Annual Thoughts on Rotating Semi State Matchups

[Basementbias]

Would anyone be in favor of a 3 year rotation? Example would be 2A Regional winner of Sectionals champs 33/34 plays Regional winner of 35/36 in year one (37/38 vs 39/40); year 2 33/34 plays 37/38 & 35/36 plays 39/40; year 3 33/34 plays 39/40 & 35/36 plays 37/38.

Easier example if this year's 4 teams made it 3 in a row: Year 1 Andrean vs AC & Lapel vs BC; Year 2 Andrean vs Lapel & AC vs BC; Year 3 Andrean vs BC & AC vs Lapel;

[BLACKGOLD2007]

Playing neutral site games? If team like Penn were playing Center Grove, mid way point would be Kokomo. I am not sure if this works out well for the smaller schools where you could have a team down in Evansville playing a team from South Bend. Might as well as save that for the state title game. 

I think this would be better for regionals. Where sectional 1 could rotate and play 2,3 and 4 every 3 seasons. This shakes things up a little. I under stand they are trying to even out travel, but in a large number of situations regional games are 1.5-2 hrs away. 

 

[Basementbias]

10 minutes ago, BLACKGOLD2007 said:

Playing neutral site games? If team like Penn were playing Center Grove, mid way point would be Kokomo. I am not sure if this works out well for the smaller schools where you could have a team down in Evansville playing a team from South Bend. Might as well as save that for the state title game. 

I think this would be better for regionals. Where sectional 1 could rotate and play 2,3 and 4 every 3 seasons. This shakes things up a little. I under stand they are trying to even out travel, but in a large number of situations regional games are 1.5-2 hrs away. 

 

Yes neutral sites as well. Unless you want to be like Iowa that makes 2 trips to UNI. That would have to be something discussed by LOS & IHSAA. 

[Coach Nowlin]

So you want to do what Basketball does and redraws the tournament after sectionals to determine different regional ?    I find that to be silly personally 

[Basementbias]

19 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

So you want to do what Basketball does and redraws the tournament after sectionals to determine different regional ?    I find that to be silly personally 

Not different regionals. Those are the same. Just be a different semi state matchup each year.

[hhpatriot04]

I personally just think no team in Marion County or adjacent should be allowed to host a semi-state. That would fix things. They already get to sleep in their beds for state (if they want).

[HoopsCoach]

10 hours ago, Basementbias said:

Would anyone be in favor of a 3 year rotation? Example would be 2A Regional winner of Sectionals champs 33/34 plays Regional winner of 35/36 in year one (37/38 vs 39/40); year 2 33/34 plays 37/38 & 35/36 plays 39/40; year 3 33/34 plays 39/40 & 35/36 plays 37/38.

Easier example if this year's 4 teams made it 3 in a row: Year 1 Andrean vs AC & Lapel vs BC; Year 2 Andrean vs Lapel & AC vs BC; Year 3 Andrean vs BC & AC vs Lapel;

The travel is prohibitive to your suggestion in my opinion.  This year, you could have semi-state games between SB St. Joseph and Heritage Hills, and Knox and Gibson Southern.  If you’ve read my other material, you know I am in favor of neutral sites for each round after sectional, but even with centrally located neutral sites, this would require some significant travel that deters fans from attending.  Mixing things up for the regional is probably more likely and more practical, especially since the IHSAA already does it for volleyball and basketball, but I agree with Coach Nowlin, it is silly.  The IHSAA does not care about travel, or the cost of travel to schools and their fans, so this is probably something they would legitimately consider.  Splitting the semi-states into north and south just makes sense in Indiana because the potential north-south distances between opponents can be much greater than the east-west distances.

Edited November 18, 2025 by HoopsCoach
Typo

[oldtimeqb]

11 hours ago, hhpatriot04 said:

I personally just think no team in Marion County or adjacent should be allowed to host a semi-state. That would fix things. They already get to sleep in their beds for state (if they want).

I have pointed this out before. Both HH and GS potentially have to make 2.5 hour trips in successive weekends should they win Semi State. 

Gibson had to do it in 2021 and Memorial in 2017 as well. 

But if we’re adding rules, no team should get to host 4 of 5 tournament games at home. That would be my first change. 

[hhpatriot04]

10 hours ago, oldtimeqb said:

I have pointed this out before. Both HH and GS potentially have to make 2.5 hour trips in successive weekends should they win Semi State. 

Gibson had to do it in 2021 and Memorial in 2017 as well. 

But if we’re adding rules, no team should get to host 4 of 5 tournament games at home. That would be my first change. 

It was said a bit tongue and cheek, but maybe there's some merit to it. I'd be interested to see what statistical advantage teams within one hour to LoS over those from farther away.