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Post by formerlancer on Sept 6, 2008 22:18:53 GMT -5
So recently, my fiance and her family (who live in Indiana), and myself (I'm from Ohio) have been debating which high school sport is more popular in Indiana, football or basketball.
I am adament that it is basketball, and I don't think it's close, but they feel that football is more popular. They know Indiana better, but I know sports better. Also, I can't see any possible way football is more popular than basketball here.
What do you thinK? Who is right?
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Post by Loucks on Sept 6, 2008 22:31:09 GMT -5
They're kidding, right?
Basketball.
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Post by Kyle Feller on Sept 6, 2008 22:34:13 GMT -5
I did read an article in the Indianapolis Star weeks ago about the High School Football State Tournament selling more tickets last year than the Basketball Tournament.
Before class basketball it wasn't even close, but I'd have to say that in my trips back over the past few years I've seen a major decline in interest for basketball. Thank you IHSAA.........I hope it's worth allowing Lakeview Christian or Jimtown to make runs for a sectional title.
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Post by Whac Daddy on Sept 6, 2008 23:02:04 GMT -5
This may be a tough to explain, but I feel football may bring in more fans for 2 reasons.
There are at minimum 50 players on a high school football team. Add 5 managers, and a band that is showing off their new songs at the start of the school year, and you have a lot of parents and friends attending games when school starts back up.
In contrast, not as many parents for basketball games because there are fewer players, hence fewer "guaranteed" fans in the stands. School has been back in session for awhile, so it isn't the social gathering that the football games are in August and September when some of the high school kids haven't seen their peers since early June.
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Post by Loucks on Sept 6, 2008 23:07:26 GMT -5
Hmm... maybe it's just the part of Indiana that I'm from but basketball reigns supreme. Football is definitely important and has good support, but it doesn't generate the excitement that basketball does.
But, formerlancer, apparently football is more popular in the rest of the state.
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Post by Kyle Feller on Sept 7, 2008 10:32:43 GMT -5
It's a tough question to answer I suppose.
I'm from right in the middle of Marion (7 state titles) Muncie Central (8 state titles) Kokomo (2 state titles) and Anderson (3 state titles?), and even as early as my senior year I noticed a huge difference in attendance. Granted it was lame class basketball, but I remember my last HS Basketball game at South Adams High School and there were probably no more than 2,000 people in the bleachers....it was pathetic.
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Post by clinttjohnson on Sept 7, 2008 16:27:36 GMT -5
Ya see, I don't know that I'm as against class basketball as I was. Seeing Triton win state last year was pretty cool if you ask me! During 1-class basketball it would have meant that they or someone else had beat my Warsaw guys along the way.
What it mainly does is make sectional tournaments be a lot farther away in some cases, and it cuts out the neat inter-county/area rivalries that we had.
The Warsaw/Plymouth regional round games used to be huge, and well attended, though.
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Post by ace on Sept 7, 2008 18:43:13 GMT -5
I am with Feller. Before Class it wasn't even close but as of lately it seems Football is slowly taking over.
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Post by QuietCop on Sept 12, 2008 10:48:24 GMT -5
Agreed, Class basketball has screwed thing up royally. There was so much more excitment come tournament time. The numbers don't lie. It used to be a real accomplishment to win a sectional and go to regionals. I still think basketball ranks higher than football but I am a little biased.
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Post by huisrealgood on Sept 12, 2008 14:24:15 GMT -5
There are a lot of parents at football games to watch their kids. There are exponentially more kids involved in football than basketball by the sheer construct of the games. I think the real question is how many people who don't have any connection to the kids outside of desiring to see there hometown team win come to the game for both football and basketball. For the brief years that I was in Indiana, this sided more with basketball than football... but I had a small sample size.
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Post by blue2blue on Sept 12, 2008 15:48:10 GMT -5
When I still lived in Mishawaka, even after graduating, we sold out virtually every home game at Penn basketball. Our gym held a capacity of 2400, but there were always many standing behind the ropes. We had 12 jv and 12 varsity players. Obviously, the community was basketball crazy.
Caravans like we saw in the movie 'Hoosiers' was common. We did it going to the sectional in Elkhart, horns honking and cars all decked out in black and gold. When we got to Elkhart , we saw the parking lot with the cars from other schools all decorated in their colors, so basketball was a huge deal. Thankfully, I left Michiana before class basketball hit the state. I think that has diluted the interest to a degree.
Still, from what I read, Indiana has as many if not more D1 basketball talent as they do D1 football. Perhaps in recent years football has caught up, but it seems bball still holds the upper hand in interest. Indiana, to the national audience still means basketball, not football. But perhaps, as the song suggests, "...and the times, they are a changing."
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Post by huisrealgood on Sept 12, 2008 16:51:26 GMT -5
There is no doubt more talented college basketball players flowing out of the Indiana high school ranks than there are football players.
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