High School Football Polls Have the Same Issues as College Polls

When it comes to sporting events, any competition that has judges or polls is a little shaky in my eyes. Everyone has some story about how a boxing or figure skating judge seemed to be watching a different competition than the rest of the panel. And don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of college football polls.

So, it is not without a touch of irony that I find myself a voter in a sports poll.

The newspaper that I string for puts out a weekly poll ranking the high school football teams in the coverage area, which comprises roughly 70 schools. The good thing about this poll is that it serves no purpose in the grand scheme of things other than entertainment value for the readers.

The bad thing is that I can't believe the ballots some of my colleagues are submitting.

There are nine slots in the poll, brilliantly called, "The Mighty Nine". Now, this has not been a banner year for football in the area. There are eight teams that clearly deserve to be in the poll and a handful of other schools that deserve consideration for the final spot. There are two things that make me scratch my head with the poll's other voters. One is the ninth-place team in the ballot and the other is the position of one of the teams in the poll.

Obviously, with none of the local high school games televised, nobody voting in the poll has seen all of the schools. So in addition to first-hand experience, one has to rely on overall records, classification, strength of schedule and the historical record of the school/coach.

All of those factors lead to the inexact science of the poll, but it seems to me that some things are subjective and other things should be more of a matter of common sense.

The latest edition of "The Mighty Nine" had the following rankings:

1. Reidsville
2. Western Alamance
3. Thomasville
4. Grimsley
5. Dudley
6. Northeast Guilford
7. Glenn
8. Ragsdale
9. Southern Guilford

And here was my latest ballot:

1. Reidsville - The Rams are 8-0 and are the number-one ranked 2-A school in the AP poll. Reidsville has won 10 or more games each year this century. They played for the state championship last season and made it to the final four in 2005.

2. Western Alamance - The Warriors are 9-0 and are the top-ranked 3-A school in the AP poll. They have played in three straight state championship games. There's not much to pick from between these two schools. I think Reidsville gets the nod because everyone remembers the 51-33 Reidsville win when the two schools met in the 2003 Eastern Regional Championship game.

3. Thomasville - The Bulldogs are 8-0 and are the top-ranked 1-A school in the AP poll. This is the first hard slot in the poll, because of Thomasville's position as a 1-A school, which is the least populated of the four classifications. However, Thomasville has the state's longest winning streak with 45 straight victories and is one of the few 1-A programs with no players who play both ways.

4. Northeast Guilford - The Rams are 6-2 but their two losses came to Reidsville and Western Alamance. As with any poll, the question becomes - how much should you penalize a team for playing a tough schedule? NEG played Western Alamance two weeks ago without its starting QB (easily the best player on the field when I saw them - he even returned a punt for a TD) and lost by two touchdowns because Western's coach threw a play-action pass for a score in the final seconds when every other coach would have gone for a kneel down. He claims to have mixed up what down it was.

5. Grimsley - The Whirlies are 7-1 but their one loss came to city-rival Page, which is not a particularly strong team this year. Grimsley has gone 26-3 in the previous two seasons and built up a lot of goodwill in the interim.

6. Dudley - The Panthers are 7-1 and their lone loss was a shutout at the hands of Grimsley. They have a very good defense but I was just not impressed with their offense when I saw them play.

7. Glenn - The Bobcats are 7-1 but have not played the toughest schedule around. They lost last week for the first time when they played conference rival Carver, the toughest opponent they've played to date.

8. Ragsdale - The Tigers are 7-2 with one of their losses coming at Grimsley. The Tigers have had trouble scoring through most of the season, but put up 100 points the past two games against conference opponents. It wouldn't surprise me if they were better than Glenn and I might bump them up next week.

9. Southeast Guilford - The Falcons are 6-2 with one of their losses coming at Ragsdale by three points. The Falcons have a great defense but their offense is even more of a question mark than Ragsdale's.

My main two issues with my colleagues in this poll are the treatment of Northeast Guilford and the selection of Southern Guilford over Southeast Guilford (you really need to know your directions with these schools!).

Northeast is one-dimensional on offense, but it has a terrific running game. While the Rams are not a very good passing team, they usually hit two or three play action passes for big gains each week, as teams stack the box trying to control their running attack. Having seen both teams play this year, I have no doubt they are better than Dudley and I cannot understand how they are ranked behind the Panthers. The good news is the two schools are conference rivals and they go head-to-head later tonight.

My main beef is with picking Southern Guilford over Southeast Guilford for the final spot in the poll. They both have the same record, Southeast is a 3-A school while Southern is a 2-A, and Southeast advanced to the third round of the state playoffs a year ago while Southern finished 6-6 and lost a first-round home playoff game. Oh yeah, they also played head-to-head this year and Southeast won on the road, 13-6. How could any sane person rationalize picking Southern ahead of Southeast?

I get my first look this season at Southern Guilford tonight, as they host the 4-4 West Stokes Wildcats. Maybe they will impress me when I see them in person but even if they win tonight they have a trip to Reidsville the following week which will not end pretty for the Storm.