The final four among each IHSAA football enrollment class battled for a trip to Lucas Oil Stadium. I finished my picks (only predicted one school in Class 5A) at a near-even won-loss record of 10 wins and 11 losses.
Class 1A: 1 win, 3 losses; North Judson was my only correct pick.
Class 2A: 2-2; Indianapolis Lutheran and Adams Central, two team who battled for the state title the previous two seasons in Class 1A, landed in the final four, but I expected Lafayette Central Catholic to topple Andrean. I did not pick Linton (South).
Class 3A: 1-3; Garrett was my only correct pick. While I’m not surprised they battled Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, I did not pick the latter to play in last night’s clash. I expected an Evansville school to be one of the South’s semifinalists. Dare I leave out Heritage Hills? I did, and the 1-3 record shows.
Class 4A: 3-1; My boldest pick was New Palestine, who toppled reigning 3A state champion Bishop Chatard out of Indy, who is now in Class 4A due to tournament success factor (TSF) results. East Noble and Mishawaka landed where I thought they would.
Class 5A: 1-0; I only picked Merrillville to semi-state, but this was the only slot I picked. My brain and heart were conflicting among the others. Before Friday night’s action, Decatur Central, the Class 5A runner-up, was still alive; not surprised. East Central, after much Class 4A TSF success, was knocked out of the regionals a week ago.
Class 6A: 2-2; I was clean in the North and murky in the South. Crown Point and Westfield had a rematch of 2023’s semistate last night, and Brownsburg beat Lawrence North, whom I thought would still be unbeaten and in the final four facing Warren Central (beaten by Center Grove).
There were five teams among the six classes advancing to semistate with at least four regular season losses: South Adams (8-5), Andrean (9-4), Luers (9-4), Bloomington South (8-4), and Center Grove (8-4). No team in 4A had more than two losses.
Each of the teams mentioned with four losses share a tough regular season in common among each other. Warsaw (9-3) battled tough non-conference competition and had to regroup midseason for a six-game winning streak en route to the final four. Its schedule was filled with teams who make them work. Center Grove, Andrean, and Luers are three other semistate qualifiers who could some of the toughest schedules in the field.
Ohio State’s starting center is done for the season, giving my gut the feeling November will be a month of more reckoning. While fellow Buckeye fans are telling me not to worry because our schedule was tougher so far than Indian University’s schedule to date, the Hoosiers have been beating teams as convincingly as they should have. The same cannot be said for my Buckeyes.
My smug commentary about welcoming the Hoosiers into first class might be thrown back toward me. Even so, let’s see if Coach Cignetti can make this approach of transfer portal recruiting and a culture of overflowing confidence work into the 2030s.
Today, though, a 27-21 Hoosier victory is my prediction.
There is a contagion of resiliency at Warsaw. The week following my article heralding the Warsaw Lady Tigers, their first quarter 19-5 deficit earlier this week contradicted everything I noted we’d enjoy about them this season.
With my prediction record, and my smug talk about Ohio State I was worried I might have jinxed our Lady Tigers. The cagers didn’t take long to relieve me from worrying.
The defense still regrouped before the opening quarter’s end, and they outscored Valparaiso 68-52 en route to an overtime win in the Tiger Den. Our Class 5A regional football champion Tigers showed the same resiliency on the two previous Friday nights, and on their regular season journey getting past two straight losses that landed them at 3-3 in late September.
I’m looking forward to seeing some of this rub off on each of our winter sports teams in the Lake City. It will soothe the pain of my month of reckoning related to football predictions.
Have a safe, happy Thanksgiving. If you have not already shopped for Christmas gifts, a money-saving tip would be to talk about lots of politics and religion at your Thanksgiving gatherings, possibly reducing the amount of money you’ll spend on Black Friday.