Footballking16

Couple early keys for both teams. Cathedral -attack CG's secondary up the seams. Lawrence North exposed CG's secondary in the first half of their game last Friday. Cathedral's wideouts aren't as explosive as Cooper from LN but athletic enough and should be able to have a big night if McCahill is given protection. -force CG into obvious passing downs. Don't think it's any secret CG will want to keep the ball on the ground and keep Cathedral's O off the field. Jackson is a great QB but it's pretty clear CG prefers the ball to be in Steele's hands Center Grove -make Cathedral one dimensional on offense. Cathedral has a very balanced offensive attack and can beat you on the ground and through the air. -Win the LOS. Cathedral has dominated it's opponents on both sides of the ball at the line of scrimmage. Center Grove, especially their DL, will be the toughest unit Cathedral has seen to date and will see all year.

They do. And great question, single dumbest rule the IHSAA implements.

Not sure I'm buying that. With college football in full swing, doubt this was getting a prime time slot. Possibly ESPNU, but definitely not being aired on ESPN or ESPN2.

Taking it a step further, teams outside the top 32 upsetting a team inside the top 32 happen at an extremely low rate. Talking 2-3 times in any given year. Teams outside the top 32 that advance, advance by virtue of playing another team outside the top 32. The Cinderella myth that comes with the blind draw is a total farce. Upsets and underdog runs to Indy simply don’t exist in this format.

Literally meaningless. How else does an 0-9 team make the playoffs? How does an undefeated conference champion play a road game in the first round of the playoffs? You could theoretically schedule 9 bye weeks and still make the postseason. The outcomes of the first nine weeks have literal zero meaning. You can’t argue otherwise.

There was a 4-5 year period where I tracked playoff matchups between top half Sagarin teams and bottom half Sagarin rated teams. The data was staggering and only furthers the need for a qualification system.

You can still seed and alleviate the obvious blowouts in round 1; add a tenth game and eliminate half the field using some sort of rating formula that computes W-L record, SOS, opponent SOS, opponent W-L. It’s so simple that literally EVERY other state in the union has figured it out.

Then why does every single state, in every sport at every level have a qualification format? Because the regular season is supposed to mean something. Our current format renders the regular season all for not. You cannot tell me otherwise. This “rah-rah, Superbowl, play every game like it’s your last” is absolute BS. Win or lose in week 7, you’re automatically in the postseason and your draw is determined by a ping pong ball. You want to talk about undertones and sub-plots, how about a postseason berth on the line? No one is saying the regular season isn’t exciting, but the outcomes of all nine games literally mean nothing. They are glorified exhibition games.

In regards to the postseason, the regular season doesn’t mean a thing. It doesn’t. You’re automatically in the tournament and your draw is based on a ping pong ball. That cannot be disputed. In every sport, at every level, postseason inclusion/seeding/draw is based on regular season performance. It’s not unique, it’s nonsense.

Congrats to Coach Moore and the Trojans on an undefeated MIC season but that’s not what I was commenting on. I was commenting on your palpably dumb statement above.

Not a chance in hell a coach would say winning a conference title is more satisfying than a state title. Delusional.

I don’t know a thing about either team. And I never once digressed that Sagarin was 100% accurate or the end be all. But it’s a lot more accurate (and non-bias) than the human eye. I respectfully decline.

Center Grove not show up? Looking ahead? LN that good?

Might be eating my words... LN up 13-0 2nd Quarter

Cathedral should never be playing a 2-5 TH South team in any level of the playoffs. And I’m talking in general speak. Playing the defending big class state champion is the most extreme example in this scenario. A more plausible scenario is two 3-3 teams playing in week 7. Winner of this game more than likely controls its own playoff destiny while the loser is on the outside looking in with work to do. It’s a playoff level type game in of itself. In our current format, both teams already know their first round sectional opponent. That’s what I’m talking about.

I don’t get it either Bob.

Again you're missing the point. In a qualification based system, the level of play rises naturally. Would you disagree with me that a sectional game and a week 2 game are on the same level of intensity? That's semi-rhetorical but you get my point.

Trust me I get it. You will never convince me that a game that has implications doesn't mean more than a game that doesn't have any implications. Could just be me and if I'm in the minority so be it. Of course any game is going to be competitive. When one team wins and one team loses there is always going to be a level of competition. That's natural and isn't subjected to high school football. But this isn't or has never been my argument.

That isn't the argument. The argument is that under the current system regular season games (in regards to the postseason) are effectively meaningless and you can't argue otherwise. Regardless if you're 9-0, 0-9, 0-0 your regular season performance isn't indicative of your postseason. Every team is admitted to the postseason and your draw is determined by a ping pong ball. Not your W-L record, not your SOS, not a conference title, etc....but a ping pong ball.

It's a ton more accurate than you think. I wish the archives were still around but there was a 3-4 year period where I seeded each sectional based on Sagarin rating and you didn't need a full set of fingers on either hand to count how many bottom half Sagarin rated teams beat top half Sagarin rated teams. Fool-proof no, is anything? But it's a lot more reliable than people give it credit for.

How can you argue against that though, regardless of where you live? Any system that doesn't acknowledge regular season performance is in fact "meaningless". I'm not sure how you can factually argue otherwise. You could be #1 in the state, go undefeated during the regular season, win your conference title, and be "rewarded" with an away playoff game in the first round. That actually happened last year. #1 Avon went undefeated last year, was the #1 rated Sagarin team in the state heading into the playoffs and drew #2 Sagarin Brownsburg (a team they beat earlier in the year) on the road no less, and subsequently loss. Tell me how any of the 9 previous games Avon played meant a damn thing in regards to the postseason. You can't.

You're confusing the two. I think most, if not everyone is in favor of some type of seeding. You're not really re-inventing the wheel here. But you also miss the unintended consequences of seeding. I see it, the IHSAA sees it, and that's why it hasn't or won't happen. Seeding will eventually lead to a qualification format whether you like it or not. My guess is we see neither (for the reasons I've stated above) and we're stuck with the blind draw.

Even if you preserve the top 2, you increase the chance of unnecessary games. I would guesstimate that in the average sectional (relative to the sectional) there's 1, maybe 2 dominant teams, 2-4 average teams, and then the rest who have no business being in a postseason to begin with. Under the current format, the only way unnecessary first round blowouts are avoided are when the best teams play each other and the worst teams play each other. Cut the sectionals in half, seed 1-4, and it's a much more (usually) exciting and meaningful format.

This season in general is an outlier...

Again, extreme outliers that are exactly that, outliers. Ohio also has 2x as many high schools playing football schools than the state of Indiana. I can hardly envision a scenario where a 9-0 team in Indiana isn't at least one of the 32 top rated schools in their respective class regardless of the schedule.