wabashalwaysfights

The current flag football program, per your article, is part of the Unified Program. My understanding of the Unified Program is that the IHSAA partners, at least perhaps unofficially, partners with the Special Olympics to provide student-athletes with special needs an opportunity to safely participate in athletics. It is a wonderful program, but I don't think that it serves the same purpose as the push for Co-OP and/or 8-man football investigation. In other words, the existing flag-football program is NOT a "better option" than 11 or 8 man football for communities who want to support a program.

From a coaching angle, I wonder what the x's and o's looks like for 8 man. I'm sure there's a lot of material out there, I just haven't had time to look. I'm an offensive line guy at heart and the thought of 2 fewer up front hurts my soul.

This again? Can I save us all some time here... "Blah, blah, blah, why don't you all take this virus as seriously as you should?" "Blah, blag, blag, where is the proof that this is any worse than any other illness?" "Blah, blah, blah, science..." "Blah, blah, blag, but this science..." Accusations of callousness... Accusations of cowardice... (5 pages later) *rinse and repeat the above* Topic shutdown... (24-48 hours later) "New" thread questioning where things stand now... See above... I'd ask if I missed anything, but I think you get the gist... Over/under on this thread: 3 pages

Topic shutdown in 5... 4... 3...

This is how I feel when I go to read the "news" anymore... I'll refrain from saying why I dread it... One thing I don't get: everybody is talking about how there is a new spike in cases but doesn't that make sense assuming that we are testing more? Or does that only make sense if you, like me, assume that this stuff has been here for a lot longer than early to mid March? I feel like the early days of returning to workouts actually favors smaller schools. It is much easier to schedule small group workouts to comply with the current suggested guidelines when you are dealing with smaller groups to begin with. I wonder how larger schools, 3-6A, are planning to move forward? Seems like it could be a bit difficult.

Oh good grief...

I haven't seen the most recent proposal, but I'm guessing if its like the other prospective plans I've seen they will also be playing only in select southern cities?

With you all the way big guy... Hope people far more powerful than we are as well...

No, it's largely because of the weather. Thats all well and good, and I'm sure there are dips, but I think if I'm unaware of how much family traveling there is on fall break, you are equally unaware or are underestimating how much more family traveling there is in spring break. Part of that too is the extended time of Spring break; many if not most schools now have a two week spring break and while you would think that would mean that the break becomes "enclosed" (that is, kids won't miss school outside of that period) it doesn't. Sorry, but at the end of the day, comparing fall break to spring break is comparing apples to oranges. They are both fruit, both good for you, but they are definitely not the same. Spring break and fall break are both breaks in the school calendar, families will travel, but they are definitely not the same. Folks anticipate nicer weather in the spring, people set up their work schedule for spring break, which is often done years in advance. It just is not the same no matter how you slice it, and that's not going to change, even in a situation like this. If the powers that be still choose to flip the calendar for whatever reason, that's fine and it may work out, but this notion that everybody's going to abandon their traditional spring break plans just because football would be played in the spring is just not logical.

Not the same... not even close to the same as spring break.

I think most parents I've run into make their spring break plans whenever they want whether it's already been scheduled or not. We've had a two week spring break for years now and you would be shocked at the number of kids that we still have miss up to a week of school because "we've already made our plans." I don't think a pandemic, epidemic, natural disaster, or end of the world is going to change that. As our softball coach points out every year, "God forbid you mess with someone's spring break!"

I've been thinking about the first comment in bold and I'm not so sure there would be the same fan appetite for high school football in the spring. Especially if the NFL and NCAA seasons go off in the fall, even if just on television. The average person would have gotten their "fix" and would be ready to move on to the more traditional calendar. It sounds ridiculous to think about this too, but families are still going to go on vacations in the spring and early summer too regardless of what sports are being played. You stand to lose players and fans to spring break, the timing of which varies from school to school of course. And before you scoff at that notion, do two things; ask a spring sport coach what the most annoying thing about playing in the spring is, most will tell you it is navigating spring break. Secondly, look at how many people still traveled this past spring break as we went from 0 to 100 on restrictions, because I can tell you in our area it was a lot of folks. Do I still have an appetite for football in the spring? Hell yes! I tried to watch every AAF and XFL game I could. My wife, who I would say is a more casual fan even though she is more rabid than most, on the other hand? Her appetite is not near as strong. She's ready to garden come the spring. I have to remind myself sometimes that most folks out there just don't care as much about football as I/we do. They have other concerns in life. They love football when it's on, but they can, will, and do survive just fine without it. As with all this, I could be wrong; may interest skyrockets, but I don't think it's a slam dunk. To the second comment, at this point, I'm afraid that even if "social distancing" is done away with tomorrow, you are still going to have a significant portion of the population who will continue these practices out of fear for their health, whether they are told the threat is mitigated or not. That portion of the population may "social distance" for years, which is their right of course. My fear is that that portion of the population may be bigger than any of us realize.

Stax, that is all well and good, and I totally understand the financial end of it. That is the only reason I would be on board with a switch would be the financial aspects. Its unfortunate, but I get it. What I think gets lost is that again, for safety reasons, I think you would have to mirror that same schedule (6 games, no bye weeks, etc) in the fall of 2021.

Saying "if Timmy plays baseball but wants to play football... let him" seems pretty simplistic to me. I'm not sure I've ever said anything about adapt and survive, but I certainly have the best interest of kids at heart. That doesn't mean that I'm going to be in favor of some radical plan that creates more problems than it solves. Thankfully, for all of us, in not anywhere near the decision making process on this one.

This is just not this simple. What are you considering a majority? Like farmerfran said, 1-3A is going to be largely a no go for this. I'd bet that the bottom half of 4A would struggle with this too. Also, it is about the coaches too. If you offer both at the same time, you will also have coaches that have to choose which sport they will coach, and those choices at a lot of smaller schools will take the decision out of Timmy's hands.

I would be curious as to what percentage of schools in the state actually have a roster of 80+

I'm not saying I buy any of it, but I don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Sorry, didn't finish my thought as can't edit for some reason. The rest of that thought is ...but is it fair to those traditional spring sports athletes?

So let's run this scenario through; the IHSAA flips like Ohio's governing body has proposed, spring sports in the fall, fall in the spring. Another wave of this hits in the fall, as some have projected it will, and schools are forced again to close as well as the cancellation of all sports to be played in the fall, which if we flip would be the traditional spring sports. So, in essence, traditional spring sports see a full two season loss of competition. That would be awful, but would we be okay with this versus the loss of a traditional fall sport season? Financially, many would say yes because football is a big revenue producer...

At the expense of the bodies of those underclassmen going through essentially two seasons in 9 months? Comparing it to this off season being shortened isn't applicable when you consider the total recovery time from last year to this year is still roughly the same, kids just can't be involved in "traditional" off-season conditioning. Look, at the end of the day it's like Sophie's choice and I don't want to miss out on any time, but I would rather say let's postpone the start of the season to after labor day and cut a week or two off of the regular season to see if that gives us enough clearance for the powers that be rather than put the long term health of those underclassmen on the line. If they were to flip, I would want a schedule that is more along the lines of a 2 week "camp," a 5 week regular season, and then start the tournament. Then, in the fall of 2021, something very similar, but maybe a bit more extended, say perhaps a 7 week regular season. No, it's not full seasons. No, coaches aren't going to like it, but I mean, if we're going to think "outside the box" it needs to be a little more than "let's just flip the fall and spring sport seasons." Play a 9 week regular season, plus a tournament from March to May and then another 9 week regular season plus a tournament from late August to November? That's at least 20 games in 9 months, 30 in 10 if you advance very far in the tournament. That would have been a bit much for me in high school, and all I did was play football by the time I was an upperclassman. It's all a nightmare regardless...

Has anyone else been watching these on social media? Some of them are pretty spot on and funny. https://youtu.be/Ej8E0fj9Qj8

Out of the box, sure, but selfishly from a football standpoint I still don't like it long term. As a track coach, I really don't even like this either, for the short term or the long term. I can see where it makes sense for some sports in the short term, but still don't think its worth it. I'm assuming other Fall sports, like volleyball and cross country, would also be moved to the spring?

I would argue just that. And sorry, for some reason I referred to you as psaboy in my previous post.

psa, you may be completely correct in terms of the official relationship between the two, CFP and NCAA, but my best guess would be that the two work for what is mutually beneficial for both organizations. And by "mutually beneficial" I mean "what makes us the most money..." Again, there may not be any "official" dollars coming to the NCAA from the CFP, but it probably is not going to take a lot of connecting the dots to find some "unofficial" or ancillary dollars.