Indy Star article

[whiteshoes]

The Star had an article about what you would do as IHSAA commissioner.    I would only deal with football, but here would be my actions.

- Allow for the creation of "Coop" schools.   These would consist of schools too small to have a football team now yet merging with another local small school would permit them to field a team each season.  I have always thought that a Loogootee/Barr Reeve football team would be a tough Class A assignment.  I may be wrong, but Indiana may be the only state that is not doing this.

- Semi-States would be double-headers on Saturday at neutral sites, using large high school or small college fields.

- Seeding the tournament after sectionals.   This idea is really gaining support throughout the country.

- Similar to what Arizona has been doing for several years and Florida is starting to do next year, at the end of each season the eight best teams would play in an "Open" division.   We could reduce class size back to five (eliminating Class 6A).

After that day, I would retire and enjoy my football season.

[Irishman]

I cannot disagree with anything here. But would add that while I support coop teams, I am just not sure it would be as popular as some may think. Indiana school districts have been consolidating for decades now. I think the schools not having football are mostly rural schools, where students already have a long drive to and from school. I am curious how far some would have to drive to be on a team that does coop? I can still support the idea of it though along with adding more 8 man teams. 
I think there is a lot of support for neutral sites and I would like to see it move to that. 
Interesting idea for seeding after sectionals. Travel is already an issue when you reach that point. That has been a key issue with seeding on a larger scale. 
I think California does an open division as well. 

[whiteshoes]

17 minutes ago, Irishman said:

I cannot disagree with anything here. But would add that while I support coop teams, I am just not sure it would be as popular as some may think. Indiana school districts have been consolidating for decades now. I think the schools not having football are mostly rural schools, where students already have a long drive to and from school. I am curious how far some would have to drive to be on a team that does coop? I can still support the idea of it though along with adding more 8 man teams. 
I think there is a lot of support for neutral sites and I would like to see it move to that. 
Interesting idea for seeding after sectionals. Travel is already an issue when you reach that point. That has been a key issue with seeding on a larger scale. 
I think California does an open division as well. 

California has an "Open Division", but it is a two-team, one game structure.   Each of the state divisions have different classes and at the end of divisional play, a board assigns a team to a "Bowl Game" which is designated by Class and Division.   Since the creation of the "Open Division" in 2015, the game has usually been the winner of the Southern Section representing the south part of the state and Concord De La Sale representing the northern section of the state.   I really do not like their setup as the Southern Section has too many great teams in it and they are eliminated by each other early.   That section includes Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, Corona Centennial, Mission Viejo, Anaheim Servite and Orange Lutheran.  They then have fourteen games with teams no one has heard of.

[WWFan]

Coop is a nah....mentions Barr reeve and loogootee but they have enrollments of 278 and 225 respectively. Barr reeve has enough on its own if it wanted to (it never will). But would you classify them with enrollment of 503? 

[BTF]

The only problem I have with the Open Division is that some very good football teams are going to have their season ended after one week. I'm not a big fan of that. When you have a really good team, you earn your right to advance and play more football. That being said, I do think that being picked as one of the best eight is an achievement in itself. If you're a good team in the current format and bow out early, no one will remember you. If you're picked as one of the top eight, like the College Fooball Playoff, you'll always be remembered for reaching that elite level. And let's be honest, if you're one of the eight best teams in the state of Indiana, you deserve to be remembered. Let's pick on Heritage Hills for a minute. No one outside their community will remember what they did this year. However, if they made the Top 8, then that team will never be forgotten by a large portion of the football community. 

[Basementbias]

I would seed the tournament but not just sectional, but by regional. You would have 3 sectional games and a sectional championship still. I would make the higher seed be the host so 1 seed could host every round of sectional and the regional. Semi State would be neutral fields and different semi state matchups 3 years. So basically year 1 is NW vs NE & SW vs SE. Year 2 NW vs SE & NE vs SW and year 3 NW vs SW & NE vs SE.

[psaboy]

On 12/26/2024 at 12:08 PM, BTF said:

The only problem I have with the Open Division is that some very good football teams are going to have their season ended after one week. I'm not a big fan of that. When you have a really good team, you earn your right to advance and play more football. That being said, I do think that being picked as one of the best eight is an achievement in itself. If you're a good team in the current format and bow out early, no one will remember you. If you're picked as one of the top eight, like the College Fooball Playoff, you'll always be remembered for reaching that elite level. And let's be honest, if you're one of the eight best teams in the state of Indiana, you deserve to be remembered. Let's pick on Heritage Hills for a minute. No one outside their community will remember what they did this year. However, if they made the Top 8, then that team will never be forgotten by a large portion of the football community. 

Would this be the top 8 from all classes, or top 8 from each class? If all classes, I can see the (8) picked to be mostly Indy area teams, I would then check out from watching/paying to watch the last few games. 

[BTF]

3 hours ago, psaboy said:

Would this be the top 8 from all classes, or top 8 from each class? If all classes, I can see the (8) picked to be mostly Indy area teams, I would then check out from watching/paying to watch the last few games. 

Top 8 teams regardless of class. The rest would play in their respective class.

[psaboy]

1 hour ago, BTF said:

Top 8 teams regardless of class. The rest would play in their respective class.

Doesn't sound too appealing to me. Is CA the only state that has the format? If so, maybe because of the massive amounts of high schools??

[BTF]

2 minutes ago, psaboy said:

Doesn't sound too appealing to me. Is CA the only state that has the format? If so, maybe because of the massive amounts of high schools??

I really don't know. I wasn't the one to brought it to the table. Not sure I really like the idea. The best team in the state of Indiana is normally narrowed down to three teams. So the other 5 teams are really playing for second place. I'm not sure that's fair to the 5A program who would have otherwise won the championship in their class. Doesn't really matter though, the IHSAA would never do that.

[Rodney]

On 12/26/2024 at 9:59 AM, whiteshoes said:

The Star had an article about what you would do as IHSAA commissioner.   

I think it would be great for everyone involved if I were to take this role on.

 

here is my priority list for when I become the emperor of indiana football

 

1. remove the mercy rule

2. add 6 more weeks of football

3. all playoff games become a best of three.

4. 1 zebra per game and he has to officiate from the parking lot

 

[BTF]

16 hours ago, Rodney said:

I think it would be great for everyone involved if I were to take this role on.

 

here is my priority list for when I become the emperor of indiana football

 

1. remove the mercy rule

2. add 6 more weeks of football

3. all playoff games become a best of three.

4. 1 zebra per game and he has to officiate from the parking lot

 

I can get on board with the first three. 

1.  No issues with that. We survived years without it. 

2. One hundred percent yes. Season would just now be getting over. 

3. No one could claim that, "you may have won, but we beat you guys 9 times out of 10." So yeah. Am I to presume there'll be one game Friday, one Saturday, and one Sunday? 

4. I think we need refs Rodney. I support you for emperor, but we may need to come to a compromise on this one to earn my vote. 

[CoachGallogly]

California…due to its massive population does not have state tournaments. Schools are broken into regions, with a few classes in each, and they have tournaments just with their region. 
 

The Open Division tournament setup is simply to try to have a consensus state champ. Nothing to do with enrollment or P/P issues. 
 

California is more than 5.5x the size of Indiana. The size of a state tourney is kinda off the table unless you have 25 classes. 

Edited January 2, 2025 by CoachGallogly

[PHJIrish]

My one wish would be to lengthen the overtime yardage to at least 15 yards to enable a team to get a first down.

[Sparty]

1 hour ago, CoachGallogly said:

California…due to its massive population does not have state tournaments. Schools are broken into regions, with a few classes in each, and they have tournaments just with their region. 
 

The Open Division tournament setup is simply to try to have a consensus state champ. Nothing to do with enrollment or P/P issues. 
 

California is more than 5.5x the size of Indiana. The size of a state tourney is kinda off the table unless you have 25 classes. 

Indiana would have to start the state finals on Halloween or Labor Day.  

[Rodney]

7 hours ago, BTF said:

I can get on board with the first three. 

1.  No issues with that. We survived years without it. 

2. One hundred percent yes. Season would just now be getting over. 

3. No one could claim that, "you may have won, but we beat you guys 9 times out of 10." So yeah. Am I to presume there'll be one game Friday, one Saturday, and one Sunday? 

4. I think we need refs Rodney. I support you for emperor, but we may need to come to a compromise on this one to earn my vote. 

there will be a ref, were just going to chain him to a light post in the parking lot

[BTF]

1 minute ago, Rodney said:

there will be a ref, were just going to chain him to a light post in the parking lot

I'm on board, but that's AFTER the game.