NECC Football Divisional play

[jims]

Fremont AD Roger Probst is making a case next month to move the NECC football conference to two divisions, based on the size of the schools. Under his plan, teams in each division would not have to play each other, though some inter-division matchups, like Fremont-Angola or PH-Lakeland could remain. The additional non-conference games could be used to schedule like-sized schools.

The competitive gap between teams certainly seems to have grown in the past few years, witness the Fairfield-PH sectional score and several Lakeland, Fairfield and 'Busco games from the past year. This also seems to hurt the "big dogs," come sectional time, since suddenly playing 3A and 4A competition seems like a shock to the system, witness Lakeland and Angola's recent playoff records.

How does everyone feel about this idea?

[james_t]

Why not just make it two conferences, then?

[jims]

Probably for the other sports. Probst said under his plan, two conference champions would be crowned.

[Omar Mudd]

The current system is not doing anything to prepare the larger schools for sectional time. It sets them up for failure at the end of the year.

Ask Bishop Luers about the benefits of a more rigorous regular season schedule.
They took a few ***** whuppins and grew into a much better team.

[TheBigB]

I'm a bit confused. Didn't they used to have a 2-division setup back when Garrett was still in the conference? And exactly how would this have prevented Churubusco (the second smallest school in the conference) running roughshod over the rest of the small division schools? How did its large size work out for West Noble this year? Was it that extra edge over Central Noble and Prairie Heights?

So let's at the current numbers, based on last year's enrollment (I think):

Angola: 939 (4A)
West Noble: 730 (3A)
Lakeland: 699 (3A)
Fairfield: 582 (2A)
Prairie Heights: 519 (2A)
Central Noble: 468 (2A)
Eastside: 460 (2A)
Churubusco: 423 (1A)
Fremont: 413 (1A)

Where do you draw the line? The Big 4 and the Little 5?

I think the real issue here isn't competitiveness, but the schedule. A nine-team conference means that you can only schedule one non-conference game, and that simply isn't enough to allow for those like-sized games. As long as Angola is 4A they should play more than one 4A game a year, and Lakeland should probably pick up an extra 3A game. So really, it isn't a bad idea.

I think a better idea might be unloading a team from the overly large NECC, though. Fairfield is probably the best candidate to move geographically, but there really is nowhere for them to go. It seems like they'd be at home in the Northern State, but they'd run into the 9-team conference problem there. Perhaps one of the Northern State teams could be shuffled off to the Hoosier Conference, but three team dances never happen.

The whole "everybody makes the playoffs" philosophy is what *really* is wrong here. This isn't basketball. The old point system didn't work that well because some good teams were being left out, but if they only took half the teams and eliminated the first round, I don't think they'd miss out on much.

[jims]

They did have a two-division set-up when Garrett was there.

As for Busco, you're totally correct, there's no way to keep them out of a "small school," division.

Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about what each division would be named. It would seem to me that you would have to use color designations, as anything else (letters, numbers) implies superiority, and the divisions would likely be a mess geographically. Something like the NECC White and NECC Blue (for Trine) or NECC Crimson and NECC Gold (for IU and Purdue).

[TheBigB]

Another thing to consider is the stability of a school's classification.

Angola, at least for the foreseeable future, is going to be hopping between 3A and 4A in football. They will *never* be competitive on a state level in 4A (could you see them ever beating Dwenger?), so the focus should be on being a strong 3A team.

Both Lakeland and West Noble are solidly in the middle of 3A in terms of population, so that is probably what they always will be. Fairfield is near the top of 2A, so they may very well end up 3A some years (though I have no idea of the population flux in that area - maybe that is not where they are trending). Nonetheless, it is pretty clear there is a clean cut to make there with the big 4.

There is nothing sacrosanct about the NECC football crown, so I see no reason why Probst's proposal should be turned down on the basis of that. The main barrier is filling out those non-conference schedules. Let's take Angola, for example. They'd probably keep Fremont and Heights on the schedule, but where do they find 3 extra non-conference games (assuming Dekalb stays on the schedule). Would East Noble, Carroll, Norwell, New Haven, etc. all end up with free games to play them? Probably not.

There will always be a disconnect between classification and geographical-based conferences, and I'm not sure there is a good solution to that.

[photoboy]

Let's also remember that Central Noble football had to go all the way to East Chicago to fill a void in the schedule when they lost Culver Military on the schedule. Do we really want our teams traveling that far just because it's the only team they can get on the schedule. Most teams schedule their games years in advance. I don't see them picking up any close teams anytime soon.

[Thorman]

.....

I think a better idea might be unloading a team from the overly large NECC, though. Fairfield is probably the best candidate to move geographically, but there really is nowhere for them to go. It seems like they'd be at home in the Northern State, but they'd run into the 9-team conference problem there. Perhaps one of the Northern State teams could be shuffled off to the Hoosier Conference, but three team dances never happen.

Fairfield was in the Northern State Conference in the early 1970s but left to join the NECC. The Northern State Conference has 6 teams ranging from Elkhart County (Jimtown) to Marshall County (Triton) to Starke County (Knox). If makes no sense for them to join that conference.

Perhaps, though, if Fairfield did leave the NECC, Angola would have a chance at winning a conference championship. I don't see Angola ever defeating Fairfield, Busco, and Lakeland to win a championship. The football program is just not good enough. Under the old two division system, all Angola had to do was defeat either Lakeland or Garrett to earn a tie, assuming the losing school defeated the other one. 3-1 was a guaranteed championship. Let's be honest, what does that really mean? Winning it now actually means your team is the conference champion.

I cannot imagine Fremont's plan being adopted.

[TheBigB]

I cannot imagine Fremont's plan being adopted.

I guess not.

Plus, more non-conference games would likely mean more travel overall, something that is a hard sell.

Besides, Bishop Luers has shown time and again that being shut out of the top half of their conference doesn't hurt come playoff time. If anything, it helps.

[kenf]

The need to divide up the conference into divisions and go back to the way the NECC used to be is important for the sake of having the same non-conference dates that a large majority of teams state-wide have (weeks 1, 2, 8 and 9) and to upgrade the schedule. When your non-conference game is played in weeks 3-7, you have a hard time finding opponents because a large majority of the state is playing conference games in that stretch. That is why Prairie Heights played Caston and Connersville, Churubusco played Bowman Academy, Fremont has played Flora Carroll and a couple of the schools played Culver Academy.

I got an idea to help things along. But because it can make things tougher on scheduling, I'm doubting it. And Fairfield is not leaving the NECC, so get that out of your heads right now.

Here it is: Hamilton leaves the NECC for not being competitive enough and joins the Midland with Lakewood Park, Howe Military, etc. Angola leaves the NECC to be independent because the NHC for whatever reason won't take them. This will challenge AHS athletics more on a regular basis, but is not likely because of their geographic location. Garrett returns to the NECC, and you have a 10-team league for all sports. However, for football, it is nine teams again unless football down the road at Westview is realistic (I don't think so.). Garrett rejoining the NECC is probably not realistic either if the NECC ADs and principals still resent Garrett big-timing them for the ACAC a few years back.

[TheBigB]

And Fairfield is not leaving the NECC, so get that out of your heads right now.

Maybe they should kick them out for running up the score on Prairie Heights.

[Thorman]

The issue of conference re-alignment always comes up every now and then. The situation would all change if and when the East Allen Schools finally decide to close one or two schools, and Ft Wayne Schools close Elmhurst. That would force re-alignment in the ACAC and the SAC which could filter to the north. Huntington North has always wanted to be in the SAC or NHC but has been denied over the years. They at least can go south or west. Angola is stuck in the corner. I agree that they should think independent since creating artificial rivalries is somewhat silly since Angola does not take big crowds on away games. The other schools rarely bring big crowds either. Of course, if Angola would have winning athletic teams that could change.