Frozen Tundra

@Indiana Fan This definitely makes the most sense from a geographical standpoint. However, the IHSAA has shown they won’t want to do a major reshuffling of sectionals in the event teams get moved down in the middle of a two-year classification period. Decatur Central needs to make semi-state in 2026 in order to remain in 6A. The likelihood of that happening is very slim. So if they have to drop back down for 2027 then that leaves their sectional at 3 teams and southern Indiana at 15 teams compared to the 17 teams up north you have laid out here. I anticipate Decatur Central will be part of the five-team sectional to offset this. One of those northern teams is going to end up in the south and Zionsville seems like the best bet. As much as I would prefer your alignment, the IHSAA is not going to like it. Now New Palestine could easily get to semi-state in 5A and replace Decatur Central in 6A in 2027 but there are no guarantees of that. Therefore, this is my best guess of what we’ll see: Sectional 1 - Crown Point, Lake Central, Merrillville, Portage Sectional 2 - Carroll, Elkhart, Penn, Valparaiso Sectional 3 - Carmel, Harrison, Noblesville, Westfield Sectional 4 - Fishers, Fort Wayne Northrop, Hamilton Southeastern, Homestead Sectional 5 - Avon, Brownsburg, Pike, Zionsville Sectional 6 - Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central, Warren Central Sectional 7 - Ben Davis, Decatur Central, Franklin Central, Perry Meridian, Southport Sectional 8 - Center Grove, Columbus North, Jeffersonville, Whiteland Regardless of whether or not Decatur Central remains in 6A for 2027 or gets moved back down to 5A, if New Palestine moves up to 6A in 2027 then you can just plug them into sectional 6 with the east side Indy schools.

Maybe in basketball but they’re nowhere close to 3A in football.

With the IHSAA releasing classifications for the next two years in football, here are my guesses on which sectional each HHC team gets assigned to. 6A sectional 8: Jeffersonville remains here with Columbus North and Center Grove. However, Whiteland is now in 6A and replaces Franklin Central since all four are near I-65 and are south of 465. 5A sectional 15: Seymour and Franklin get moved to sectional 15 as sectional 14 becomes a northwest quadrant sectional in the southern half of Indiana. The Owls and Grizzly Cubs are joined by Bloomington North and Bloomington South. 5A sectional 16: No changes here. Floyd Central and New Albany remain with Castle and Evansville North since these are the only teams in deep southern Indiana in 5A. Thank goodness they have I-64 between them to keep travel times from getting too crazy. 4A sectional 23: Columbus East returns to the sectional they called home for years. They are reunited with former sectional foes East Central and Shelbyville as well as former conference mates Jennings County and Madison (they’re back in 4A as well). Along with them are BNL, Charlestown, and Silver Creek once again.

I almost had exactly what you have. Only difference is that I have the Terre Haute schools with Plainfield and Tech due to the ease of access via I-70 and the Bloomington schools with Franklin and Seymour.

I also assume it’s to ensure 6A doesn’t go to 31 teams in the event Decatur Central doesn’t get the points needed this fall to remain in 6A in 2027.

So if I’m reading this right, 6A will have 33 teams this fall.

I figured but my main mistake was forgetting Seymour wasn’t always in the HHC. I was trying to figure out how you guys always managed to play at East every year if you were in the same conference. So that’s why I wondered if you went somewhere else. My bad.

Where did you attend?

What I said wasn’t an insult. Floyd Central is the best in the conference in those sports. Traditionally, Columbus North is great at those sports too. They would be good competition for each other in those sports. That’s simply all I was saying.

If Columbus North were to join for some reason, I could see a country club sports rivalry forming between them and Floyd Central.

East Central will be back in 4A since they only earned 2 points (two sectional titles) over the last two seasons in 5A.

Completely forgot it said the vote was in mid-April

News broke in late January that Bloomington South would likely be joining the HHC. It’s now March. I would’ve thought we would hear more by now. Has a vote not taken place?

Every year we get told how great North Side is. Yes, they have talented teams. However, they don’t execute. Biggest busts every year. I don’t want to hear about them or see them ranked until they actually do something.

Gives you another perspective as to why Andrew Luck retired when he did. All that rehab after major issues, especially back-to-back, is mentally draining. I just wish Rondale could’ve gone down the same path and spared his life.

Gonna need another team for all sports because Southport wouldn’t want their football team to be in that conference.

He was referring to Silver Creek, not Bloomington South.

Apparently Greensburg has agreed to change the site of their game against Jennings County from home to away. Now the Panthers will have four home games instead of three. However, the Pirates will now have three home games instead of four. I’m really confused as to why they would do this.

It’s true

Very good points by @Impartial_Observer and @RetiredSouthernCoach. I hate when people try to get Jennings County to leave the conference just because their football team isn’t good. Is the school shrinking? Yes. But school size doesn’t matter as much in other sports like it does with football. We’ve seen smaller schools compete with, and beat, larger schools. I’m tired of football being the lone representation of an athletic program or school. There are 18-23 other IHSAA sports (depending on if your school has gymnastics, girls wrestling, boys volleyball, unified track, and unified flag football). Is Jennings County a threat to win the HHC title in most of those sports? No. They aren’t in many of them. However, are they going to finish dead last in every sport every single year? No. They are capable of fighting their way into the upper half in most of those sports. Personally, I think that qualifies them as being competitive enough for the HHC. Making football go independent but staying in all the other sports is the right move. However, if they shrink down to Madison’s size and go under 1,000 students then that’s the time where leaving the HHC as a whole is a logical decision.

The main issue for Jennings County was football. That’s the one sport where they struggled to compete with the HHC. The other sports have been able to find success, especially boys and girls basketball the last several years. Adding Bloomington South adds one more tough opponent but their inclusion doesn’t change anything for Jennings County.

Nah we need them for basketball. If we’re going to suck at football we can at least dominate in basketball.

They all need to suck it up. I like the idea of having Bloomington South in the conference. Plus, with the loss of Madison and Jennings County being half-in and half-out, we need to add some members to ensure the HHC doesn’t go the route of Conference Indiana.

Bloomington South has played Columbus East and BNL in boys basketball every year going back to before John Harrell started keeping track of things in the 1993-1994 season. Bloomington South has played New Albany every year since the 2009-2010 season. They’ve played Floyd Central every year since the 2014-2015 season. They played Jennings County every year from the 2014-2015 season up through last year. It was dropped this year. Not sure the last time Jeff was on the schedule but, given the fact they’ve been playing Floyd Central and New Albany annually, I don’t think adding Jeff will bother them too much.

I get what you’re saying and I’m very familiar with the EIAC, East Central and the scheduling format. However, as a Columbus East grad and someone who has lived most of his life in Columbus, I would be stunned if Columbus North joined the HHC in football. Just going off what I know. I get that they’re without a conference home but that doesn’t change anything.