Monday, December 10, 2007

Sound Off on the Week 18 National Prep Football Poll

This is the place to leave your comments, questions and other observations about the Week 17 National Prep Football Poll.

Please keep your remarks clean and at least somewhat mature in nature. Otherwise, they will be deleted.

Now, fire away.

12 comments:

Jamie DeMoney said...

OK. Before you all have your say, let me add to the discussion that was included in the write-up for this week's rankings regarding St. Xavier's return to the No. 1 spot.

Much of the momentum coming from within Miami and across the country pushing Northwestern for a mythical national title has been related to the Bulls' unquestioned amount of Division I talent.

Note that what I just wrote contained the words unquestioned amount of Division I talent. Translation: I am not questioning the amount of Division I talent on Northwestern's football roster. I see it there, just like everyone else does. Rivals.com says seven of Florida's Top 100 prospects are at Northwestern, and the film I have watched of the Bulls leaves me no reason to argue with those rankings.

Now, with that on the record, I want to challenge a perception I have about fans and some other experts who, I think, too often believe the best high school football teams are usually those with the best potential college football talent on their rosters.

While it's certainly true that talent, at every level of football, is required to win games and championships. Please remember, high school players are just that high school players. They are not yet great college players, even if they are great college prospects.

More and more high school football fans have been exposed to teams playing across the nation by games televised by ESPN, FOX Sports Net, and other outlets. While I appreciate very much the additional coverage, I am not fully supportive of the way that ESPN and other networks choose to promote the games. Namely, most of the time it's not the teams being talked about by the game announcers and analysts. It's the prospects involved in the game.

I think result is the television viewer sometimes being led to believe they are watching a high school team comprised of future college football greats, not merely great college football prospects.

Keep this in mind when you think more about great college prospects and great high school teams: Of Rivals.com's current list of the Top 100 college prospects in the country, only 16 are on teams that played in a state championship game this season.

In Ohio, four of Rivals' Top 16 players suited up for Cardinal Mooney. Yet, the Cardinals were unable to win the state championship in the state's fourth largest division.

Anonymous said...

Jamie,
I take my hat off to you for doing what you said you would do. And I am not talking about St. X being #1(because DeLaSalle is still playing) and anything can happen. I am talikng about your evaluation process, which you explained to everyone. I am talking about you answering, throughout the season, the many questions as to why this? and how is that possible etc.? No matter what the final couple of weeks may bring, you set your standards and stood by your convictions. PrepNation is a very CREDITABLE POLL, and you should be very proud of the precident you set. Unfortunately, "other" polls are more interested in readership issues, than the reality of HS football.
Thanks for being honest Jamie.
A/C 513

Anonymous said...

MNW will beat St. X or DLS. Deerfield Beach, who gave them a game, would beat Iggy, who gave St. X. a game. St. Thomas Aquinas, a 5A finalist (and probably champion) only loss came to Deerfield Beach.

Prepnation is a joke. How many Ohio teams have finished #1? How many FL teams? Not many, why? Because the talent is so good there they end up knocking eachother off. Who does MNW play? Another undefeated team.

Didn't St. X lose last year to a FL team? Your poll is a joke. It just lost my respect and it's laughable at best.

Anonymous said...

hey anon 2:21...what are you talking about? Could've, should've, would've. TALK FACTS.
What difference does it make , the # of Ohio teams finishing#1, or the # of Florida teams finishing # 1. Do you have a God-given rite to # 1 ? Dearfield Beach will beat St. I's, just why do you think that. They certainly are not ranked ahead of them in ANY POLL. What undefeated team did MNW play????? SLC, yep 2nd. ame of the season. 2 of X's last 3 wins in the playoffs were against undefeated and national Top 10 Colerain, and undefeated Dublin-Coffman. As for last year's loss by 3 pts., in OT to State Champion Lakeland, THAT WAS LAST YEAR...

Anonymous said...

Just Wondering how Westfield beats a team 42-14 in the state title game and drops 7 spots??

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU for re-evaluating and keeping your word reguarding St. X in the begining of the season.

Anonymous said...

Jamie - RESPECTABILITY IS BACK AT PREPNATION.COM!!!

You hit the nail on the head Jamie. Does MNW have more talented college prospects than St. Xavier, or anyone, for that matter? ABSOLUTELY. Does that make MNW the best TEAM in the country? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

While MNW, and all of FLA, is loaded with talent, that doesn't always result in the best team. If you think that FLA and OH are close in terms of the quality of High School football at the big school level, consider this: During St. Xavier's 5 game run to the championship, they never trailed in any game...not once. Not even the best Prep Team in recent Ohio history (Colerain '04) can say that.

And on a less talked about note, kudos for moving DeLasalle to #2. I saw them last year ('06) in the Herbie in Cincy and they are truly a sight to behold. I know they are a lot better this year but they are nothing short of a machine when hitting on all cylinders, which is what they appear to be doing now.

Only questionable omission is Colerain off the midwest rankings. I know they have a loss, but it WAS to the #1 team in the country and if you are going to rank Coffman, you probably need to rank Colerain as well. You have teams with multiple losses ranked in regions so why Colerain went from #8 in the nation to COMPLETELY GONE is a little questionable.

Other than that, great poll, great work, well done!

Anonymous said...

Jamie,

I respect the decision to move St. Xavier back up to 1, and De La Salle definately has the rights to a no. 2 ranking.

My question is about the decision to take away from MNW for lack of scedule stregnth. This school is from a poor area of Miami, and it's difficult to get money for these team's to travel, I am sure! They played Carroll and all that they got from that win was an all exspenses paid trip to Texas. Do you feel it is wrong for them not to have gotten some type of money for being on a nationally televised game?
Also I read one of the Blogs mentioning St. Thomas Aquinas from down here in Florida. Take note of their Championship game because they will play an Osceola team that already has beaten Lakeland.
I work in sports and love to see your polls, bc they help me gauge how acurate my opinion is. Why hasnt St. Thomas or Osceola been at least Regionally ranked?
Lastly, I noticed that Amherst County High School from VA hasn't received any love from you. This is a team that is well coached and has great talent. They are 37-3 in the past 3 years, and have won 26 staight games including back to back state titles and this season they averaged just a hair under 50 points per game. They need some type of love from you.
Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

Tommyb13 wrote, "My question is about the decision to take away from MNW for lack of scedule stregnth. This school is from a poor area of Miami, and it's difficult to get money for these team's to travel, I am sure!"

Are you implying that because MNW lacks funds their SOS should be evaluated differently versus other teams? In other words, affirmative action on the playing field? I hope I misunderstood you.

MNW's SOS (Calpreps 24.9) is in stark contrast to StX's SOS (51.8). MNW has a weak SOS. MNW played nail-biters with their two toughest opponents, SLC and Deerfield. SLC and Deerfield are strong teams but but NOT exceptional as they suffered other losses as well. So, MNW is DEFINITELY better than strong, but only a guess how much.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

MNW beats an undefeated Boone team to win the 6A state title. They won like 41-0. That to me is more impressive than ST. X's 27-0 blowout of 2 loss Mentor.

Also, STA won state in 5A which gives more credibility to Deerfield Beach since they beat STA this year and gave them their only loss. DB was also the last team to beat MNW. DB is no fluke and highly underrated.

Anonymous said...

hey 12:13 anon...yep, Northwestern's win was a blowout.
Why is it that they are still throwing with 6 minutes left, and a 5 TD lead. Coach has no class.
Remember...what goes around comes around. Great team, classless coach.

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