Bears62

Merrillville Brownsburg Chatard West Lafayette Linton-Stockton Center Grove Carroll Ev Memorial Cathedral East Central

Another example of why MaxPreps rankings are a joke. If every user on this site made a top 25 i don’t think there would be a single one worse than this. Besides maybe Piratefan.

Can’t speak too much on LCC. I’m sure they will be good as always, I do know that they are replacing some good players so I wouldn’t think of them as championship contenders for this season. WL will be good again too, but I don’t know if they’ll be as good as last season. Coach Fry is an easy top 10 coach in the state, top 5 for some people, so I’m not going to count them out on being a legit contender. I do know they’re losing their best player on each side of the ball. Still easy Hoosier Conference favorites. If they beat Harrison week 1, I would like to think they’re a top 3 team in 3a.

“Region good” is good enough to win 5a this year. Biggest threat out of Indy is Decatur Central? DC is strong and worthy of being called a contender, but if that’s the toughest Indy school Merrillville has to face, they are thrilled. I see the FW schools as bigger threats than DC too. DC isn’t a traditional Indy school playing other powerhouses each week. DC’s and Merrillville’s conference schedules are pretty similar in terms of how tough they are. And that Chatard team was pretty damn good. Definitely a disappointing effort from the Pirates that week, but there was a lot of good teams Chatard would have done the same damage to.

Naive, that’s a good one. News flash: Carroll isn’t in 5a. It doesn’t matter if Carroll was just as good at Merrillville last year. 5a is extremely watered down compared to recent years. Maybe “clear” would have been a better choice than “easy”, but either way, if Merrillville isn’t your preseason favorite for 5a, maybe you should do some deeper research.

Harrison is losing some key players from last year. I don’t know if people are aware of that or not but people should pump the brakes on them when it comes to being a legit contender. They will take a step back this season. Merrillville is the easy favorite in my books. They’ve still got a couple studs coming back and they’re arguably the hottest program in 5a now. After them, Snider, Dwenger and Decatur Central should be the next best teams.

I have been going back and forth on 4a, but I think I have landed on New Pal as my favorite to win it. I know Brebeuf lost a lot, don’t know how Roncalli will be but I’m sure they will be one of the top teams as well. Memorial and East Central should be up there too. We will see how Kokomo does, they’re only 4 years removed from a state title appearance. Definitely leaving some contenders out but 4a is probably the deepest class in terms of programs who can win it all.

Good to know, thanks. Don’t know if they will have the athletes to take down Jeff, but should be a good game. Can’t see either of those teams beating whoever comes out of sectional 2 though. I am happy that one of those teams will get a sectional to their name with Merrillville out of the picture. Both have solid programs

Does Crown Point return a lot or what? I would be pretty surprised to see them beat whoever comes out of sectional 2, if CP were to even win their sectional (I don’t think they will).

I’m a strong believer in the benefits of being in a conference where every week you play a good team, but in my opinion, I think them getting booted from the HCC was the best thing that could have happened to them. Jeff, Harrison and McCutcheon were getting smoked by HCC teams on the regular. I think Jeff upset Avon in 2013 and McCutcheon beat Zionsville in 2014, but those might have been the only wins any Lafayette schools had against HCC schools since at least 2010. That’s about a 2-82 record against HCC schools between Jeff, Harrison and McCutcheon if my math is right. Getting back to my point, the Lafayette trio rejoined the NCC beginning at the 2015 season. Jeff then beat both Westfield in 2017 and Noblesville in 2018 sectional games. Both of those games were followed by (debatably respectable considering all things) losses to Carmel 41-20 and 41-21. Harrison hasn’t broken through by beating an HCC team yet, but they have put up decent efforts against Westfield and Zionsville in recent years. Also, if these teams never get booted, maybe Shanley never comes to Jeff and Peebles ditches for a school with greener pastures. Then these 2 programs would likely not be in nearly as good of a position as they are in now. You’re 100% correct when saying that this move boosted participation and definitely boosted morale within the programs. Both these teams have much more manageable sectionals, Jeff should be the favorite in theirs and Harrison should be the 2nd best team in theirs behind Decatur Central.

1. Jeff 2. Kokomo 3. Harrison

I’m aware, but I stated that because Memorial has been one of the top 3a programs for a while now and GS has had some good teams bow out to them sectionals.

No you’re being judged for continuing to lose to schools the same size as you in the postseason lol. Gibson Southern does not belong in the top 10 for public school programs despite what you or your homer buddy @Esso Ayche think. Many schools such as West Lafayette, Merrillville, Zionsville, Western Boone, Decatur Central, Pioneer, Ben Davis deserve to be ranked ahead of them and have shown the ability to have deeper postseason runs outside of one single year. Congrats on GS’s championship, they deserved it and proved a lot of people wrong. Time to go back to reality though.

Are you saying I am wrong? A program advancing past sectionals once since 2016 is a top 10 public program in recent times?

I don’t think Gibson Southern belongs on this list then. Good-Great program but only advanced past sectionals once in Brady Allen’s career. Yeah they’ve had it really tough with Memorial in their sectional, but I don’t think you can be considered a top 10 public program with 1 sectional title in the past 6 years.

I know you stated “at this time” but is there a more specific time frame you are judging these programs off of? Because if you’re going off this past year, Carmel should probably be lower with the huge flop they had against Brownsburg in sectionals. Carmel also majorly disappointed the year before losing to a Ben Davis team in regionals that they had beat 31-9 a few weeks earlier. But if you’re going off, say the past 5 years, HSE doesn’t even belong on this list. Not trying to throw a slight at you or anything like that, just want know your basis for how you decided these.

Take with these with a grain of salt as it is pretty difficult to find information on teams in the off season. Any insight is appreciated 6A favorites: Cathedral Can win it all: Ben Davis, Carmel, CG, Westfield, Warren Central Longshots: HSE 5A favorites: Decatur Central, Merrillville Can win it all: Michigan City, Valpo, FW Dwenger, FW Snider Longshots: Harrison WL 4A favorites: Roncalli Can win it all: Mount Vernon, East Central, Evansville Memorial, Leo Longshots: Kokomo, Brebeuf, Northridge, New Pal, New Prairie, Lowell 3A favorites: Chatard Can win it all: West Lafayette, Mishawaka Marian, Lawrenceburg Longshots: Western Boone, Danville, Tri-West 2A favorites: Andrean Can win it all: Evansville Mater Dei, Eastside, Fort Wayne Luers, Eastbrook Longshots: LCC, Indy Scecina, Linton-Stockton 1A favorites: Adams Central, Indy Lutheran Can win it all: Pioneer, Park Tudor, Covenant Christian Longshots: North Judson, Churubusco, Parke Heritage

Valpo and Michigan City certainly will have something to say about that. We’ll see how Merrillville is this year, losing some talent. DC has a much easier path, south is pretty weak. I agree they’re both probably the 2 favorites

How? Cakewalk sectional then a CG with massive talent losses in regionals is all they could ever ask for. Dodging Cathedral/Ben Davis until Semi State

Initial thoughts: Lafayette schools have to be happy. Jeff avoids any Indy schools until Semi State. Harrison doesn’t have it easy with Decatur Central and Plainfield but they’ll take that over Zionsville any day.

Sectional assignments are out 6a and 5a here

new numbers out

West Side’s toughest regular season game has been Jeff for the past 4 seasons, now their toughest game will be Harrison. Being able to play both of them every year would a bump up in difficulty. Also, Kokomo is probably a step or 2 above Western and trending up. Western lost twice last year to WL 69-19 and 44-0. Kokomo would give them much better games than that. But I agree. If I’m the Hoosier conference, I’m begging WL to stay. With that being said.. if WL were to join the NCC and have a conference schedule filled with Jeff, Harrison, Kokomo, Marion (who has even been to semi-state twice within 5 years), and then have 2 non conference games to schedule probably LCC and a good 3a-6a. That’s a much better schedule to get them ready for the postseason. Yeah the travel could suck some years, but nothing too bad. WL has outgrown the Hoosier conference

Not necessarily disagreeing with you, but what makes you choose Valpo over Merrillville? The pirates have been churning out some really good athletes in recent time