NAIA Marian and St. Francis. I realize it’s anecdotal but last time NAIA Marian played DII UIndy (2017) it was a mauling by Marian....no comparison....Men v Boys (at least from my perspective watching the game). As to how that comparison holds up nationally, I couldn’t begin to tell you. But if you go to a completely different sport like lacrosse nationally, the best college programs in order would be found in DI, DIII (yes, DIII....the top 10-15 DIII lacrosse schools are competitive with most any DI school), DII followed by NAIA. I’m not even sure there is DI (FCS) but there is club lacrosse at schools like Purdue and IU but they don’t really rate in comparison. As an example, some years ago, defending DIII Champion Salisbury defeated preseason No. 1 ranked DI Duke in a scrimmage....DII is catching up, though (UIndy is swiftly building a nice DII program). Pretty certain @Impartial_Observer probably has some...errr.....”observations” on all of this he might share.

I felt the same way on another thread when I mentioned that Noblesville has generally underperformed in football....then things went off the rails for pages....

I’m not necessarily one of those guys screaming for single class basketball but I will admit that I basically lost interest at that time. As was also pointed out, although I love Butler and Purdue, once IU firmly became the 3rd best college hoops program in the state (very deservedly) much of the interest has waned....it’s fun watching all the East coast IU fanboys beat their chests, though....at least til they go back home. Yes....and it’s been that way for at least 10-15 years. HS gyms have all the gala of retirement communities these days.

It’s not as if this is a first. BS cancelled their last game of the season with Chatard abruptly this past season because of “COVID” reportedly.....after assuring them up until quite late in the week (on Friday, if I recall correctly) that there would be a game. So far they have no cross conference CCC games scheduled for this Fall. Are the wheels coming off the whole Conference Indiana/Circle City Conference cross-conference schedule scheme because of one or two CI teams......or am I becoming DT?

Yeah....I make that slip too often.

I think those of us in Central Indiana tend to forget/overlook (and the rest of the state unaware of) that the population of Hamilton County alone likely exceeds that of Fort Wayne at this point (it was within about 5,000 people 5-6 years ago). Growth there has been explosive for many years and does not appear to be abating. Add that, in a relative sense, that population is on balance of a relatively high socio-economic level as compared to most any part of the state. Their athletes do have and will continue to have superior access to resources both within and outside of the schools. To be honest, Hamilton County (with the exception of Carmel) has largely underperformed up until recently. But I think we can see the trajectory with Westfield and Zionsville just this last season. With that, I think it likelier that Central Indiana (as regards 5A/6A) is going to become even more dominant with almost all of those more dominant Hamilton County schools competing in the North. I am hopeful that the rest of the North will improve significantly because it has to in order to just maintain its current relative position.

Noblesville has always been inexplicable to me. It’s the only Hamilton County program that seems to consistently be poor or mediocre, at best.

Yup. Agreed. If Chatard is trying to recruit kids from Team Indiana (whatever that scam is....outside of probably just another gimmick to separate gullible parents from their money for their “D1 prospect” kids) then they’ve obviously done a poor job since 78 kids out of an 80 man Chatard Varsity/JV roster are CYO kids. One would think that with a State leading 15 State Championships, Chatard would have more than 2 kids (one of those being a move-in from out of town) out of an 80 man roster that wasn’t a CYO kid. As to Ritter, unfortunately any “wounds” to the Ritter program caused by kids not choosing to play football there were entirely self-inflicted if I am to believe everything my Ritter friends have been telling me for the last several years. Kids (and parents) weren’t being wooed away - they were fleeing. Give us some time........

My guess is what you’ll find attending will be almost entirely CYO kids. Mine went to both the Chatard and Cathedral versions back in the day. Part of the ongoing competition for North side CYO kids and really the only Archdiocese-approved way Chatard is permitted to reach out to them. Generally these are in the summer. Guessing again, but I’ll bet that Chatard wasn’t able to have their camp last summer.

No special insight other than simply looking at names on rosters. It strikes me that a few family names that permeated Ritter rosters (and were involved with coaching at various levels) during some of Ritter’s most productive recent periods can now be found at other archdiocesan schools (and possibly Cathedral). My guess is that the answer as to why that took place might provide some better insight as to what has happened and is happening at Ritter. Just a guess, though. I don’t think Covenant Christian (at least, over the most recent years) figures too prominently in that....at least not yet. Add that I thought I had heard that Ritter had declined an early invite into the CIrcle City Conference and also somewhat abruptly cancelled their series with Chatard a few years back (a series that had taken some years to reinstate in the first place).

Interesting opportunity. 3A hasn’t necessarily been that kind to Ritter. They’ve yet to make it out of Sectional. Seems like just a handful of years ago when Ritter was still 2A and smashed a good Chatard team that had just beat Cathedral fairly soundly and later went on to win the 3A State Championship.

Just saw this from the Indy Star. Ty Hunt stepped down today as HC at Ritter.

Not football but a Lafayette Jeff v. Chatard lacrosse game in 2008 at Jeff. Jeff had upset Chatard in a relatively low scoring game and VERY amicable game but apparently there was some bad blood from the prior year’s playoffs. Still, it was a clean and non-controversial game. Post game, though, several Jeff players rushed the Chatard team banner and ripped it to shreds (which aggravated me a bit since I had just paid Kinko’s around $50 for it some 4 hours prior). At that point, both teams charged each other and the fight was on. Apparently Jeff’s coach was down with it (based on comments attributed to him post-game and the swings he got in). Our coach was horrified. He was a dad who’d taken over when our prior coach left a week or so before the season. He was also a divinity professor at U of I. At the end, we parents literally had to make a physical barrier as the Jeff parents cursed and yelled at our kids on the way to the bus. It really did feel dangerous. There were never any real repercussions that I was ever aware of aside from the Jeff coach not being there the next year (maybe he opened a boxing gym). I’ve never cared much for Jeff since then...aside from the $50 they owe me.

Whiteland and Center Grove? Curious as to that.

Maybe it’s time people look at this idea more seriously. Not to change the focus of the thread but the North isn’t the only place where it night be beneficial for some realignment solely for football. That said, I do agree that it would be most beneficial in the North as regards their 5A and (especially) 6A teams. Still, as an example, East Central (with the exception of Lawrenceburg) generally only finds its best competition in its non-conference schedule versus Indy area teams and (nearby) Cincy teams. Same could be said of Columbus East in the Hoosier Hills as regards football (although I sense they may be contact with it....and it certainly hasn’t hurt them post-season).

Wow....

Yesterday, a "so-called" Methodist Minister who is a way too long member of Congress ended a prayer citing "Amen and Awomen". I may well have spelled "Awomen" incorrectly since it is an altogether new word in the lexicon. Can we please agree to stop this insanity despite our division on almost all other things? I'm going to be honest, the fact that NO ONE stopped this prior says more than I need to know about leadership in Congress (despite already knowing it). "Amen" is Hebrew and has NOTHING to do with gender/sex/wtf you want to refer to it as. As a non-believer, you can toss it all as far as I'm concerned. The Leadership validating this says either: (a) They were too damn stupid to understand the difference OR (b) They think we are too damn stupid to understand the difference. Either option is equally horrifying. P.S. Please don't tell me the dude was trying to be witty or was just simply willing to make light of prayer.

Nicely done there (Reitz/Rice)! I’m just catching up on this thread. The concept of these 2 teams actually playing literally blows my mind today in this gawdawful era of “closed” conferences. I will say that the Warren Central Classic came closer to fitting the concept behind this thread than anything else I’ve heard of so far. Why did they quite doing it? I can recall kids who had played on Friday night heading over to WC on Saturday just to watch some of those games.

Shout out to “The Twilight Zone” reference featuring the late great Claude Akins who grew up in Bedford. Kudos my friend. Quick anecdote...I was told many years ago that Akins used to oft return to Bedford to visit a beloved, aged teacher who was particularly influential in his early life until she finally passed. The guy usually played decent “rough” blue collar guys which belied degree from Northwestern.

How many years ago was that? The more I think about it the more I think it was 2010 or earlier. I do remember that Plainfield, a bit surprisingly, was part of it.

Currently, yes, but they have been projected as 4A next period. We will see.

Agreed. Like you, I never thought the day would come when I thought that about Penn, though.

“Might be”?

Wasn’t there an event at LOS within the last 5-10 years when Pickerington Central and another nationally known team from either St. Louis or the KC area came in an played against an Indiana team? I thought there were 4 games with 2 of those games featuring those teams above.