Monday, December 22, 2008

Final National Prep Football Poll released

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Repeat 5A state champion St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) gave the football-rich state of Florida its second National Prep Poll champion in three seasons.

The Raiders, who took over the No. 1 spot in the National Prep Poll rankings in September, capped a perfect 15-0 season with a resounding 56-7 defeat of then-unbeaten and 16th-ranked Lakeland. It was a fitting end to a dominant season that saw Aquinas hold opponents to an average of 7 points per game while scoring 47.

Elsewhere, the state of California had three teams in the final national Top 10 including No. 2 Corona Centennial, which avenged last year's state championship loss to regionally ranked Concord De La Salle. The Huskies defeated the Spartans, 21-16, in the Division I final.

Sacramento Grant moved from the regional rankings to No. 6 in the final national poll after beating No. 10 Long Beach Poly, 25-20, in the Open Division championship game.

Rounding out the final top five were Georgia 5A champion Camden County (Kingsland), Texas 5A/I titlist Allen, and 10-time Ohio state champion St. Ignatius (Cleveland).

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Plant!!

Anonymous said...

How does Hightower lose by 7 to the Texas state champion and drop 34 spots and Poly loses to an unranked and only drops 8 spots? Also, Permian only lost by 6 to Allen and are nowhere to be found in the top 100. Jaime you have 3 Cali schools in the top 15, are you from Cali? Most of these state champions outside of Cali and Florida would not make it out of the 3rd round of Texas' grueling
5A and 4A brackets where you have to win 6 games to be crowned a champion.

Jamie DeMoney said...

Hightower beat only two teams that finished in the PrepNation 101 or final Top 25 regional rankings this season and did not play a game outside of South Texas, let alone out of state.

On the other hand, Poly accumulated five wins over teams that finished in the Top 101 or Top 25 regional rankings, including winning a game in Florida against the eventual 6A state runnerup, Miami Northwestern. Also, Poly was champion of Calfornia's toughest playoff division: the Pac-5.

That's why Poly finished the season ranked higher than Hightower.

No, I am not from Cali. I was born and raised in Iowa and currently live in Kansas City, MO. I have visited California twice, though.

Anonymous said...

I suppose you are talking about North Shore and Pearland, am I right? Well if you look back at those two "regionally ranked" teams, North Shore beat Katy in the beginning of the season when Katy started horrible but played a Florida school named Cypress Bay who was a 6A school, and won by
25. Cypress also lost to Mirimar barely by 5 while Mirimar lost to Miami Northwestern by 19, so there is your connection to the Florida schools and how the Texas teams stacked up against them.

Katy also lost to Cinco Ranch which Hightower beat in the playoffs.

Why does Hightower need to leave the Houston area to play quality teams? The competition in Houston is equal to that of the Miami area.

By the way, Allen only beat Wylie by 3 in the regular season.

So back to my question, why did Hightower drop 34 spots? They should have stayed in the top 25 at least.

Jamie DeMoney said...

Actually, the two two teams that Hightower beat which finished ranked were North Shore and Cinco Ranch. Although Pearland was also considered.

Don't misinterpret my comparison of Hightower and Poly as some sort of a slap at Hightower or TX high school football. I didn't say you had to leave Houston to play good teams. However, it's always a feather in a team's hat to win a game in another state against a high-quality opponent. Had Poly traveled to Houston and beaten Hightower or Katy, it would have been just as impressive, if not more so.

We had Hightower at #3 in the nation last week, so I don't think we can bee seen as anti-Hightower.

Regardless of why or how, the fact of the matter is that Poly's body of work was more impressive than Hightower's this season.

Anonymous said...

anonymous #2 i agree w/u 100% about all these state champs not bein able to hang w/each other except cali, florida, & texas...

prepnation this is by far your worst year ranking teams...you guys really fell off this year!!!

Anonymous said...

Why do all these people state opinions they say are facts. How do they know what other states can and cannot do in Texas? Most of them have never even seen these teams play! Jamie has seen tons of Video! I trust his opinions more than yours.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for ranking Georgias state champs where they ought to be :) Top 5 and 3 to boot thank you

Anonymous said...

this is the worst year i have ever seen for these ranking. Time to add these to trash list along with USA Today.

How can you rank Pine Forest in the Southeast and not Lakeland Florida????? Umm if you forgot Lakeland knocked them out of the playoffs.

And being that half of Lakeland players were playing with the FLU in the state game, they should still be in the top 100.

Your rankings suck, only thing you got right was STA #1. And you kind of had to being that you royally screwed MNW last year.

Jamie DeMoney said...

CORRECTION: Lakeland was inadvertently omitted from the Southeast Top 25 when the rankings were entered into the website. The error has been fixed.

Obviously, we did not intend to leave Lakeland out of the rankings. They were No. 16 in the national poll the week prior.

Unknown said...

Allen at number 4? are you joking? This site is a joke, everyone else has them at number 2.

Anonymous said...

John...relax bud. 4? 2? What difference does it make. Anyone in the top 25 could beat anyone else in the top 25 on any given day. It's clear that Allen hasn't been a national player lately, or ever.

Jamie - was this the toughest/craziest year in recent memory? I ask because there are a lot of teams that most don't recognize dotting the top 25 and there seemed to be a lot of movement throughout the season.

Your thoughts?

Jamie DeMoney said...

It was a crazy year with respect to the number of teams in the final Top 25 with losses. I don't remember a year when so many Top 25 teams lost a game during the season and had the opportunity to avenge that loss in the playoffs, did it, and went on to win a state championship. There were an amazing number of instances of that this year.

With regard to Allen, I don't recall a team ever finishing in the Top 5 in the nation with a loss -- let alone the Top 2. I think it's a great tribute to Allen that we pollsters think highly enough of them to put them in the Top 5 with a loss.

Anonymous said...

Why is Springdale, Ark., Shiloh Christian ranked number 10 in the SW? I know they only have one loss but it was to Shreveport Evangel by a score of 47-9! Evangel is not even ranked in the SE top 25. Plus Evangel got hammered by both Lake Travis and Longview. Jamie you still didn't answer why Odessa Permian is not in the SW top 25.

Jamie DeMoney said...

Ramirez --

1) Shiloh moved into the Top 10 of the SW region because they were the consensus pick as the top team in Arkansas by the end of the season, according to many writers and coaches who made their voices heard .

2) The reason Permian is not ranked is because their schedule was extremely weak this season. Going into their playoff loss to Allen, the collective W-L record of the teams they had beaten this year was 60-70. And it was rather soft 60-70, as none of those teams they defeated advanced past the second round of the playoffs.

Jamie DeMoney said...

Correction to above. I meant to say none of Permian's opponents advanced past the third round of the playoffs. Two opponents won two playoff games.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for giving us something to talk about, love looking at these rankings, what a season.

saephanh82 said...

yeah! i can't beleive they actually ranked grant of sacramento in the top 10!!! sweet

casey76 said...

I have to admit that I do not follow the teams outside of Texas enough to know exactly how good they are. But I do know that Allen, TX played in one of the most difficult districts in the nation and definitely the most difficult in Texas with 3 teams that were ranked in the national Top 25 at some point in the year. They also played the Mexican National Champion and the then #1 Nationally ranked Euless Trinity in their pre-district schedule. Throughout the year they defeated 8 teams that were ranked in the Texas top 10 and 5 that were ranked in the National top 25, including 3 in the National top 10. Obsiously I'm biased and I'm not claiming that Allen is the most athletic team or even the best team in the nation, but I do believe that they are worthy of the #1 position. I would love to hear any comments that anyone might have. My email is Caseyyoung76@aol.com

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