Boilernation

You almost have to admire the fact they don't hide from it. Look at Auburn who hired Bruce Pearl and Hugh Freeze. There was once a time when Pearl couldn't even land a D1 job due to his actions as a lead recruiter at Iowa and he violated rules as soon as he returned to the big time at Tennessee. Hugh Freeze...enough said.

Touche. That I did not know. Still, it's easy to say no to joining the other Conferences and "selling your soul" for more money when you have your own TV deal for football. Their refusal to "go with the flow and follow the money" will really be tested soon, IMO.

IOnly one sport is not in a Conference and they just happen to have their own network deal. But, their program is more than just a money making machine? I’ll believe that line when they drop football all together or down a Division instead of being forced into a Conference.

Correct. AAU is huge for the Big Ten. I noticed a lot of ACC schools on that list.

At some point they’ll be forced into joining. The Big Ten and SEC will be calling the shots soon. I believe the new playoff format is only locked in for 2 years.

Agreed. Conferences used to be tied to an area that shares a lot of the same culture and identites. Now, it's a just a smorgasbord of geographic areas tied together in unison to maximize Revenue. Which is basically Football and Basketball telling the little sports that they follow their lead. And it's only going to get worse. Florida State is strutting itself in public and begging the Big Ten or SEC to bring them in. I could see the SEC paying the fees for Florida State to break their GOR with the ACC. The seemingly obvious next move for the Big Ten is to secure the Northern Bay are with Cal and Stanford, which is a complete bore for spectators. I would prefer to see the Big Ten think outside the box in try luring white whales like Notre Dame and North Carolina. Acadamically, athletically and name brand wise those would be amazing additions to the BIg Ten.s

I was hoping for Arizona as well. I would have been fine with just Arizona and Oregon. Washington doesn't move the needle for me. They only seem invested in football and they can never sustain success. Similiar to Maryland, I would consider them an underachiever in basketball. Granted they don't have the crazy amount of HS talent that surrounds College Park; however, the Seattle area has been pumping out quality HS basketball recruits for a while and Washington has never been able to capitalize on it. At this point I'm hoping for Oregon or nothing. I rather take San Diego State and than Stanford or Cal. I rather take Ball State and Western Michigan than Stanford and Cal. No thanks to Stanford and Cal. Yeah, in the eyes of the NCAA, Alabama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, etc. have ZERO National Titles in Football. They're all technically mythical.

Agreed regarding the offical announcements. My opinion is whether or not he's at practice isn't a rumor. It's just a fact. Mods can delete if they disagree, it's their show.

I didn't realize Crown Point has a 6'3 Safety committed to Toledo. That's 5 legimiate D1 recurits for the Bulldogs this year, but there is speculation on Region Sports that the IHSAA is going to block Patrick Clack's transfer from Andrean. @scarab527 Has he been a no show at Crown Point practices?

Crown Point with at least 4 D1 recruits this year. That’s 9 if the neighbor to the North of 93rd is counting.

No argument from me. All 6 are solid in my opinion. I think Valpo is pretty similiar to the 3 4A teams in that their bread and butter is going to be trying to control the line with size and very physical & disciplined line play. East Central has a very nice added wrinkle this year with 2 MAC recruits that are big and fast to give the ball to. I like North, a lot. They have size and D1 talent all over the place. I just don't trust them. The Sectional loss to Snider pgretty much sums it up for me. IMO, they didn't give Johnson enough touches towards the end of the game and Snider clearly has a mental hold on them. IF they could get past Snider this year I would probably pick them to beat Valpo. It's tough to repeat. Regarding 5A, 4A obviously has the same problem. 5A is stacked in the North while 4A is stacked in the South. Fortunately in 5A the South is capable of putting up a fight in Lucas Oil. Valpo vs. Whiteland was a phenomenal game to watch. I'm sure whomever comes out the South this year will be good enough win. The 4A Title game has the makings of another massacre this year unless NorthWood can put together a team to compliment their absurd talent at WR. I still can't believe they have a Georgia commit and Purdue commit at WR. Pretty wild.

In all seriousness, I get that it's just a meaningless opinion Poll, but I'm really surprised that Paul Condry would allow such an absurd omission in his magazine.

Why are you so bullish on EC/New Pal/Roncalli vs. Valpo, Snider or North? They all seem to match up well as each feed off of dominating line play. I doubt any of the teams would have much of a size advantage on the lines. North probably has the best collection of skill talent among the group with EC possibly being 2nd. In my opinion, North majorly choked against Snider. They had that game won if they kept feeding Johnson the ball on the outside with short passes. I have a feeling they'll end Valpo's bid at a repeat if they can get over the mental roadblock that is Snider. I would be surprised if Dwenger is much of a threat for Snider or North in Sectional 12.

It's a good thing CG's students won't be allowed on the field following a potential victory. We wouldn't want a Carmel coach to purposely walk through them, push a kid and then he as well as the Carmel Athletic Department cry victim afterwards.

Meant to say I wouldn’t agree regarding Noblesville.

I would agree with you. You don’t even have to look back too far (2022) to see Noblesville giving the 4A Champ their only loss. A big and powerful 6A OL like Noblesville has been putting out can be a lot for a 4A defensive front 7 to handle when the depth isn’t there.

Yep, One I can easily think of was the '96 State Title could have easily ended in Portage in Regionals. Portage had the ball on the goal line with enough time left to run 1 play. Buzea passed up a gimme FG attempt that would have sent the game into OT and instead went for the win. It wasn't even close. Penn's D-Line stopped the Portage RB in the backfield.

Does that mean the MIC and Center Grove are culturally aligned when the Varsity football teams aren't playing each other?

What's the word?

Kiwanis Field on a summer night must be a beautiful site. That was one of my favorite venues to play in. that's a very low turnout just for 7 on 7. LaPorte just needs to weather the storm and rebuild. The numbers wil return if they can get out of the massive hole they've dug.

Is it safe to say Dwenger is starting to feel the effects of Carroll in SAC and a contender in 6A? Pure speculation on my part as Carroll is the northside "suburban" school and Dwenger is also on the northside. Unless Dwenger has never really pulled in kids from Carroll's district.

Hard to really nitpick this as Brownsburg and SE appear to be the favorites again. Outside of them I would expect a lot of parity considering the strenght of the conference as a whole. My gut feeling is Noblesville and Avon expectations. Tough Conference though where some solid teams will end up with 5-4 or 6-3 records.

Not sure how they get to 6-3 with an opening stretch of Brownsburg, Big Moe, North, Carroll and Homestead. They could legitimately start the season 0-5.

Interesting for sure. Per the rankings explanation it puts heavy stock into professional stats only, which would explain why obscure names from the mid 1900's are rated so high. I'm just amazed a database like that even exists.

Re: Andrean, I was referring to the fact they have recent State Titles and their fans can legitimately talk about winning another. At this point it's just a pipedream for Merrillville fans. As for the rest, just a bunch of Parkhurst excuses. You either win or you don't. The rest is conjecture.