IVC 2021

If we’re going to “well ackshually” this, bear in mind Caldwell was a team otherwise 5-4 who BT defeated to make .500 on the year.
So that means the other four victories combined for a total five wins right? That 5-5 Buckeye Trail team also finished 22nd in a region of 27 teams.

But hey, if this is the win TCC fans want to hang their hats on so be it.
 
Week 6 finals

Ridgewood 39 - Tusky Valley 7
Indian Valley 41 - Sandy Valley 7
Garaway 59 - Claymont 14

Malvern 41 - Strassburg 6
Buckeye Trail 44 - TCC14
 
Not 1 game without a running clock…
Unfortunately that's what happens when you have so many bad programs in your league.

Strasburg, Tusky Valley and Claymont are running clock factories and TCC and Newcs are also likely to get running clocked if they play anyone decent.

The gap between the good and bad programs in the IVC is enormous.
 
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.
 
These scores make me question the Ridgewood v Strassburg cancellation even more.

A lot of conferences see major talent gap’s but you should still have the old rivalry rule of anything can happen. Half of the conference is still reeling from the great football numbers shortage. (Recession/No money in) Other programs were not as affected and it shows… It’s also nearly impossible to get the right guy for a program. Football being the most expensive sport to play, it could take awhile to right the ship. Does the IVC wait it out?
 
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.
 
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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.

Here is a chart that shows you the football record for each IVC school since the current seniors were in Kindergarten. This does not include any 2021 results.

New Project (1).jpg


So if you are a senior at TCC, Claymont, Buckeye Trail, Newcomerstown, Tusky Valley and Strasburg all you have ever known from your football program when you were in kindergarten was struggle. Maybe there was a random good year here or there but for the most part there's been nothing to make kids think they wanted to be part of that program.

Meanwhile, if you are at Ridgewood, Garaway or Indian Valley all you've known is success. We can all agree that kids want to be part of programs that are successful correct? So these schools have a huge culture advantage right now.

East Canton, Malvern and Sandy Valley are kind of a mixed bag. Some successes and some failures.

So why not create a scheduling system that guarantees the programs with the strongest football cultures meet on the field each year? Iron sharpens iron and with a 16-team playoff field you benefit way more from playing tough games in September and October even if you lose than enjoying running clocks each week

Also, why not create a scheduling system that allows Strasburg, Tusky Valley, Newcs,,Buckeye Trail ad Claymont to play each year? One or two of them is bound to have success and start building their program and move up through the tiers.
 
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Listen, I think almost everybody agrees that the current two division of the IVC sucks but how about we talk about the big games we have in store this week?

Here are my predictions for the week:

Garaway 20 - Indian Valley 13
Ridgewood 34 - Sandy Valley 6
Claymont 20 - Tusky Valley 7

Newcomerstown 20 - TCC 8
East Canton 34 - Strasburg 0
Malvern 40 - Buckeye Trail 12
 
Listen, I think almost everybody agrees that the current two division of the IVC sucks but how about we talk about the big games we have in store this week?

Here are my predictions for the week:

Garaway 20 - Indian Valley 13
Ridgewood 34 - Sandy Valley 6
Claymont 20 - Tusky Valley 7

Newcomerstown 20 - TCC 8
East Canton 34 - Strasburg 0
Malvern 40 - Buckeye Trail 12
Same but I’d say iv 35-28 and tcc 42-14
 
I think garaway IV will actually be a lower scoring game than people think. Gway’s defense is really good. Gway’s offense is okay. Going to be a good football game.
 
garaway 21 - iv 28
ridgewood 45 - sandy valley 14
claymont 20 - tusky valley 28
newcomerstown 21 - tcc 35
east canton 42 - burg 7
malvern 35 - trail -26
 
Garaway 28-14

Pirates are ranked 6 in state plus Garaway beat this almost same team 34-19 last year. This team IMHO is better then last yrs more balanced and the D is Alot better

Wood 35-14
Claymont 32-26
TCC 34-21
EC. 42-20
Vern 42-26
 
I'll go. with these guesses

Garaway 14 Indian Valley 13
Ridgewood 20 Sandy Valley 6 (Unless Tingle plays and the rest of the team is clear of Covid then add 30 to Ridgewood's score)
Claymont 12 Tusky Valley 6

Malvern 35 Buckeye Trail 6
East Canton 60 Strasburg 6
TCC 20 Newcomerstown 6
 
Well snap then, Indian Valley might as well just stay at home friday if gway is ranked 6th in state. impressive
Not saying they could lose, but I just stated facts. Don't know why you have to have a comment like that maybe I struck a nerve. Not saying i.v couldn't win but I just don't see it happening.
 
Indian Valley’s new stadium looks like it has a lot of seating from the Google map view. What kind of crowd will be expected for Friday night? Will the place fill up? Just trying to get an idea of when to arrive at the game.
 
Indian Valley’s new stadium looks like it has a lot of seating from the Google map view. What kind of crowd will be expected for Friday night? Will the place fill up? Just trying to get an idea of when to arrive at the game.
According to this it holds 3200. I would hope it would be overflowing with two undefeated teams facing off.

 
A couple thoughts from last night.

1. Congrats to Garaway That D must be real It's going to be fun to watch them play Tingle and company.
2. Welcome back Gabe Tingle. Ridgewood is going to get healthy and hit their stride right at week 10 and the playoffs. Going to be fun to watch.
3. Congratulations to Claymont. It feels like forever since we woke up to a Mustang victory. Congratulations.
4. What a sad, sad state of affairs at Tusky Valley.
5. Malvern barely squeaks by a bad Buckeye Trail team? That was a surprise to me.
6. Happy Newcs got to play a game.
 
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