Bears62

Westfield 31 Avon 21 Q4 Plainfield 23 Franklin 0 Q4 Carmel 36 BD 0 Q4 HSE 31 Noblesville 6 Q4 Brownsburg 31 Zionsville 6 Q4 Merrillville 27 Valpo 21 Late Q2

Brownsburg 14 Zionsville 6 Half HSE 31 Noblesville 0 Half Merrillville 7 Valpo 0 1Q 4 mins Warren Central 42 LN 21 2Q 3 mins LC 14 NC 14 2Q

I do root for them as I have a close friend whose sons play/played there, but they are not my favorite by any means, I'm a LC boy through and through, but I don't have much ties to the program anymore. I just don't think they are really "overrated" and I think your hate for them is pretty unwarranted. Since Shanley has taken over they've beat Westfield, Noblesville, Lawrence Central, Crown Point, smoked Avon last year (who beat Ben Davis the next week), almost beat Chatard this year, and came within 2 points of beating FW Carroll in Regionals (who beat HSE next week en route to a state appearance). Are they better than most of those teams on a yearly basis? Besides Noblesville, probably not. But they are pretty solid dude, I really don't know why you dislike them so much. They play a crappy schedule obviously and have very few chances to compete against high-quality opponents, but thats not their fault. And for the record, in regards to your 5a rankings, I think New Pal and Cathedral would beat them, likely Merrillville and maybe East Central too. I see Concord as a toss up and would favor Jeff over Plainfield and Bloomington South (who have no good wins just like Jeff). Their game against Chatard is free on ihsaatv, go watch it if you'd like.

I have watched Chatard twice and have thought they looked very good, I don't know what games you watched, but they have been impressive in my eyes I agree Jeff is too high on the list, but their offense would shred both GS and HH, that is my point

I would comfortably bet on Jeff to beat either of those teams, no disrespect to either. I don't think you're giving them the credit they deserve And I bet most people are considering Chatard the 4a favorite over HH. I don't know where you came up with that

It's very obviously not a ranking of who he thinks the best 25 teams are, similar to how cfb polls work to an extent. This poll would be extremely boring and repetitive week-to-week if he was posting who he thought the 25 best teams are

I definitely see your point about Merrillville, but I wouldn't read too much into it, I still think they are probably the best 5a team outside of New Pal & Cathedral. Only losing by 7 to Loyola Academy out of Illinois is pretty impressive as they are a top IL team, I think thats more indicative of how good they are than the Laporte score. Crown Point kind of gave it to them when they played and that game wasn't as close as the score indicated, but CP is obviously the cream of the crop in Northern Indiana so while it's disappointing to see them get blown out by them 3 years in a row, it's somewhat understandable. They've got an absolute cakewalk to semi-state where they will face LJ/Concord (possibly Warsaw if they go on another run), but I still see them as the slight favorite over Jeff to make it to Lucas Oil out of the North.

They are no doubt at least a top 6-10 5a team, but it's pretty hard to figure out how good they are with having played absolutely no one of note through 6 weeks, although they have blew out almost everyone so far to their credit. They play Columbus North next week which should tell a lot. Regardless, they have a pretty easy path to semi-state where they would run into New Pal/Cathedral

Cathedral 15 Trotwood-Madison (OH) 0 end of 1Q Brownsburg 7 Westfield 3 end of 1Q

I have no real dog in the fight, but wow that's a lot of disdain for them lol. They passed for almost 400 yards on Chatard's defense, I don't know how that doesn't impress you. While I agree that Merrillville is probably better, Jeff was up like 34-7 against Michigan City at halftime, it wasn't a close game. If you want to use the transitive property, Plainfield squeaked out a 7 point home win over Harrison while Jeff beat them by 21 and you have Plainfield above them. They must have been pretty overrated when they beat undefeated Crown Point by double digits on the road in sectionals a couple years ago as well

How do you have Chatard at 12 and no mention of Lafayette Jeff? Chatard only won by 7 and was losing going into the 4th

Michigan City 27 Valparaiso 21 Final Crown Point 42 Lake Central 0 Final Merrillville 44 Portage 23 Final Twin Lakes 52 Lafayette Central Catholic 3 Final West Lafayette 35 Rensselaer Central 7 Final

I did very much as well, one of the more surprising scores of the night for me

Roncalli 41 Columbus North 20 Final CG 63 BD 35 Final FC 20 Zionsville 16 Final WC 31 LC 21 Final Valparaiso 24 Michigan City 14 Q3

Cathedral 23 Chatard 20 Final Trinity 41 Carmel 21 Q4 Michigan City 7 Valparaiso 7 Half CG 56 BD 28 Q4 Brownsburg 42 Avon 31 Q4 Westfield 41 Noblesville 7 Final Crown Point 21 Lake Central 0 Half FC 20 Zionsville 16 late Q4 WC 21 LC 21 Q4 Merrillville 30 Portage 3 Half