Frozen Tundra

@Bonecrusher @foxbat I really appreciate your perspectives. It’s quite eye-opening to read your posts. As a lifelong Hoosier and one that prefers basketball over other sports, it’s surprising to me that basketball is seen there as a tertiary sport. I know I’m just a product of my environment but I was always under the impression that football and basketball were looked at as the two biggest sports across this country. With as many pro baseball players as Texas churns out, I guess it does make sense that baseball is held in higher regard there than basketball.

My only question is whether or not the official start of practice would need to be moved a week earlier since the first game would be a week sooner. If so, is that feasible? Would summer camps also need to start a week sooner?

I’m by no means advocating a change. I just think it’s a good thing to evaluate our system and compare it with others. Do we do it better? Can we make it better? When I look at how late football runs in some states (i.e. Texas), I’m stunned because I don’t see how that’s possible from a winter sports aspect. Maybe it somehow does work there. It wouldn’t work here though. Personally, I like Indiana how it is. If I had to make a change, the only thing I’d change is getting rid of the scrimmage week and making it a tenth regular season game. However, that’s just my perspective as an outsider. I wasn’t able to play high school football so I don’t know if it’s even feasible.

Indiana and Missouri are the only states in the country that have an all-in format.

Yeah I always thought they should get rid of the public scrimmage and just play a game instead. Not sure if that throws off the summer schedule though. I never played so I couldn’t tell you if it’s feasible or not.

Thought I’d chime in with a relatively new topic. I got bored yesterday so I decided to look up the schedules of high school football teams in other states and compare them to Indiana. I had to go back to 2019 because COVID has made things hectic the last couple years schedule-wise. I put together the table below to give an easy visual representation of the differences between Indiana and its border states, as well as four of the biggest football states in the country. What are your thoughts? Is the format best here in Indiana or does one of the other states do it better? With the school year starting earlier these days than ever before, should the season start earlier? Should a tenth regular season game be added to the schedule? Should each team be required a bye week during the regular season? Let me know what you think.

Here are this week’s games. I’ll run the pick ‘em contest again this year. Make sure to have them in before kickoff each Friday night. As for me, I’ll probably wait to give mine on Friday mornings or afternoons.

Seems Jennings County had a pretty decent scrimmage tonight. How’s everyone else do?

Hoosier Hills Conference storylines: - Columbus East’s 17 consecutive HHC title streak came to an end last season as well as its 96 straight HHC wins streak (107 straight when counting the postseason). Was this a result of having the most inexperienced team of the last 20 years on the field last year, was it because hall of fame coach Bob Gaddis retired after the 2020 season, or has the talent pool at the school dried up? With all the experience coming back, we’ll know for sure this year. - New Albany won HHC and sectional titles last year for the first time in 19 years. They also won their first ever regional title. Last year’s team was a once-in-a-generation team with all the talent and experience they had. The Bulldogs suffered heavily from graduation, though, so everyone is expecting them to take a big step back this year. However, can head coach Steve Cooley build off last year’s success? Will this year’s team be motivated by 2021 and put in the work to improve quickly? If they can finish in the top 3 in the HHC then it’ll shock a lot of people. - Seymour has a lot of talent and experience returning. Tyson Moore (son of Center Grove head coach Eric Moore) is slowly building up the program as he enters his third season. He followed up a 3-7 rookie campaign with a 4-6 record last year which included ending his alma mater Columbus East’s 96-game HHC win streak. As for the other four schools… - Floyd Central looks to be a top three team for a seventh straight year. They enter their fifth year with James Bragg at the helm and seem capable to challenge for the top spot. Do they have the talent and the depth to pull it off? Stay tuned. - Jeffersonville enters year 4 with Isaac Parker in charge. The Red Devils took a step back last year due to graduation losses, but Parker has instilled discipline into a program that badly lacked it prior to his arrival. Like New Albany, a lot of talent roams the halls of that school. It’s just a matter of getting that talent to play football and then utilizing it properly. - Bedford North Lawrence is an enigma. Not quite sure what to expect from the Stars as Derrick Barker returns for his sophomore season as head coach after a 4-6 debut. BNL had been a 5A team ever since that classification began in 1985 but is now in the 4A ranks. Doesn’t get any easier, though, with East Central in their sectional. - Jennings County enters the season with their third head coach in three years. This will be their sixth head coach in 11 seasons. With Madison leaving the conference prior to the 2020 season, the Panthers are all alone as the perennial doormat and don’t seem on their way up anytime soon. Hard to get excited for football in North Vernon when there’s a revolving door at the head coach position.

Hoosier Hills Conference scrimmages: Mitchell at BNL Martinsville at Columbus East Floyd Central at Charlestown Jeffersonville at Whiteland Jennings County at Brownstown Central New Albany at Scottsburg Silver Creek at Seymour

HHC Scrimmage Schedule: Mitchell at BNL Martinsville at Columbus East Floyd Central at Charlestown Jeffersonville at Whiteland Jennings County at Brownstown Central New Albany at Scottsburg Silver Creek at Seymour

New Pal is in 4A so you won’t be seeing them winning 5A

The threshold is actually closer to 2,100. If it weren’t for Cathedral moving up due to the success factor, Harrison (WL) would be the final 6A school with 2,079 students. Instead, it’s Fort Wayne Northrop with 2,080 students. As you can see, Decatur Central has a little ways to go before they’re in 6A.

Thank God. They’ve got through enough coaches. Glad to hear Coach Parker isn’t leaving.

Jeff has a new coach? Didn’t know that. It’s not even listed on John Harrell’s website.

I know about East, Seymour, and Floyd Central. I’m just curious with how New Albany compares to Jeffersonville and BNL.

I’m curious to see how far New Albany falls. Not sure what Jeffersonville and BNL have but it seems possible that New Albany could go from 1st to 6th.

The process of seeding teams isn’t saying that the 1 seed is going to win it all or that the tournament is going to play out exactly how the teams are seeded, especially not in a single-elimination format. Seeding is based on numbers and how teams look on paper based on their regular season results. It is a way of evaluating the success, or lack thereof, of teams during the regular season. The purpose is to reward the best regular season teams by making their road to a championship a bit easier than those that didn’t perform as well. This also rewards fans as it gives them the best possible matchups further along in the tournament. Does it always work out that way? Obviously not. See March Madness for example. However, the goal is to give more value to the regular season, reward teams that played well during the regular season, and give the fans a more exciting tournament. This isn’t a knock on you when I say this but I struggle to understand the opposition to seeding. Seeding is used in pretty much every professional and collegiate sport in the USA. It’s not a difficult concept. It is effective. And if we’re going to devalue the regular season by letting every team in the state tournament, then let’s counteract it by putting some value into it by seeding the teams. Conference championships are great but what does that really mean in relation to the postseason? Not to mention, there are quite a few schools that don’t even belong to a conference. So let’s give some meaning to the nine-week regular season. Even if we only seed the top two teams in each sectional and put them on opposite sides of the bracket then at least that’s something. With all the analytics and advanced metrics we have at our disposal today, I just don’t understand how we couldn’t make it work.

You’ll want to take New Albany off this list. They lost a crap ton of seniors off last year’s team. Last year’s team was a once-in-a-generation team.

Northview to Conference Indiana would only be a desperation move by CI to stay in existence. Kind of like how the American Athletic Conference is bringing in teams like Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, Charlotte, and UAB to make up for losing Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF. They’re not bringing those schools in because of athletic success or even financial value. They’re bringing them in so they don’t disband.

Yep. I’ve been saying this as well. It’s a compromise that gives more than it takes. It keeps things pretty much exactly how they are but it just seeds the top two teams in each sectional and keeps them on opposite sides of the bracket. If the sectional is loaded with three or four good teams then you have the chance of playing the third or fourth best team one round earlier than if you seeded all three or four. One round isn’t a big deal.

I agree with @DT. I think the Mid-State Conference would be their destination. If that didn’t work out, there’s always the HHC as a back-up plan.

So if Conference Indiana were to disband, what would come of the Terre Haute schools? The other four teams in the CI have conferences nearby that they can join. I’m not sure what the Terre Haute schools would do.

What’s the deal with Jay County? How is a 4A team like them so bad in a small school conference?

With Conference Indiana on shaky ground, would Southport to the MIC make sense? Just curious if that would ever be a possibility.