Remember when October was great for sports? The glorious time when this month meant good things were going on in the world.

Every year, we witnessed another postseason meltdown in the Bronx. Indiana football was just bad from the start of the season, the Eagles would roll through their early schedule and college basketball was set to tip off.

Now we live in 2009.

The Yankees are a mere week away from their insufferable fan base emerging from their near-decade of hiding and grunting out short sentence that always end with how many World Series titles they have won.

Indiana football now gives fans false hope that the program may be turning the corner by building a 28-3 lead on the road. But then their head coach remembered he was Bill Lynch and started doing all types of Bill Lynch things and the Hoosiers fell apart.

The Eagles, they signed a quarterback who spent two years in federal prison and have awkwardly attempted to shoehorn him into the lineup. Oh, and they lost to the Raiders — THE RAIDERS — the worst team in organized team sports.

And college basketball, well Indiana is still rebooting the system after downloading the Kelvin Sampson virus, the Louisville head coach just triggered a massive board of health investigation at a local Italian eatery and John Calipari is the world’s problem now.

Luckily, we still have some intriguing high school football matchups to examine. On to this week’s picks:



PROVIDENCE-PAOLI

A really interesting case study would be finding a way to have these two sides replay their regular season against the other teams’ schedule.

If Providence had played Paoli’s slate, the one that included zero games against opponents from Class 4A or 5A, would we be sitting here looking at an unbeaten Providence team that is 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in Class 2A in Indiana.

Would Paoli post a better mark than Providence’s 6-4 mark if it faced off with Providence’s slate that included three 5A foes and four contests against teams from Class 3A and 4A?

While hypotheticals are fun to deal with, and that discussion could carry on for hours (BTW, I think Providence goes 8-2 vs. Paoli’s slate and the Rams are 7-3 against Providence’s schedule), the fact is that this matchup is as intriguing a second-round contest as you may find statewide.

While it would be easy to see Providence getting physical and running right at the Rams’ defense that has shut out six opponents this season, it is also tough to imagine the Pioneers untracking a Paoli train that has ran roughshod through the 2009 schedule.

Don’t discount Paoli because you think the schedule is weak. Teams just don’t accidentally go undefeated. And bad teams simply don’t have a three-game stretch in which they outscore foes 241-7 like the Rams did during September.

This game won’t be a blowout. It will be a full-fledged battle. In the end though, I’m taking Paoli.

Paoli 34, Providence 27



NEW ALBANY-FLOYD CENTRAL

I’m guessing Jennings County head coach Scott Buening probably sent a thank you basket full of fine fruits and veggies to New Albany head coach Kevin Roth Saturday morning.

That’s the surest sign of gratitude I can think of for Roth’s Bulldogs setting Jennings up for a Floyd Central buzzsaw last Friday night in the first round of 5A Sectional 8.

I said last week that when I saw Highlander head coach Brian Glesing a couple days after the Highlanders lost the regular-season finale to New Albany and I thought he looked possessed.

Apparently, so were the Highlanders. All Floyd did in its opening sectional matchup was put up points every single time it had the football.

The reward for that win is getting a rematch with the Bulldogs at home.

Floyd won’t be perfect again on Friday. That type of proficiency is rare, to say the least.

What they will be is efficient and they will take care of business. This Highlander team is starting to take on the feel of a potential sectional champion. This is the next step.

Floyd Central 24, New Albany 16

Contact Mike Hutsell at mike.hutsell@newsandtribune.com.