To the best of our knowledge and understanding of the national high school rankings produced by other publications and websites, the National Prep Poll/PrepNation.com is the only outlet that publishes four criteria for comparing one team to another in its rankings. These basic criteria, which we don't keep secret from the public, help form the foundation for our rankings. How national and regional rankings are determined Final determinations of rankings and team selection are formulated by DeMoney and Plowman (basketball), with input from writers and analysts across the nation and after viewing ranked teams either in person or on tape before and during the season. DeMoney has accumulated a library of more than 3,000 game tapes (mostly provided by high school coaches) throughout the course of the last three football seasons.
The process of comparing high school teams from different states that rarely play each other (or even share common opponents) can suffer from an overload of subjectivity. Opinions from sportswriters in one particular state are generally reliable when they are related only to the teams they see in their own state. In other words, we don't ask a writer in North Carolina to compare the top team in his state to the top team in California, unless of course, he has seen a good number of teams in both states play (which is rare).
Instead, we ask the writer to evaluate the team in his own state or region in comparison to other outstanding teams from his own state or region from today and recent history.
So, our poll is a "poll of opinion" from across the country rather than a college football style "one person, one vote" tabluation of ratings points.
In addition, we apply a set of four basic criteria to all teams considered for national and regional rankings. These criteria (listed in no particular order) help facilitate a process that ensures the utmost consistency in our rankings. No one criterian outweighs another. Rather, it is the team with the best combination of these qualities that warrants the best ranking.
Strength of schedule: This mostly speaks for itself. How difficult is the week-in and week-out competition a team is facing? A team that faces a demanding schedule has the opportunity to compile a more impressive body of work. This leads us to the "power states" like Texas and Ohio in football and New York City and California in basketball, for example. The top teams in the top states in any given year generally earn a national ranking for being the best in a great state. However, because ours is a national poll, we try to be as inclusive as possible and strive to reward excellence of teams from nearly all states.
Accomplishing the ultimate goal on your schedule: We have a simple motto: If you haven't proven on the field or on the court that you are the best in your state, how can you expect us pollsters to assert that you're among the best in the nation? We can't, and we won't. Therefore, it is almost essential that you achieve the ultimate prize on your schedule (be it a state, section or city championship) in order to hit rankings gold. There are exceptions, of course. For example, during the 2004 season when then-No. 11 Lufkin (Texas) lost its only game of the season by 3 points to eventual national champion Southlake Carroll. Lufkin did not prove it was the best team in Texas, but made a strong case it was the second best team in a great football state. The Panthers finished the season ranked No. 23 for that reason.
Impact players/performers: Teams that have one or more real difference-makers in their lineup have the best opportunity to win big games and stand the test of time as one of the "special" teams in the history of their state or region. However, teams are not great just because they suit up a lot of Division I recruits. Scoreboard is always more important than the recruiting board.
Coaching/tradition (especially recent tradition): In high school sports, the great traditional programs generally tend to stay on top. When determining just how good a team is, it is usually instructive to look at recent history to see if a team has the coaching pedigree and tradition of winning to prove it is not merely a "one hit wonder." One hit wonders are usually not a good bet in a big game with a national ranking at stake.
