The 2014 Texas high school football season has come and gone.
My inaugural, September 5, 2014, Lone Star Football Network blog was titled, “Lone Star Football: Best Programs in the Nation?” In that discourse, suggested that my question was rhetorical; that the answer, by season’s end, would be self-evident.
Turns out . . . at least this time . . . and based on an arguably fair comparison of MaxPreps numbers at the start of the season against those at the end . . . turns out that for at least this year, I knew what I was talking about.
Early-Season MaxPreps Rankings
Going into week #2 of the 2014 season, only four states had ten or more schools in the Top 200 of the MaxPreps national rankings:
California—31
Texas—24
Ohio—19
Florida—12
Ahead of the Lone Star State by seven schools, California comfortably led the pack. Meanwhile, third-place Ohio trailed Texas by five, and fourth-place Florida was behind by a dozen.
This year’s season also started with fourteen of the fifty U. S. states unrepresented in the Top 200: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. That inglorious grouping looked pretty much the same at the end of December. Only Idaho, Iowa, and West Virginia climbed out of the basement (each state with a single representative in the most recent Dec. 27 listing). Meanwhile, Maine fell out of the Top 200 list, leaving at the end an “even” dozen states without a single top-200 representative.
It is, however, the top of the football food chain that deserves sustained attention.
December 27, 2014 MaxPreps Rankings
The most recent MaxPreps list is almost as consistent at the top as it is at the bottom. Not surprisingly—at least not to OCD Lone Star high school football fans—the order has shifted in a way that will please most Texans.
The top four states remain the same. Regular patrons of the Lone Star Football Network will find the order delightfully different:
Texas—25
California—20
Florida—20
Ohio—17
By season’s end Texas, with twenty-five schools on the Top 200 list, has climbed to the top, five ahead of California and Florida, respectively.
At one level, the list above is predictable, at least to a certain point. In a September 22 LSFN blog, I offered some additional perspective, juxtaposing MaxPreps rankings alongside U. S. population figures. A similar table appears immediately below, adjusted for the changes in the rankings since early September 2014:
| STATE | RANK IN U.S. POPULATION | ESTIMATED 2013 POPULATION IN MILLIONS |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2 | 26.4 |
| California | 1 | 38.3 |
| Florida | 4 | 19.5 |
| Ohio | 7 | 11.5 |
It is not extraordinary that the four top-ranked states are among the seven largest U. S. states in population. What is extraordinary is the fact that New York State (19.6 million); Illinois (12.8); the one-time “Cradle of Quarterbacks,” Pennsylvania (12.7); Georgia (9.9); Michigan (9.9); and North Carolina (9.8)—the remaining states making up the top ten—are not among the those states at the head of the MaxPreps Top 200.
| STATE | RANK IN U.S. POPULATION | SCHOOLS IN MAXPREPS TOP 200 |
|---|---|---|
| New York State | 3 | 1 |
| Illinois | 5 | 6 |
| Pennsylvania | 6 | 5 |
| Georgia | 8 | 6 |
| Michigan | 8 | 6 |
| North Carolina | 10 | 2 |
What explains the above disjuncture? Doubtless, there are many things. Perhaps the greatest of these is the quality and character of popular values and personality within the respective states themselves. Who would dare to argue that Texas, California, Florida, and Ohio do not place value and emphasis on those qualities of character cultivated through participation in the sport that we all know and love? That must have something to do with the end-of-season MaxPreps numbers.
Whatever combination of peculiarities explain the clear ascendancy of the top four states, as often is the case from year to year, we find the Lone Star State regularly vying with the Golden State for top honors. Without a doubt, both Texas and California are veritable football factories for the NCAA.
Depending on where one puts the focus, these two states often appear in a dead heat for first.
For example, if one examines the 2014 MaxPreps list of the Top 100, Texas and California each contributed a dozen schools—twenty-four total, which comprises almost a quarter of the whole. However, whether we examine the Top 100 or the Top 200, there remains a comparison of apples and oranges when it comes to public versus private school representation on any MaxPreps listing.
It probably surprises no one that De La Salle in Concord, California tops the list, no matter how many teams are included. This celebrated private school is followed by #2 Bishop Gorman of Las Vegas, Nevada, and #3 St. Edward of Lakewood, Ohio. Subsequently, the first school from Texas—Allen—appears at #4.
Put a different way, the number-crunching formula used by MaxPreps christens the Allen Eagles as the very best team in the nation . . . among its fellow-public schools.
It is significant that fifty of the MaxPreps Top 200 appear to be private schools.* That’s twenty-five percent—one out of every four schools on the list. It is valid to ask whether the eligibility requirements imposed by University Interscholastic League make impossible any fair comparing of public and private school programs in sports or, for that matter, even (perhaps especially) academics.
Placing issues of equitable comparisons momentarily aside, eight of the twenty California schools are ranked in the Top 200 are private schools: #1 De La Salle, #19 St. John Bosco; #27 Bishop Amat; #32 Mater Dei, #34 Crespi Carmelite; #71 JSerra Catholic; #74 JunÃpero Serra (all in the top 100), and #122 Bishop Alemany. In contrast, #129 Bishop Dunn in Dallas is the only private school among the twenty-five Top 200 schools from the Lone Star State.
Many things about public education are likely soon to change considering the shifting tectonic plates upon which it has rested during the balance of our lifetimes. Education as we have known it will probably undergo dramatic changes during the coming quarter century. What will emerge, particularly regarding school athletic programs, is anybody’s guess. All things equal, as high school football under UIL supervision approaches its centennial in 2019, the second hundred years are likely to exhibit a decidedly different and feel and texture. Only time will tell what that might be, but odds look likely that private education will continue to wax increasingly strong.
For now, perhaps the most fitting conclusion to my series of 2014 blogs is . . . what else? . . . another list. Below are the names of the twenty-five Texas schools in this year’s MaxPreps Top 200. They are listed in order of their Texas rankings. The national MaxPreps ranking of each appears to the right of each school name.
1. Allen--#4
2. Cedar Hill--#7
3. Southlake Carroll--#21
4. DeSoto--#22
5. Dallas Skyline--#29
6. Denton Guyer--#41
7. Euless Trinity--#42
8. Aledo--#62
9. Katy--#164
10. Gilmer--#66**
11. Houston Westfield--#75
12. Arlington Martin--#77
13. Ennis—#108**
14. Klein Collins--#110**
15. Bishop Dunn--#129**
16. Navasota--#136**
17. Spring--#147**
18. Cibolo Steele--#151**
19. Tyler--#164**
20. Waco Midway--#165
21. Temple--#171**
22. Rockwall--#178**
23. Plano West--#182**
24. Abilene--#185**
25. San Angelo Central--#192**
A comparison of the September 2014 rankings with those of December 27th reveals that many of the Texas high school football powers fell out of the Top 200 by the season’s end: Argyle, Coppell, Dallas Highland Park, Dallas South Oak Cliff, Graham, Manvel, Lake Travis, Mesquite Horn, Pearland, San Antonio Brennan, and Stephenville, to cite some of the most recognizable names. The double asterisk (**, included above on the MaxPreps Top 25 Texas teams) designates the thirteen who climbed into the national Top 200 by the end of December. All good work if you can get it!
And so it ends, at least for 2014. For those of us who love the high school variety of football better than all the others, we now console ourselves with college bowl games, the upcoming NFL playoffs, and the possibility that the Dallas Cowboys, once and for all, will return to the winners circle after a twenty-year absence from The Show.
Enjoy as you are able and, like me, look forward to August 2015.
*This semi-scientific speculation is based on the notion that private schools are unlikely to include in their names the following: Archbishop, Benedictine, Bishop, Brother, Carmelite, Cathedral, Catholic, Christian, Jesuit, La Salle, Loyola, Nazareth, Mater Dei, Our Lady, Sacred Heart, Saint, Trinity, or Xaverian Brothers.
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