Frozen Tundra

I’m kind of surprised Rushville wasn’t a target. Maybe they still could be. Their enrollment numbers align better than New Castle’s and Delta’s.

New Castle was the tenth smallest 4A school as of two years ago when the IHSAA released enrollment numbers. Based on the rate they’re shrinking, they’ll be in 3A the next two years unless they finally bottom out. 2015-2016/2016-2017: 1,119 students 2017-2018/2018-2019: 1,023 students 2019-2020/2020-2021: 970 students 2022-2023/2023-2024: 875 students

More conference realignment tonight as a brand new conference called the Eastern Crossroads Conference is set to form in east-central Indiana. Four schools are committed (Eastern Hancock, Lapel, New Castle, and Shenandoah). Invites have been sent out to three schools (Centerville, Delta, and Northeastern). I’m really curious to see if any or all those three accept invites. If not, I imagine the ECC will look for schools to invite. Also curious to know if the ECC will look for an eighth member. Depending on how this goes, we could see a domino effect that reaches down to the HHC. Do Rushville and/or Connersville eventually get an invite? If they do and they accept then that opens the door for the EIAC to replace them which means Jennings County could be an option. Not saying this happens but it’s something to keep an eye on.

I’m hearing Jay County doesn’t want in and that’s why they’re not included on the release Eastern Hancock made public.

Still need week 7 picks from @gonzoron and @Goose10. Please be sure to get them in by 7 PM tomorrow in order to remain in the main competition.

1. Depends on when those teams have an opening and whether it impedes on the opening of another school you mentioned. For instance, will Bloomington North fill Greenwood’s spot in the Mid-State schedule? If so, the rivalry game with Bloomington South gets moved to week 1 or week 2. And if the rivalry game does move, which non-conference opponent gets dropped? Is it BNL, Jeffersonville, or Columbus East. The path of least resistance says you schedule Bloomington South in week 1 so you can keep the BNL game for week 2 instead of having to search for a new non-conference opponent. But does week 1 work best for Bloomington South? 2. Also depends on if those schools even want to play Bloomington South and/or Columbus North. Would Castle and/or Reitz really want to make that long of a drive in the regular season? There are several factors at play here. Football scheduling is like a jigsaw puzzle. We all want certain pieces to fit into place but that doesn’t always mean they’re going to. Again, if Bloomington South and Columbus North can make independence work in football then I think that’s the best path for them in order to challenge themselves. In case anyone was wondering, I was referencing boys basketball here.

I don’t know if the HHC would do it but I wonder if they would consider allowing Bloomington South and Columbus North to be non-football members. As I stated before, both schools are honestly too good for the HHC in football but there would be stiffer competition in the other sports. I know Bloomington South has played Jennings County and Floyd Central the last 11 years (although JC is no longer on the schedule) and they’ve played BNL, Columbus East, and New Albany going back even longer than that.

Not football. Nobody is beating them in football unless they are historically bad or unless we’re on the level of Columbus East from 2004-2020.

Wow. I had no idea about that. That’s crazy. Whatever works I guess.

Are Connersville and Rushville pretty solid? With New Castle leaving the Hoosier Heritage Conference, and rumors of Delta and Yorktown wanting out as well, I didn’t know if they would try to form a new conference with other similar-sized schools in east-central Indiana.

Despite being in the southeast corner of the state, I’ve followed the SAC closely since 2014. It’s always fun to see how it turns out because there are some perennial powerhouses as well as several other consistently strong teams. The three things that have surprised me this year are Snider’s huge drop-off, Northrop’s rapid rise, and South Side not being the easy win they’ve been in the last 10-15 years. Usually they get slapped around by 28 or more but they’ve kept it relatively closer in their losses aside from Carroll.

I don’t think anyone here is saying they “should” move to the HHC. It’s just something we would like to see. We all want the conference to be better. Bringing in those two schools definitely makes the conference better. Those two would likely dominate football but they’d have some competition in other sports for sure. That’s not to say they wouldn’t win most of the conference championships each sports season but there are some good basketball, baseball, and wrestling programs (for example) in the HHC already. And Floyd Central is pretty good at the country club sports. What Bloomington South and Columbus North get in return is some ease on scheduling. Center Grove and Carmel are rejoining the MIC next year because their ADs have had a rough time trying to nail down scheduling year after year for each sport. And while those are mega schools who likely have a harder time than most trying to find willing competitors, I have heard from many people over the years associated with independent schools that it can be quite challenging locking down opponents. It’s especially hardest in football due to playing one game a week for nine weeks and most teams have conference obligations that lock them in for particular weeks. If Bloomington South and Columbus North can make independence work then they should go for it. However, they also have the option to make the HHC a temporary home until something better opens up for them.

They had gained the six points needed during the 2022 and 2023 seasons to move up to 3A for 2025 and 2026 due to the success factor. However, they also have 21 more students than the two largest 2A schools. So it looks like they would’ve moved up anyway. What ideas are you referring to?

Snider (although they’re really down this year), Dwenger, and Carroll are the most consistent. Homestead was a powerhouse up until they fell off a few years ago but they’re decent this year. Northrop is typically terrible but they’re loaded this year. North Side is pretty decent this year as well.

Yeah look at the Summit Athletic Conference. Fort Wayne Bishop Luers is a 2A-sized school playing in a conference containing the following: Fort Wayne Northrop (6A) Carroll (Fort Wayne) (6A) Homestead (6A) Fort Wayne Snider (5A-sized school) Fort Wayne North Side (5A) Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger (4A) Fort Wayne South Side (4A) Fort Wayne Wayne (4A) Fort Wayne Concordia (3A) Most years, Luers will be anything between 3-6 and 6-3 heading into the postseason and yet they’ll be one of the last 2 or 4 teams remaining because their conference schedule prepared them for the 2A or 3A (when they play up) state tournament.

I will only skew on the final score of the Columbus East at Bloomington North game. I’ll say the Cougars win 35-7.

This is what happens when I have too much free time. Blame IT for not fixing my work computer fast enough.

That’s always been rumored but I’ve never heard anyone actually confirm that East and North can’t be in the same conference.

Here’s a scenario. Just spitballing here. Three non-conference games to be played weeks 1-3. Four divisional games to be played weeks 4-7 (2 home and 2 away). Week 8 is the SAC championship with the other teams playing their counterparts. One division hosts the other (Division B hosts odd-numbered years. Division A hosts even-numbered years.) Week 9 is cross-divisional games based on the divisional standings. Division A champ vs Division B runner-up Division A runner-up vs Division B champ Division A 3rd place vs Division B 4th place Division A 4th place vs Division B 5th place Division A 5th place vs Division B 3rd place Whichever division hosted the week 8 games now goes on the road for the week 9 games. Other ideas for week 9 could just be that you play a cross-divisional game against a predetermined opponent. Example below. Division A: Snider, Dwenger, Luers, Northrop, Concordia Division B: Carroll, Homestead, North Side, South Side, Wayne Each team is given a pre-determined list of three teams each for a potential week 9 opponent. The opponents are listed in order of priority. Highest priority is the team listed first and the lowest priority is the team listed last. Snider - Homestead, Carroll, North Side Dwenger - Carroll, Homestead, Wayne Luers - South Side, Wayne, Homestead Northrop - North Side, South Side, Carroll Concordia - Wayne, North Side, South Side Carroll - Dwenger, Snider, Northrop Homestead - Snider, Dwenger, Luers North Side - Northrop, Concordia, Snider South Side - Luers, Northrop, Concordia Wayne - Concordia, Luers, Dwenger Let’s say the division standings are as follows after week 7: Division A 1. Dwenger 2. Luers 3. Snider 4. Northrop 5. Concordia Division B 1. Carroll 2. Homestead 3. North Side 4. South Side 5. Wayne Therefore, in week 8, you have the following games: Dwenger at Carroll for the SAC title Luers at Homestead (2nd place teams) Snider at North Side (3rd place teams) Northrop at South Side (4th place teams) Concordia at Wayne (last place teams) Then, for week 9, you schedule match-ups from each team’s pre-determined opponent list that avoids a repeat match-up from week 8. Carroll was listed first (top priority) for Dwenger but Dwenger played them in week 8. Therefore, you go with the #2 priority team for Dwenger which is Homestead. Because Homestead is playing Dwenger in week 9, Snider is scheduled their #2 priority team which is Carroll. Luers played their #3 priority team (Homestead) in week 8. However, they can’t play their #1 priority team (South Side) because Northrop would have to play North Side which leaves Concordia with Wayne (who they already played in week 8). Or Luers playing South Side would mean Concordia plays North Side but that also doesn’t work because Northrop’s three pre-determined opponents are already schedule. So Luers would have to be scheduled their #2 priority opponent (Wayne) to make the rest of the schedule work. Northrop gets North Side (#1 priority opponent) and Concordia gets South Side (#3 priority opponent). Week 8 gave us Division A at Division B so week 9 gives us Division B at Division A. Homestead at Dwenger Carroll at Snider Wayne at Luers North Side at Northrop South Side at Concordia

I’d love to see the divisions split as evenly as possible and having the two division champs play for the SAC championship in week 9. That way one team gets the bell. Have the other teams in the conference play their counterpart in the opposite division so that it’s 2nd place vs 2nd place, 3rd vs 3rd, 4th vs 4th, and 5th vs 5th.

Just out of curiosity but are the eight teams in this conference solidly committed or have there been talks or rumors about potential defections? With realignment being a big thing in recent years, I wasn’t sure if the EIAC would be able to avoid it.

I’m really interested to see how this conference plays out over the last three weeks. What the heck happens if three teams or more finish with the best record? Who possesses the bell and for how long?

Week 7 Picks BNL (5-1, 4-0 HHC) at 5A #10 Floyd Central (5-1, 3-0 HHC): After seeing Floyd Central in person last week, I have some concerns about their secondary. If the Highlanders don’t clean that up or don’t get pressure on the QB then they might have some trouble coming away with a win. The Stars have the #2 passing offense in the state and the Highlanders have a solid offense themselves so this game could be a shootout. I’ll take BNL in a close one. Floyd Central has won six of the last seven in the series and leads 31-24 overall. Jeffersonville (2-4, 1-2 HHC) at New Albany (0-6, 0-2 HHC): The Bulldogs were outscored 13-2 last week in the final 13:23 of the game and blew what was possibly their best shot at a win this season. Enter the Red Devils who had a much easier time putting up points against the one common opponent thus far, BNL. While New Albany seems to have improved over the last couple weeks offensively, I don’t think they have the capability defensively to get a win this week. Jeff gets the W. The history on this series looks to be incomplete but Almanac Sports has it deadlocked at 42-42-2. New Albany has won three of the last four. Last year, Jeff picked up their first win in the series in four years and their first regular season win in the series in five years. Seymour (0-6, 0-4 HHC) at Jennings County (3-3, 0-2 HHC): Seymour’s third straight game against a team from a community located on U.S. 50 looks to be the most winnable game of the season. While the Panthers will be celebrating senior night, the Owls are hopeful they’ll be able to secure their first win and get out of the HHC basement. If common opponents are any indication, Seymour shouldn’t have any problem here. The Owls score the victory. Seymour leads the series 49-10 and has won the last ten games. Columbus East (3-3) at Bloomington North (3-3): The Cougars play their second straight HHC opponent and their third of the season. Likewise, the Olympians play their third Conference Indiana opponent of the season. Don’t have much to say here except reiterate how much of a disappointment East has been. I don’t see Bloomington North struggling. The Cougars get the win to complete their 3-0 HHC sweep while East completes their 0-3 Conference Indiana shutout. By the way, it’s worth mentioning Ed Vogel is currently 0-17 against non-conference opponents as Columbus East’s head coach. Yikes! The Olympians lead the series 12-7 but the Cougars have won the last three.

I think that’s fair to say for Jeffersonville, New Albany, and Bedford North Lawrence. Columbus East is football-first. Floyd Central is country club sports-first. Jennings County had been wrestling-first for years although that may be shifting towards basketball due to the recent success of both the boys and girls teams. As for Seymour, I have no clue where their priorities are.

Having lived here for 12 years (and having family here for over 80 years), I still wouldn’t say basketball dominates the culture. It’s definitely the most successful of their big sports but, at least in my lifetime, Jennings County has always been known as a wrestling school. They’ve kind of fallen by the wayside though after the retirement of Howard Jones after the 2020-2021 school year.