IHSAA moves Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger from 5A to 4A in football, causes ripple effect
A week into the high school football season, Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger football is moving from Class 5A to 4A.
Indiana High School Athletic Association commissioner Paul Neidig said the move, which was approved at Tuesday’s IHSAA executive committee meeting, dated back to the decision by the IHSAA executive committee in April of 2022 that the eight schools to earn at least one tournament success factor point in 2021 to be reevaluated after the 2022-23 school year. The schools playing up that did not earn a point in 2021-22 were returned to the next-lowest class to prevent them from playing three consecutive years in a higher classification “when their tournament results do not merit that placement.”
Dwenger’s football team was the only program in that position that did not earn a point in 2022 and moves down to 4A, which is its enrollment class. The result leaves Class 5A Sectional 12 with only three teams (Anderson, Fort Wayne North Side and Fort Wayne Snider) and creates a domino effect in 4A as Dwenger moves into Sectional 19 with Angola, DeKalb, East Noble, Fort Wayne South Side, Fort Wayne Wayne, Leo and New Haven.
Week 2 predictions: Cathedral-Brownsburg gets top billing of tasty matchups
Other 4A teams to change sectionals are Columbia City, Muncie Central, Connersville and Bedford North Lawrence. The 4A alignments:
Sectional 17: Culver Academies, East Chicago Central, Gary West Side, Highland, Hobart, Kankakee Valley, Lowell, New Prairie
Sectional 18: Logansport, Northridge, NorthWood, Plymouth, South Bend Riley, South Bend St. Joseph, South Bend Washington, Wawasee
Sectional 19: Angola, DeKalb, East Noble, FW Bishop Dwenger, FW South Side, FW Wayne, Leo, New Haven
Sectional 20: Columbia City, Frankfort, Huntington North, Jay County, Kokomo, Marion, Mississinewa, Western
Sectional 21: Brebeuf Jesuit, Crispus Attucks, Washington, Shortridge, Lebanon, Mooresville, Northview, Roncalli
Sectional 22: Beech Grove, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, Muncie Central, Pendleton Heights, New Castle, New Palestine, Richmond
Sectional 23: Connersville, East Central, Edgewood, Greenwood, Jennings County, Martinsville, Shelbyville, Silver Creek
Sectional 24: Bedford North Lawrence, Boonville, Evansville Bosse, Evansville Central, Evansville Reitz, Evansville Harrison, Evansville Memorial, Jasper
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school football: IHSAA moves Bishop Dwenger to Class 4A
