Footballking16

WC by 3 TDs. The same Elder team who lost 45-20 to WC beat that Chatard team 17-16 the week later. Crazy enough, that WC team lost twice that year to in-state foes. The 06 Warren team is still the best team I’ve seen to date.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/college-football/5-star-2023-cfb-recruit-reportedly-lands-8-million-nil-deal-media-fans-react/amp/ That’s why

Honestly, no. There's two dominant conferences in the state + Cathedral and most those teams already play each other annually anyway. There just isn't enough top level talent in Indiana, let alone depth level, where I could see that to be the case. You can go 3-4 weeks in the MIC or HCC and not face a team that has a P5 level player. These perennial teams I'm alluding too all have multiple P5 level players on top of several other legit D1 or FCFS caliber players and they play teams every week who are in the same boat. If Center Grove or Carmel or Cathedral played a national 10 week schedule against some of these teams, I would be surprised if any of them finished above .500. It's not meant to be a knock, it just is what it is. I would guess there are Dallas/Houston/Atlanta area 6A level schools who would be considered just average or ok by their state standards that would still perennially contend for state championships in Indiana.

That's not what I'm necessarily implying. I just think it's tough to gauge where Indiana teams stand in correlation with a lot of these teams who play nationally rated teams week in and week out. I'll assure you that a team like St. Thomas Aquinas isn't playing teams of North Central, Pike, LC, LN, etc caliber, let alone 5-6 times a year. I have no doubt that last years Center Grove could have competed with just about any high school team in America on any given night, but I don't think there's any chance they come close to sniffing 15-0 playing a schedule comparable to St. Thomas Aquinas or Duncanville or most of any of these perennially ranked teams who play stout competition night in and night out. And that's not a knock on Center Grove or any excellent program in this state, it just goes to show you the nature of the beast you're up against playing in these football crazed states and cities. If you look at some of these conferences/leagues/district whatever you want to call them in Southern California, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, etc, they are littered with teams who are all top 100.

Crazy thing is I'd feel comfortable taking this up to 21. I know OSU has question marks on defense and Irish do have a good offensive line and they will look to ground and pound and keep the clock moving, but I just don't see a scenario where OSU doesn't score almost every time the touch the ball until they call off the dogs, in the event they do. I think ND needs to score at least 21 to have a chance of keeping it within the number.

College is different than high school. There are college players who actually are marketable and actually worth more than their real scholarship value. Some, but not a lot. As I've read it, collectives don't necessarily benefit every player, rather it's just a way of someone or a group of people associated with a university pooling together collections of money into one and then allocating it out to whomever and however they want. I agree it would be nice to graduate college with $50k in the bank, but as a scholarship athlete, you're already well ahead of the curve graduating with zero debt or future loans to pay off. For the majority of college athletes, most of which aren't worth more than their real scholarship value in an open market, have it as good as anyone. But in terms of NIL at the high school level, I prefer it just stays away. It's the last leg of pure amateur athletics.

Indiana definitely has had some outliers. That 03 or 06 Warren team I think could compete and beat just about anybody. There were some very good Ben Davis teams in the 90's. And I do believe that last years Center Grove team could have beaten a lot of good teams in a one off night, just not sure how'd they fare playing the typical schedule that you see from a lot of these perennial top 25 teams.

A 16 or 17 year old kid being able to profit $20k+ for being good at football is just bonkers to me, although that says more about the person willing to shell out $20k than the kid itself. I really don't see any real world profit an individual can make off a high school kid playing football, and NIL at the high school level in my opinion will simply just amount to high dollar boosters leveraging NIL deals as down payments for future college commitments. It's just too much of a slippery slope in my opinion. I would support some kind of collective or fund that would allow a high school student to allocate money towards future college tuition, but just throwing thousands and sometimes millions of dollars (see the CA QB with a 7 figure NIL deal to attend TN) just seems like a terrible principle.

You seriously don't believe in an open transfer market that the best and highest level athletes won't naturally gravitate to the best one or two area teams? I find that extremely hard to believe. It's not what the IHSAA wants nor is it conducive to high school athletics. This is why club sports and AAU exist outside of IHSAA sanctioned events. There's no need to integrate the two.

It's not a one in a million situation, and again, you'd have to be naïve to not think of the unintended consequences of an open market transfer portal in high school athletics. There were 1000+ transfers in the immediate year following the NCAA's decision to grant a one time transfer waiver to all players, which more than doubled from the year prior.

Correct. And if the IHSAA lifts any restriction on athletically motivated transfers, what is to stop an elite AAU program like Spiece Indy Heat which features a ton of good local prospects from colluding with one another as AAU teammates to all transferring to one high school? Is it an extreme example? Probably, but it's not unheard of or unfathomable. With social media the way it is today, you already see high school recruits recruiting one another to come join them in the collegiate ranks, why stop there? Lifting restrictions on athletically motivated transfers is going to come with some severe unintended consequences.

I disagree that Cathedral struggles with those type of teams nowadays. Cathedral is more adept in the skill department than they were 10 years ago when they were regularly playing WC, Ben Davis, etc. Cathedral lost to Brownsburg because they were manhandled up front. Brownsburg beat Cathedral up front time after time (and Cathedral has 2 D1 recruits on the DL), pure and simple. Couple that with extremely poor special teams play, a few dumb penalties that extended drives for Brownsburg, and a costly turnover inside the 10 yard line, and that's how you lose a one score game.

We had a previous poster spanning multiple handles on here who used to always advocate for a CG/Carmel vs IMG type match-up. I don't think even DT, in all his infinite wisdom, could really understand the level of mismatch that a program like IMG or any of the regular top 10 nationally teams would present for a team like Center Grove or Carmel or any team for Indiana for that matter.

This is why I'm always skeptical of where Indiana teams stack up nationally whenever they appear in some of these national rankings list. I bet if you did a week by week list like this, you would find that most of these teams in the top 100 are playing against top 100 competition (or close to it) week after week, whereas a team from Indiana ranked in the top 100 is only playing 1-2, maybe 3 teams who come close to sniffing the top 100.

I'm not going to throw out any baseless accusations because there's none of which I have first hand knowledge, but I think you ought to be pretty naïve to not think there is some pretty widespread tampering going on given all the influx of transfers. I think it's more common on the hardwood vs gridiron, but I just don't think kids wake up in droves and decide to transfer without somebody in their ear or their families ear.

Can't get a read on either of these teams but will know more after this one. Thought LN would have competed a little better with Whiteland and put up more points in the scoring column given the heavy edge in the athletic department. Most would have guessed LC would be 0-2 heading into this game, but they've played two good teams extremely tough. LC wins this one 31-21 and proves they are heading in the right direction. Warren rolls 49-0 and O'Shea is starting to wonder why he took this job. BD big in a statement game, 35-14. Feel like giving up 34 points even in a win would feel like a disappointment. I hear you on predicting CG to lose, but unfortunately I have to do it this week. Big home field advantage to the Rocks and I think CG will really miss Wheat in this one. Low scoring game, Trinity 17-13 Feel like this a must win game for Carmel (even though it isn't in the grand scheme of things). Don't know much about Cass Tech other than they pump out regular D1 talent year after year, but so does King and they were throttled by Warren. King can't overcome the long bus ride down and Carmel gets their first win of the year 28-22

Way overthinking it. He’s right in one sense, a week 2 poll doesn’t mean anything in the long run, but if you’re going to release a weekly poll, don’t half ass it. Otherwise just drop it completely.

This is essentially the process is now. In instances where both schools sign off, the IHSAA rarely interjects themselves into these type of situations. Eron Gordon is the one high profile case where the IHSAA went great lengths to block a transfer where both schools had signed off. I'm fine with keeping it that way, but in this current transfer climate, you're going to see more and more athletically motivated transfers. Schools/coaches are going to have to start rejecting some of them to keep the integrity of the game, especially if the IHSAA isn't willing to do anything about.

And forgot to add in my last post, these are only outliers now because there is deterrence from the IHSAA in the form of varsity restriction. Take away the IHSAA's ability to regulate transfers and these type of outliers become the norm. Just look at the explosion of transfers in the NCAA the last 10 years. The NCAA initially ruled that grad students could transfer without a one year penalty and in the last year have given every player a one time transfer waiver. It's a mess.

What is the common type of transfer then? If a parent's true intention of moving their child into a different school district isn't athletically motivated (academics, safety, etc) then losing varsity eligibility for 365 day should be an after thought at that point. But this clearly isn't the case, as you can see all the fuss. I had a family member who was a dual sport athlete at a mega-enrollment Indy area high school. He wasn't getting it done in the classroom and his dad took him out of said school and put him in a small, private 1A high school that was less than 5 years old at the time. The school he was transferring from told the parents they weren't going to sign off on his release and the dad simply told the school, "I don't care, he's not playing sports until his grades are up to my standards". It was a genuine sentiment and the mega school eventually signed off without any restriction. Unfortunately in today's world, this isn't the primary type of transferring. Kids are absolutely jumping districts for pure athletic purposes. That's where you're wrong. It is the job of the IHSAA to keep the best interests of its member schools. I would potentially give a second thought to the IHSAA interjecting themselves into these kind of situations in the event both schools sign off on a transfer, but I simply cannot get behind the idea of high school athletics turning in to free agency.

Yeah total brain fart, they aren't undefeated. Would argue they played Brownsburg better than Cathedral though. Cathedral was down 3 TD's in the 4th quarter at one point. But do agree in principle, 6A does appear to be as wide open as it has ever been and there isn't a clear cut favorite as it stands. Can't really get a good read on HSE. Buried a North Central team like they should have and edged out a win against LC, whom I don't have a read on yet either.

Didn't even see that. Ya wow. I get the sentiment at having Cathedral at 3 and if you simply look at the box score of the Brownsburg game I can see how many would construe it as a close game, but the Irish were soundly beaten in all facets of that game. I would vote an undefeated Ben Davis team and a Warren team with a better resume win over Cathedral right now.

The typical transfer has already been described by @crimsonace1. Kids are either transferring to trophy shop or they are disgruntled with lack of playing time, exposure, etc and transfer to other school districts. These are absolutely athletically motivated transfers which the IHSAA wants to discourage. If you uplift a rule that restricts varsity eligible for 365 for athletically motivated transfers, where does the line stop? What is to prevent a kid from transferring 3 or 4 times during his high school career? Can you really say that transferring at-will promotes a healthy system? What is to stop kids/parents from colluding and transferring to form all-star teams at various schools across various sports?

New Pal only receiving 6 first place votes is utterly comical.

Loyola has some serious talent but to dismantle an X team like that is saying something. General feel on the Ohio boards is that this X team is extremely inexperience and lacks significant playmakers. Doesn't excuse the fact that X has a mammoth offensive line that was physically dominated. It's definitely a down year for the Bombers and have seen some of their posters already advocate for playing time from their Freshman QB who is apparently a stud athlete. I think that alone tells you the rest of the outlook in regards to the remainder of the season.