Best Prep School Football States
Texas Replaces Florida with 13 Teams in Final Rivals.com Rankings
Dec 27, 2008
Texas replaced Florida as the best prep football state in the nation although St. Thomas Aquinas of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida won the national high school championship. The state ratings are based on the final 2008 Rivals.com ranking of the United States’ top 100 high school teams.
Texas won in the final week of the season by increasing its teams in the top 100 from 12 to 13, led by No. 2 Allen (15-1) and No. 9 Trinity (13-1). Meanwhile Florida was dropping from 12 to 11 teams, led by No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas (15-0) and No. 15 Lakeland (14-1). Based on 100 points for first, 99 for second, etc., the Texas teams scored 681 points and the Florida teams scored 634. California was third with 11 teams and 535 points, led by No. 5 Centennial (15-0) and No. 20 Grant (15-0).
Ohio Led by St. Ignatius
Seven other states scored 200 or more points. Here’s how they ranked:
- Ohio 333 points by 5 teams led by No. 4 St. Ignatius (14-1)
- Georgia 279 points by 5 teams led by No. 6 Camden County (15-0)
- Louisiana 257 points by 5 teams led by No 19 John Curtis (14-1).
- Mississippi 236 points by 4 teams led by No. 25 Meredian (14-1)
- Virginia 233 points by 3 teams led by No. 3 Phoebus (15-0)
- Pennsylvania 231 points by 5 teams led by No. 36 Thomas Jefferson (14-1).
- Arizona 222 points by 4 teams led by No. 13 Centennial (14-0)
Mississippi and Louisiana finished first and second on a per capita basis. With 257 points and a population of only 2,938,618, Mississippi scored one point per 12,452 people. Louisiana had one point for every 17,163 people based on 2008 population estimate of 4,410,796.
By comparison, California scored one point for every 68,704 people, based on its 2008 population estimate of 36,576,666.
South Carolina Ranked 11th
Other states scoring points in the final Rivals Top 10 were: South Carolina 192, Washington 141, Alabama 138, Oklahoma 124, New Jersey 117, Kentucky 110, Michigan 98, Illinois 94, Maryland 91, Utah 91, Nevada 53, Hawaii 52, Tennessee 43, New Jersey 33, Minnesota 27, Indiana 15, Iowa 9, Nebraska 6, North Carolina 4, Wisconsin 3 and New Mexico 1.
The above numbers are based on the December 22, 2008 Rivals.com rankings compiled by Dallas Jackson, managing producer of RivalsHigh.com. The publication says the list is ranked with the help of its "network of high school site publishers, recruiting analysts and AMP team."
To provide an indication of how difficult it is to rank high school teams nationally since most of them play most games within their own states, there were 34 unbeaten teams in the RivalsHigh Top 100, including nine with 15-0 records. Another 42 lost only one game.
North Carolina’s Dudley High Was 16-0
Dudley High, the North Carolina state champion from Greensboro, was the only team with a 16-0 record. Rivals ranked it No. 97.
Florida Dominated in 2007
Florida dominated the consensus Top 25 rankings in 2007, thanks to No. 1 Northwestern of Miami, No. 5 Booker T. Washington of Miami and No. 8 Pahokee. St. Thomas Aquinas was 23rd in the 2007 consensus rankings.
In 2008 Northwestern dropped to No. 41.
California was second in 2007 with four teams in the Top 25. Ohio was third and Texas fourth.
Reference: Rivals.com
Best High School Football States
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