2025 high school football thread

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32 is an arbitrary number.

I saw 6A should only be the biggest 24 or so schools in the state. Why am I wrong?


You could drop Maroon, Moorhead, and Eagan ... then it would seem more reasonable. Maybe one or two more?
 


GopherGrit said:
32 is an arbitrary number.

I saw 6A should only be the biggest 24 or so schools in the state. Why am I wrong?


You could drop Maroon, Moorhead, and Eagan ... then it would seem more reasonable. Maybe one or two more?
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24 is also an arbitrary number... In fact all of the numbers selected to separate class sizes are arbitrary for that matter... The biggest head scratcher is the way the MSHSL determines class sizes and doesn't use "REAL" enrolment numbers
 




I wonder if STMA is the largest public school that is still considered in the metro that is the farthest from downtown Mpls or downtown St Paul?

Guessing Lakeville, Shakopee, Forest Lake, Centennial, and Andover would be the other candidates

EDIT: quick check of the driving distance between those and Target Field puts STMA and FL at about the same, but FL is closer to Xcel Center
 

GopherGrit said:
I wonder if STMA is the largest public school that is still considered in the metro that is the farthest from downtown Mpls or downtown St Paul?

Guessing Lakeville, Shakopee, Forest Lake, Centennial, and Andover would be the other candidates

EDIT: quick check of the driving distance between those and Target Field puts STMA and FL at about the same, but FL is closer to Xcel Center
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It’s an interesting question defining metro

in terms of time or mileage?


They aren’t as good as big as STMA and maybe not as far away but are the following schools metro or non metro:
Buffalo
Waconia
Hastings
Northfield
New Prague
Becker
North Branch
 

Some guy said:
It’s an interesting question defining metro

in terms of time or mileage?


They aren’t as good as big as STMA and maybe not as far away but are the following schools metro or non metro:
Buffalo
Waconia
Hastings
Northfield
New Prague
Becker
North Branch
Click to expand...
Heck the media covers and pretends Hutchinson is metro.
 




MaxyJR1 said:
Heck the media covers and pretends Hutchinson is metro.
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I would contend the “metro” is everything on or north of 19
Everything on or east of 169 south of the Mn River
Everything on or east of 25 north of the Mn River


The north metro border a lot harder to place
 


Some guy said:
I would contend the “metro” is everything on or north of 19
Everything on or east of 169 south of the Mn River
Everything on or east of 25 north of the Mn River


The north metro border a lot harder to place
Click to expand...
I'd tie it to Metro Conference. Cambridge, North Branch, Chisago, St. Francis. All metro.
 

Some guy said:
It’s an interesting question defining metro

in terms of time or mileage?


They aren’t as good as big as STMA and maybe not as far away but are the following schools metro or non metro:
Buffalo
Waconia
Hastings
Northfield
New Prague
Becker
North Branch
Click to expand...

Jeopardy Masters recently called Northfield a Twin City Exurb, in perhaps the easiest question ever for me personally.

Screenshot_20250716-105724~2.png

I was relieved a contestant buzzed in with a correct response.

Nerd alert -

I do take issue with the phrasing of "St Olaf & Carleton, respectively" part. Carleton was founded in 1866 while St Olaf was 1974, so it seems to me that the Knights should have been listed first for complete accuracy.

I don't really favor either of them, but hey let's get it right.
 
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Some guy said:
It’s an interesting question defining metro

in terms of time or mileage?


They aren’t as good as big as STMA and maybe not as far away but are the following schools metro or non metro:
Buffalo
Waconia
Hastings
Northfield
New Prague
Becker
North Branch
Click to expand...
While very imperfect, the governemnt defines the (core) Metro Statistical Area by county, which includes Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Anoka, Carver, Scott, and Dakota.

Does not include Wright, in the core. But again, that's certainly debatable. I'm sure the farthest parts of Carver, Scott, Dakota are farther away from downtown Minneapolis than the closest points in Wright.

However, I think Wright is the only one that realistically could be included in the definition. The ones outside that ... I don't think so.
 

Some guy said:
I would contend the “metro” is everything on or north of 19
Everything on or east of 169 south of the Mn River
Everything on or east of 25 north of the Mn River


The north metro border a lot harder to place
Click to expand...
25 is a convenient highway in the West, as it goes from Monticello mostly north-south down to just west of Waconia.

I'm not sure if I would label Monti, Buffalo, Watertown Meyer, Waconia as suburbs. But census folks may disagree
 


GopherGrit said:
While very imperfect, the governemnt defines the (core) Metro Statistical Area by county, which includes Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Anoka, Carver, Scott, and Dakota.

Does not include Wright, in the core. But again, that's certainly debatable. I'm sure the farthest parts of Carver, Scott, Dakota are farther away from downtown Minneapolis than the closest points in Wright.

However, I think Wright is the only one that realistically could be included in the definition. The ones outside that ... I don't think so.
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The 7 counties does seem like a logical definition.

Apologies for yet another Northfield reference but it does make an interesting case study because, while the town and school district are primarily in Rice, a small part of it includes Dakota.

Screenshot_20250717-081433~2.png

There are substantial housing developments to the north, farms, plus a few townships, so that virtually every Northfield HS sports team would have multiple Dakota Cty residents.
 

Ope3 said:
The 7 counties does seem like a logical definition.

Apologies for yet another Northfield reference but it does make an interesting case study because, while the town and school district are primarily in Rice, a small part of it includes Dakota.

View attachment 37837

There are substantial housing developments to the north, farms, plus a few townships, so that virtually every Northfield HS sports team would have multiple Dakota Cty residents.
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A real definition would probably be municipality by municipality and if your local area has a certain percentage of people who work in Minneapolis or St. Paul or Bloomington you are a suburb and below that percentage you aren’t.

Not sure what that percentage is

So a Northfield probably isn’t because they’re likely more dependent on their local economy than the twin cities + Bloomington economy
 

Ope3 said:
The 7 counties does seem like a logical definition.

Apologies for yet another Northfield reference but it does make an interesting case study because, while the town and school district are primarily in Rice, a small part of it includes Dakota.

View attachment 37837

There are substantial housing developments to the north, farms, plus a few townships, so that virtually every Northfield HS sports team would have multiple Dakota Cty residents.
Click to expand...
Another similar case study is New Prague. Eyeballing the Scott county map, it appears that just over half of NP is in Scott.

Both NP and Northfield are in the mid 40's miles driving distance to Target Field. Unlike ElkoNM, which since it is right on I-35 is only 32mi driving distance. So that measure is maybe not the fairest one, and perhaps "as the crow flies" distance is a bit more fair.

Both feel exurban to me, but technically are in the core Metro counties.

(Aside: completely unrelated to anything ... I see that Credit River is now a city, since 2021)


I could nerd out on maps and census stuff all day :ROFLMAO:
 

From a youth sports perspective, both Waconia & New Prague are in District 6 for youth hockey (district includes EP, Edina, Minnetonka, Prior Lake, Minnetonka, Bloomington, Chaska/Chan, Shakopee). Both Waconia & New Prague play youth football in the SWML (EP, Chaska/Chan, Prior Lake, Orono).

For whatever reason, Waconia seems more metro to me than New Prague.
 

Elk River has always been considered metro, even when Buffalo, STMA, Waconia, Rockford, and Delano were not (up to the late 90s).
 

GopherGrit said:
Another similar case study is New Prague. Eyeballing the Scott county map, it appears that just over half of NP is in Scott.

Both NP and Northfield are in the mid 40's miles driving distance to Target Field. Unlike ElkoNM, which since it is right on I-35 is only 32mi driving distance. So that measure is maybe not the fairest one, and perhaps "as the crow flies" distance is a bit more fair.

Both feel exurban to me, but technically are in the core Metro counties.

(Aside: completely unrelated to anything ... I see that Credit River is now a city, since 2021)


I could nerd out on maps and census stuff all day :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...

New Prague, I believe the school district goes all the way up to and includes New Market, where as the Elko side of E-NM is Lakeville. Northfield includes Castle Rock to the north.

Both NP & Northfield in terms of football felt more "Metro" while part of the Missota, as generally more than half the conference was firmly in the 7 county area.

Now both are in Section 1-5A with the 3 Rochester schools and Owatonna, which are all in the same District. That makes up 5 games on their schedule. Also play 3 crossover games, which does include a pair of games against teams in the Metro.
 

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