Week 15 NW Indiana HS Football Picks

'Mr. Picker' WEEK 15, 2010 Football Picks in Review: 38th Indiana State Football Tournament Nov. 26-27, State Championship games Wrong - 0; Right - 5 = 100.0%
The Pick	The Result
(1A) Lafayette Catholic 42, Fountain Central 7	Lafayette Catholic 31-6
(2A) Bishop Luers 56, North Putnam 21	Bishop Luers 26-14
(3A) Bishop Chatard 30, St, Joseph's 28	Bishop Chatard 28-14
(4A) Cathedral 37, Bishop Dwenger 28	Cathedral 31, Bishop Dwenger 20
(5A) Fishers 36, Lawrence Central 27	Fishers 38, Lawrence C. 19

2010, Week-15: 5 of 5 = 100.0%
2010, Week-14: 9 of 10 = 90.0%
2010, Week-13: 10 of 14 = 71.4%
2010, Week-12: 8 of 14 = 57.1%
2010, Week-11: 17 of 20 = 85.0%
2010, Week-10: 22 of 28 = 78.5%
2010, Week-9: 8 of 10 = 80.0%
2010, Week-8: 4 of 10 = 40.0%
2010, Week-7: 10 of 11 = 90.9%
2010, Week-6: 5 of 9 = 55.0%
2010, Week-5: 5 of 10 = 50.0%
2010, Week-4: 8 of 10 = 80.0%
2010, Week-3: 8 of 11 = 72.7%
2010, Week-2: 8 of 10 = 80.0%
2010, Week-1: 8 of 12 = 66.7%
2010 Regular Season: 64 of 93 = 68.8%
2010 Playoffs: 71 of 91 = 78.0%
2010 Overall Season: 135 of 184 = 73.3%

WEEK FIFTEEN (15) Analysis: Five state championship games. Five correct picks. Can't brag here though, because you don't have to be Nostradamus to pick Catholic schools to win high school state football titles in Indiana. Trust me: No one picked Fountain Central and North Putnam to win last week. Indoors, the passing teams like Cathedral and Fishers did well, although St. Joseph's throws the ball a lot more than Chatard does. There does have to be a change in the way Catholic schools are slotted in the state tournament. There's nothing wrong with Cathedral and Bishop Chatard winning all the time during the regular season and I don't want to change that. But there shouldn't be any private schools in Class 1A football. It's just too big a mismatch. If Lafayette Catholic was 2A, Bishop Luers was 3A, Chatard was 4A and Cathedaral was 5A, things would be fair. Private and charter schools recruit. Not just football players but all students. They have an advantage. Level the playing field with a multiplier or move everyone up a class (there are no private or charter schools in Class 5A) and let them compete against larger public schools. The best pick of the finals: Fishers over Lawrence Central by a score that was somewhat close to the prediction. Picking 14 of the last 15 correctly boosts the final totals over last year's numbers. A 78% post-season is one of the best in 'Mr. Picker' history.

Mr. Picker (Through the Years)
2010 (final) OVERALL: 135 of 184 = 73.3%
2009 (final) OVERALL: 154 of 212 = 72.6%
2008 (final) OVERALL: 145 of 193 = 75.1%
2007 (final) OVERALL: 143 of 188 = 76.0%
2006 (final) OVERALL: 166 of 217 = 76.4%
2005 (final) OVERALL: 170 of 233 = 72.9%

A LOOK AHEAD (12-1-2010): Looking ahead, Cathedral halfback Ryan Kleinschmidt (41 caries, 247 yards), who ran for 4 TDs against St. Joseph's in the title game, returns next year. Lafayette Catholic has several skill position players that return, has won 30 games in a row and it will be tough to stop them.

Locally Valparaiso, Munster and Crown Point return starting quarterbacks and Morton returns half a starting QB. The Governors alternated QBs all season. Valpo also returns star halfback Andrew Kittridge, while Andrean returns 1,000-yard rusher Mason Zurek. Valpo, Chesterton and CP all return top kickers.

But the bigger news will be made off the field when the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) realigns the classes for the first time in two years. There are only three certainties. One is that East Chicago will drop from 5A to 4A. There is only one scenario in which they won't. Also Lew Wallace and Gary Roosevelt will drop from 4A to 3A.

There are not enough smaller schools (like Boone Grove) coming into the playoff grid (5 classes and six weeks of playoffs) to keep the two shrinking Gary schools in 4A. All Gary public schools are losing students to Bowman Academy and all Gary schools lost students to Merrillville and Portage. That's been going on for years. The third certainty is that Boone Grove, in its second year of football, moves into 2A sectional 25 for their playoff debut.

The first big question is: Will Lowell move from 4A Sectional 10 to the much weaker 4A Sectional nine? If Roosevelt and Wallace leave 4A altogether and East Chicago drops into 4A, that leaves a slot open in 4A Sectional nine, which Lowell could fill. Lowell would be a slight favorite over Morton in Sectional 9 next season. They would not be the favorite in Sectional 10.

But the second big question changes everything. Eventually, although the IHSAA has not allowed a vote on this, there will be a Class 6A. There must be. The six week, five class format only allows for 320 teams. There were 315 football playing schools in the post-season. The IHSAA could go to six classes now with the final class having just 32 teams. It would reinvigorate a system which has become stale because Catholic schools win all the time.

The top-32 teams enrollment-wise in the state are all public schools. That 6A class could play all its post-season games on Saturday, creating a 'Main Event' event of high school football, which could be televised state-wide for cash and profit.

There is talk of a rule that would move any two-time, back-to-back private school champs (Bishop Luers, Lafayette Catholic) up a notch for the next two years, but I can't see that passing. The option of moving all private (and charter) schools up one class for the post-season is always available and it would end the debate. But the IHSAA is full of old people who are very conservative and they go out of their way to slow down any change. Odds are good, nothing will be done at all.

The good news is that Valparaiso will play Carmel next season for the first time and the Warren Central-Merrillville series will continue, and the week one game will be held on a Saturday night in Merrillville. High school football is alive and well in NW Indiana, but until the IHSAA solves the problem of private schools winning state titles half of the time, the sport takes a distant back seat to basketball.