Bears62

Ideal: Harrison, McCutcheon, Jeff, WL, Kokomo, Logansport, Lebanon, 8th spot is tough. There's no way any Indy suburbs would consider joining, so I would have to go with Crawfordsville, Frankfort or Twin Lakes. Though I think it would be extremely shocking if any of those 3 would join that conference. Crawfordsville would make the most sense to me out of those, it is relatively close to the 4 Lafayette schools. Realistic: Harrison, McCutcheon, Jeff, WL, Logansport, Lebanon. I really can't see any other schools having any interest in joining this conference, I think it would be super tough to get to 8 teams. It's pretty hard to imagine Kokomo leaving the NCC, though if Jeff were to leave, it would put Kokomo in a tough place. West Lafayette is the domino to get Jeff to consider leaving, and Jeff is the only domino that could possibly make Kokomo consider an exit as well. As far as Harrison and 6a goes, this hypothetical conference is a pretty significant step up in competition for them. Playing WL every year would be huge, and Lebanon is probably better than every NCC school outside of Jeff, Harrison and Kokomo in most major sports. Honestly having the 6 team "realistic" conference wouldn't be bad, especially for football. That gives Jeff, Harrison and WL all the very much-needed opportunity to schedule higher-quality opponents. This obviously counteracts with now having to do much more work in scheduling for other sports, but definitely doable as there are many schools across the state in a similar situation.

I’m sure Harrison and McCutcheon would have preferred to not be booted. Lebanon isn’t a bad fit given their options, but it’s going to take a few more schools to make it work. Harrison to Lebanon is a 50 minute drive. The absolute best option for the Lafayette schools would be for Jeff, Harrison, McCutcheon and West Lafayette to form a new conference where they target Kokomo, Logansport and potentially Lebanon if they wanted a 7th member. Kokomo is roughly an hour away from all the Lafayette schools and Logansport about 45-50 minutes from Lafayette. Still not ideal travel, but it beats trips to Anderson, Muncie and Richmond by far. With that being said, it seems pretty unlikely Jeff, and especially Kokomo, have any intentions of leaving the NCC. Though if West Lafayette were to leave the Hoosier Conference (possible but unlikely), it would be a huge domino falling into place for a new conference to be formed. If that doesn’t happen, it’s hard to see Jeff making any moves, and definitely not Kokomo. Harrison and McCutcheon really got put in a tough place with this move.

Mind-boggling. What an awful decision by the AD’s and principals of these schools. Jeff sits directly in between McCutcheon and Harrison, there’s no way geography could be a legitimate reason for anyone with half a brain. Complete BS. Competition wise, I have no clue why you wouldn’t want your kids competing with the best teams possible. Harrison is no doubt solid throughout most sports, but they’re far from a juggernaut. Harrison softball, men’s soccer and track all have recent state championships/appearances. McCutcheon girls volleyball has been a top 5 program in the state for many years now and just won a state title 1 or 2 years ago. As to why you wouldn’t want these schools representing your conference (especially considering the very low quality of overall sports programs for the other 5 schools besides Jeff and Kokomo) is beyond me. Shame on these principals and AD’s. Cowardly and stupid decision. The NCC inches even closer to complete irrelevance

I’m with you. The wind was strong, but was at their back if they were to kick it. I understand the choice to go for it on the 4th and goal from the 1 prior to that, down 21-20, ideally making it 28-21 with a score and 2 pt conversion.. 4 mins left. To be fair, it was roughly 3rd and 8 from the 25… not the 15, after they got ball back after a strip sack… 2 mins left… run up the middle all day. They’ve got a solid kicker, with a strong wind at their back. Slant was picked off on a diving play by the safety… amazing play. Jeff fumbled the game away at the end of the day. Would have been a 40-45 yard field goal on 4th with no gain. They couldn’t get anything going in the 2nd half, after completely dominating the first half on the ground. Props to Carroll for adjusting after the first half, and props to Jeff for being in a game no one gave them a chance in. The gap in the north is slimmer than we thought.

Jeff picked off in the red zone. Carroll likely just sealed the game

Carroll QB stripped on 3rd and long, Jeff recovers. Broncho’s ball on the Carroll 30, down by 1 3:05 left

Carroll 21 Lafayette Jeff 20 5:11 Q4 Jeff stuffed on 4th and goal from the one

Carroll 21 Lafayette Jeff 20 late 3Q Carroll capitalizes on a Jeff punt return mishap and scores on back to back drives to take the lead

Lafayette Jeff 20 Carroll 7 6:33 3Q West Lafayette 49 Knox 6 1:30 2Q Andrean 14 LCC 6 Half

Lafayette Jeff 20 Carroll 7 HALF Bronchos get ball to start the 2nd half

Lafayette Jeff 20 Carroll 7 1:43 2Q Bronchos running it at will on the Chargers. Jeff gets ball at half, Carroll really needs a score here

Lafayette Jeff 13 Carroll 7 10:20 2Q

Lafayette Jeff 7 Carroll 7 2:30 1Q

Lafayette Jeff 14 Crown Point 7 Half

Lafayette Jeff 14 Crown Point 0 2Q 8:32

Lafayette Jeff 7 Crown Point 0 End of 1Q

You mind dropping like HM 26-40, if u have already determined those teams?

LCC 48 Lewis Cass 27 4Q 2:10 Carroll 28 Penn 7 4Q Portage 14 Crown Point 6 Half West Lafayette 49 Calumet 0 3Q Chesterton 28 Michigan City 20 Half Decatur Central 31 McCutcheon 13 4Q Warsaw 14 Elkhart 9 Final

Lafayette Jeff 34 Lake Central 28 Final OT Lake Central blocks Jeff’s last second fg attempt in regulation. Jeff scores first play of OT and has XP blocked. Lake Central fumbles on the second play of their possession and Jeff recovers to win the game.

Portage 13 Crown Point 6 Almost halftime

Center Grove 14 Franklin Central 10 4Q Decatur Central 21 McCutcheon 13 Half Westfield 14 Carmel 9 3Q 6:53 Warsaw 7 Elkhart 6 3Q Lafayette Jeff 28 Lake Central 28 3Q :59

Portage 7 Crown Point 6 2Q 5:42 Lake Central 28 Lafayette Jeff 20 3Q Madness in Sectional 1

I haven’t had the chance to watch them this year, but with them having such a weak schedule and getting blown out badly by the only solid team they’ve played (East Central is great), I can’t put them in that conversation.

I just wanna go on record, GS has performed much better than I thought they would this year. They are undoubtedly a legitimate contender for 3a. I was critical on how they would perform this year after the departure of a really strong class. With that being said, I rank the favorites of class 3A in the following order: 1. Chatard 2a. WL 2b. GS 2c. Norwell 3. Guerin Catholic 4. Southridge I would not be surprised to see any of these teams win the 3A title. I don’t think anyone outside of these 6 teams is a legitimate threat for the title.

Unfortunately I did not catch that game, so I am not able to answer that. While LN has been up and down all year, a dominant win over Warren and a close loss to BD tells me they are an above average team.