By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – In a surprising midseason move, the IHSAA Executive Committee voted to adjust the 2023 football playoff format and switched Bedford North Lawrence to Class 4A Sectional 24 for the upcoming postseason.
BNL, which competed in 4A last season after several years in 5A, played in Sectional 23 and won a first-round game against Shelbyville in 2022. After starting this year in Sectional 23, the Stars will now face an eight-team sectional that includes Evansville Bosse, Evansville Central, No.3 Evansville Reitz, Evansville Harrison, No.7 Evansville Memorial (the defending sectional champion), Jasper and Boonville.
The issue was BNL was the timing of the change. The coaching staff spent offseason hours, and scouting plans, to prepare for opponents in Sectional 23. Now those plans must be altered.
“I’m kind of confused by it,” BNL coach Derrick Barker said. “It was a surprise. I’ve never seen anything like this in the middle of the season.
“One of the things in the offseason was determining who we have to beat in our biggest games. We look at the conference first, but then we look at the sectional. Luckily it was done now and not later in the year.”
The unusual IHSAA move, passed by a 17-1 vote (with Charlestown’s Chad Gilbert as the lone opposing vote), can be traced back to the Success Factor rule. Here is the official statement regarding the change:
In April 2022, the IHSAA Executive Committee determined that the eight schools who earned at least one point during the 2021-22 school year to continue playing in a higher classification due to the Tournament Success Factor, would be reevaluated after the 2022-23 school year.
Schools who failed to earn a point during the 2021-22 school year while playing in a higher class were returned to the next lower class for the next two years. This was to prevent schools from playing three consecutive years in a higher classification when their tournament results do not merit that placement.
Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger’s football team was the only school that did not earn a point in 2022-23 and thus drops from Class 5A to their enrollment class of Class 4A, which leaves only three teams in Sectional 12 for the 2023 State Tournament. Bishop Dwenger has been assigned to Sectional 19 which as a result created a domino effect causing Columbia City, Muncie Central, Connersville and Bedford North Lawrence to change sectionals.
Connersville moved into Sectional 23, taking BNL’s spot, along with 4A No.1 East Central (the defending state champion), Martinsvillle, Edgewood, Greenwood, Jennings County, Shelbyville and Silver Creek.
Sectional 24 has been a constant force in the state tournament. Memorial won state titles in 2017 and 2019, Central won a semistate in 2018, and Reitz won state titles in 2007 and 2009.
“It’s not going to be a walk in the park,” Barker said. “And then it adds travel time (to the Evansville area). It will definitely be a new challenge.”
The tournament now features a two-week bye for Class 5 and 6, with only four teams in those sectionals. All the lower classes (except for Class A Sectional 45) have 7 or 8 teams in each sectional.
BNL won its only sectional title (5A) in program history in 2011. The program’s overall postseason record is 12-38.
