The first Friday of Northeast 8 football this season comes in Week 3, when we have the following matchups:
- Columbia City at Bellmont
- DeKalb at New Haven
- Huntington North at East Noble
- Leo at Norwell
Interestingly, the first week ever of Northeast 8 head-to-head games came on Sept. 4, 2015, with Carroll and Homestead off to the SAC and Leo and Huntington North, respectively, replacing them.
That night saw the following contests:
- Columbia City at Bellmont
- DeKalb at New Haven
- Huntington North at East Noble
- Leo at Norwell
That’s right. The league schedule in the NE8 has not changed in a decade.
Yeah, it’s nice for tradition. We always get Leo vs. East Noble in Week 5, while Columbia City has to (annoyingly) play perennial powers East Noble and Leo in back-to-back weeks in Weeks 7 and 8.
But as the SAC schedule got stale, and was eventually changed to allow some semblance of opponent rotation, the NE8 continues to put out the same tired showdowns in the same weeks year after year.
Does the league slate need a revamp? Or is this just another Blitz problem that’s not a REAL problem?
“Coaches have proposed rotating (the league schedule) several times over the years,” said Luke Amstutz, former East Noble head coach and the school’s current athletics director. “I’ve never felt as a coach or as an athletic director that there was total uniform agreement that everyone wanted to do it, but I definitely understand why some schools want to.”
Much like within the SAC and its quest to remake the schedule (in addition to adding non-conference game opportunities and adopting a division format), everyone had a voice as to what they felt was the best approach. Even if the majority agreed that something needed changed, it was difficult to reach a consensus on WHAT the changes were going to be.
It’s a similar situation in the NE8. Currently, the schedule is all nice and tidy. Non-conference games the first two weeks, followed by seven league contests in the same order every year. It’s simple. Athletic directors can plan years in advance when it comes to securing referees, knowing exactly when they will play at home and away well into the future. Blitz heard the same reasoning when it came to why ADs didn’t want to mess with the SAC’s schedule. At one point, referees were assigned 5-6 years in advance because the schedule rarely changed. In a stressful job with a myriad of responsibilities, knowing the constant of a set football schedule is advantageous.
It’s also boring.
Blitz isn’t against boring. He has been watching the same 35-some high school programs in this area for 25 years. Expand horizons? Please. Give me Central Noble and West Noble again and shut up.
But when it comes to competitive balance, shouldn’t SOMETHING be done? Huntington North gets East Noble and Columbia City in its first two NE8 games every season. In 10 years of being in the league, the Vikings have started 0-2 in the conference all 10 years.
Now, Huntington North has not proven to be a consistent league contender. But what if the Vikings started a few seasons with say, Bellmont and DeKalb as opposed to East Noble and Columbia City? Sometimes, the momentum of a few early conference dubs can carry a squad into contention the rest of the year.
Even a small variant of rotation could pay tremendous dividends.
For example, let’s stick with Huntington North. If every year, the Week 9 opponent rotated to Week 3 and every other game was pushed down, the Vikings would start 2026 with a rebuilding New Haven team, followed by East Noble and Columbia City. In two years, it would open with Norwell and New Haven before facing the Knights.
The issue there is that there may be a scenario where a team ends up with road or home games three straight weeks. Again, an inconvenience but relatively easy to fix.
According to sources, there have been proposals made to those within the league on alternative scheduling. It seems to a yearly occurrence nowadays. But it never seems to go anywhere.
In the end, this is about adapting and keeping things fresh. The SAC was stale for too long. Eventually, the decision makers came together and made something happen. It isn’t perfect, but it is different. Rivalries are protected and there is a rotation every two years of cross-division games.
A Week 9 showdown between Leo and East Noble for the league championship instead of Week 5? Blitz is in. Not having to wait until Week 7 for Columbia City to play either Leo or East Noble? Fire it up.
“It certainly would be kind of fun to see a different dynamic of how the season plays out,” said Amstutz. “But (the set schedule) also allows you to make some decisions for your program about how tough you want to schedule your non-conference based upon your first conference games.”
Will anything change? Nothing seems imminent. There is enough feeling of contentment to keep the NE8 the same for the foreseeable future.
But could expansion be the move? There’s always rumors floating around. A 10-team league with two divisions built in the same vein as the SAC is the dream of some. Whether it happens or not is a question left unanswered.
At the very least though, could we shake up the schedule? For Blitz’s sake, at least.
And in the end, isn’t he the only one that TRULY matters?
These opinions represent those of Blitz and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Blitz on Twitter at Blitz_OTH
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