Why team rankings shift after the season begins

We begin working on our preseason football rankings during the spring.

In the months of April and May, we distribute hundreds of questionnaires by mail, email and online.

During the summer, we make follow-up phone calls to coaches at the top high school football teams across the country.

We also review hours of game film of the teams from the prior season. We compare and contrast personnel, playing style, and level of competition of each team being considered for a preseason ranking spot.

That is the process -- as imperfect as it might sound -- for evaluating teams when compiling our preseason rankings.

Once the regular season begins, however, a new evaluation process gets underway.

Most of the teams in the National Prep Poll are now at least three or four games deep into their regular season schedules. Some look as good as advertised, others not as strong, and some look better than anyone imagined they would.

A lot of games are left to be played, but every week a new evaluation is made for each team in the rankings.

We do not think that our preseason determination of the No. 1 team in the country is any more precious than the new opinions that are formed once the season is underway.

And, after all, without a national high school playoff system, that's what this is really about -- opinions.

That rather lengthy preface is actually a response to a note written by Lee Williams in Wednesday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The headline asserts that "In high school football polls, 'V' is for 'verb,' not 'victory'."

Williams tells readers that Euless Trinity, a team in his coverage area, dropped from the No. 1 spot it held since preseason to No. 3 this week because it won last week's game in a less impressive manner than the two teams now ranked ahead of the Trojans.

On its face, that assertion is based in fact. Overall, Trinity has not looked as impressive so far this season as No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas and No. 2 Byrnes.

That is our opinion.

But, contrary to the theme of Williams' piece, it's not a matter of Trinity not delivering as many blowouts as the other teams.

In the first place, we don't expect Trinity's ball-control style of offense to produce a lot of 30 or 40-point wins, especially when playing against a tough Texas 5A schedule and especially with a class-act like head coach Steve Lineweaver calling the shots.

It's more a matter of St. Thomas Aquinas and Byrnes just looking like better teams to this point.

Isn't it fair to reasses and reaffirm rankings that were originally put together several months before the season began?

More Division I-caliber athletes, more explosive offenses, equal or better level of competition.

These are the reasons for Aquinas and Byrnes moving ahead of Trinity in our poll through one month of the season.

There is plenty of season left. Let's sit back and see how it plays out.