The “good” teams floor is like 5-5 because of all the mismatch games, which IMO hold them back from winning where it counts in the playoffs and the “bad” teams can’t have a foundation to build on because they aren’t in a position right now to compete with the teams that have established programs. TV and Stras Vegas and the Vern have all had historical success during the Martini and Hurst and Tucci regimes so it can be done. But they may need a breather to have room to grow. IV didn’t establish a winning culture until they got away from Dover Phila Cambridge and Coshocton in the ECOL.
Lazy ADs from all the schools are hurting their own programs because half don’t want to get surgical with their scheduling and the other half are content to not challenge themselves and stand on the shoulders of midgets to call themselves tall.
One of the main problems the IVC has is they created two divisions based on enrollment with the idea that enrollment is what determines the quality of a football program. There are plenty of leagues that are dominated by schools in the bottom half of enrollment within that league and plenty of schools that have enrollment advantages but they don't dominate their league.
Instead of focusing on enrollment as the key factor, maybe the key factors should be football tradition, facilities, support from the admin and community, the football culture of the school, etc. Those have way more to do with the success of a football program than enrollment.
I posted this last summer and I will repost it here. I would be a huge fan if the IVC completely eliminated divisions and based their schedule off of a results based formula similar to what the MAC does. Why even be in the same league if you never play each other? That makes no sense at all.
So in the example below the schools are divided into four tiers
based on the number of IVC wins over the last two seasons. I made this example prior to the 2020 season so the tiers would change a bit but you get the basic idea. These tiers would be updated every two years so you guarantee home and home games.
The scheduling formula would be that you play 8 IVC games that would include the other two teams within your tier and then you play all three teams in two other tiers. The tiers are assigned so that
the top three programs over the last two seasons do not play the bottom three programs over the last two seasons.
Theoretically, this would make it so the top programs all get to play each other (providing better competition) and the bottom programs all get to play each other (providing them a chance to build their programs). As your program has more success you build up to higher tiers and your schedule gets tougher.
So for example, this is how the tiers would have been like for the 2020 season based off IVC wins over the 2018 & 2019 season.
Tier One (Plays Tier Two and Tier Three)
Ridgewood - 13
Indian Valley - 12
Sandy Valley - 12
Tier Two (Plays Tier One and Tier Four)
Garaway - 10
Buckeye Trail - 8
East Canton - 8
Tier Three (Plays Tier One and Tier Four)
TCC - 6
Tusky Valley - 5
Malvern - 5
Tier Four (Plays Tier Two and Tier Three)
Newcomerstown - 3
Claymont - 1
Strasburg - 0
Schedules - 8 Games (2 in your tier + 6 based on standings)
Ridgewood (4,5,6,7,8,9) - Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern
Indian Valley (4,5,6,7,8,9) - Ridgewood, Sandy Valley, Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern
Sandy Valley (4,5,6,7,8,9) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern
Garaway - (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
Buckeye Trail - (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, Garaway, East Canton, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
East Canton - (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, Garaway, Buckeye Trail, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
TCC (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, Tusky Valley, Malvern, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
Tusky Valley (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, TCC, Malvern, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
Malvern (1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12) - Ridgewood, Indian Valley, Sandy Valley, TCC, Tusky Valley, Newcomerstown, Claymont, Strasburg
Newcomerstown (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) - Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern, Claymont, Strasburg
Claymont (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) - Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern, Newcomerstown, Strasburg
Strasburg (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) - Garaway, Buckeye Trail, East Canton, TCC, Tusky Valley, Malvern, Newcomerstown, Claymont
You can all look at your team's schedule based on the idea and see what you would think of it. I feel like in most cases the schedule would be better than it is now or at worse the same. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm sure the same concept could be refined and made better but this was just a starting point I came up with based on MAC scheduling.
I would say this schedule has huge plusses for teams like Tusky Valley, Strasburg, Claymont and TCC because it gives them all 4 games they should be able to reasonably compete in and maybe win. Maybe that could help get these programs back on their feet and would make the league belter as a whole.
I would also say this is a better schedule for probably 9 or 10 of the teams. There are a few that it would be tougher for but once again it's only for two years.
It's also better for the AD's because they only need to find 2 non conference games and you get an additional game vs. a local team (week 3) that will likely provide good attendance as it will be IVC vs IVC in good weather.