Look where two of Md's Football Teams Rank in the Country

[afan]

Two out of the top 20 not bad. Take that Tex, Fl, and all you other hot shot states. Maryland can hang with any of them.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/news/rank...-football-2012

[GREYHOUND ALUM]

Two out of the top 20 not bad. Take that Tex, Fl, and all you other hot shot states. Maryland can hang with any of them.

http://www.usatodayhss.com/news/rank...-football-2012

Congrats to both teams, they were definitely the class of the state. They represented MD well. They will both be very good next year but DeMatha will have a lot to say with whose #1 in the state.

[eaglesinsider]

Here are the states with more than 1 top 25 teams:
Texas- 3 (#3, #13, #25)
Florida- 3 (#10, #18, #24)
Maryland- 2 (#9, #19)
Washington- 2 (#2, #22)
Pennsylvania- 2 (#12, #17)

Maryland outranks many larger states in number of Top 25 teams.

If you look at it by number of people per Top 25 teams (which shows a smaller population base to draw from), Maryland seems even more impressive, with 1 Top 25 team per 2,914,145 residents. Only sparsely populated (outside of Las Vegas & Reno) Nevada has a slightly better ratio at 1:2,723,322. California by comparison is 1:37,691,912.

If you wanted to award points to each state like a standard Top 25 poll, with the stat with the #1 team getting 25 points all the way down to the state with the #25 team getting 1 point, it would look like this:

1. Texas (37)
2. Washington (28)
3. Florida (26)
4. Louisiana (25)
5. Maryland (24)
6. Pennsylvania (23)
7. North Carolina (22)
8. California (21)
9. Alabama (20)
10. Tennessee (19)
11. Nevada (18)
12. Missouri (15)
13. Kentucky (12)
14. Michigan (11)
15. Georgia (10)
16. Illinois (6)
17. Indiana (5)
18. Ohio (3)

This gives you a much better perspective on how good each state's Top 25 team(s) are. An example is LA, which has the #1 team but no other Top 25 teams, almost out points FL, with 3 Top 25 teams but all 3 ranked 10 or lower.

[GREYHOUND ALUM]

Here are the states with more than 1 top 25 teams:
Texas- 3 (#3, #13, #25)
Florida- 3 (#10, #18, #24)
Maryland- 2 (#9, #19)
Washington- 2 (#2, #22)
Pennsylvania- 2 (#12, #17)

Maryland outranks many larger states in number of Top 25 teams.

If you look at it by number of people per Top 25 teams (which shows a smaller population base to draw from), Maryland seems even more impressive, with 1 Top 25 team per 2,914,145 residents. Only sparsely populated (outside of Las Vegas & Reno) Nevada has a slightly better ratio at 1:2,723,322. California by comparison is 1:37,691,912.

If you wanted to award points to each state like a standard Top 25 poll, with the stat with the #1 team getting 25 points all the way down to the state with the #25 team getting 1 point, it would look like this:

1. Texas (37)
2. Washington (28)
3. Florida (26)
4. Louisiana (25)
5. Maryland (24)
6. Pennsylvania (23)
7. North Carolina (22)
8. California (21)
9. Alabama (20)
10. Tennessee (19)
11. Nevada (18)
12. Missouri (15)
13. Kentucky (12)
14. Michigan (11)
15. Georgia (10)
16. Illinois (6)
17. Indiana (5)
18. Ohio (3)

This gives you a much better perspective on how good each state's Top 25 team(s) are. An example is LA, which has the #1 team but no other Top 25 teams, almost out points FL, with 3 Top 25 teams but all 3 ranked 10 or lower.

Great data EI!

[hssports]

I understand what you are saying....however, it is hard to generalize like this. You are mixing apples and oranges when you do a broad comparison. The two teams from MD. are private and recruit kids. Are the teams from the other states private? I don't think you can take the total population and divide - this won't give an accurate picture....

Here are the states with more than 1 top 25 teams:
Texas- 3 (#3, #13, #25)
Florida- 3 (#10, #18, #24)
Maryland- 2 (#9, #19)
Washington- 2 (#2, #22)
Pennsylvania- 2 (#12, #17)

Maryland outranks many larger states in number of Top 25 teams.

If you look at it by number of people per Top 25 teams (which shows a smaller population base to draw from), Maryland seems even more impressive, with 1 Top 25 team per 2,914,145 residents. Only sparsely populated (outside of Las Vegas & Reno) Nevada has a slightly better ratio at 1:2,723,322. California by comparison is 1:37,691,912.

If you wanted to award points to each state like a standard Top 25 poll, with the stat with the #1 team getting 25 points all the way down to the state with the #25 team getting 1 point, it would look like this:

1. Texas (37)
2. Washington (28)
3. Florida (26)
4. Louisiana (25)
5. Maryland (24)
6. Pennsylvania (23)
7. North Carolina (22)
8. California (21)
9. Alabama (20)
10. Tennessee (19)
11. Nevada (18)
12. Missouri (15)
13. Kentucky (12)
14. Michigan (11)
15. Georgia (10)
16. Illinois (6)
17. Indiana (5)
18. Ohio (3)

This gives you a much better perspective on how good each state's Top 25 team(s) are. An example is LA, which has the #1 team but no other Top 25 teams, almost out points FL, with 3 Top 25 teams but all 3 ranked 10 or lower.

[afan]

That Saint Thomas in Florida has a couple loses, why are they ranked so high.

[eaglesinsider]

I understand what you are saying....however, it is hard to generalize like this. You are mixing apples and oranges when you do a broad comparison. The two teams from MD. are private and recruit kids. Are the teams from the other states private? I don't think you can take the total population and divide - this won't give an accurate picture....

Of the 25 teams, 10 are private. They are from:
Maryland (2- Good Counsel & Gilman)
Louisiana (1- John Curtis Christian)
California (1- De La Salle)
Tennessee (1- Ensworth)
Nevada (1- Bishop Gorman)
Florida (1- Saint Thomas Aquinas)
Kentucky (1- Louisville Trinity)
Pennsylvania (1- Cathedral Prep)
Ohio (1- Archbishop Moeller)

I used California and Nevada in my comparison to Maryland. Both of those states also had their entire representation in the Top 25 comprised of private schools.

It is also important to keep in mind that in many of the top football states, especially those in the South, private school football is a joke compared to the public schools. Private schools tend to be much smaller than those up here, while also being founded much later (less football history/tradition). I doubt you could find 10 private schools in Texas founded before McDonogh and Gilman first played each other in football (1914). Private schools in the South usually have lower athletic budgets than their public counterparts because they tend to have opened later and thus have either no or a very small endowment and they draw significantly less money from gates (much lower attendance) than their public school counterparts.

A top youth football recruit in TX, AL, GA, etc... who was approached by a private school coach from those states wouldn't give him the time of day because the school probably can't afford to give a full scholarship, it would be a step down in level of competition, it would be a step down in facilities, venues, atmosphere, uniforms and major college coaches usually only focus on the public schools. Would you rather play in front of 10,000+ at a top Southern public school or maybe 1,000 at a Southern private school?

I would argue that a top notch public school in the South recruits more effectively than any private school down there. There is no shortage of families willing to pick up and move to that school's district if they think it gives their son a better chance at a scholarship. I'd bet you'd find at least 10 kids on each roster of the Southern publics in the Top 25 who moved into that school's district sometime between 6th and 10th grade.

I heard this week that the 9 state championship games Texas has this week at Cowboys Stadium (Thursday 1, 4, 8 Friday 1, 4, 8 Saturday 12, 3, 7) had a total attendance of over 250,000 last year (an average of 27,778 fans per game) and they were expecting over 300,000 this year. This includes their 1A Division II game (Schools under 150 total enrollment 9-12), and several other classes of schools with less than 1,000 students.

To put that TX per game attendance figure into perspective, here is what the colleges in MD averaged per game this season:
Maryland: 36,023
Navy: 32,363
Texas HS State Championships: 27,778
Towson: 8,691
McDaniel: 4,106
Morgan State: 4,005
Stevenson: 2,268
Bowie State: 2,053
Frostburg State: 1,627
Salisbury: 1,592
Johns Hopkins: 971

If you're a player in the South, would you rather play 12-14 games in a lesser league in front of 1/20 of the crowd or play 16 and play in front of 28,000 for a state title? I doubt that single game average of 27,778 is equal to the total attendance of all 4 MPSSAA title games combined. If MD public school football drew like TX did, I believe you'd see a greater desire to stay local among players and much of the top talent would stay home and play for their local HS program.

So, in short, it's not as apples to oranges as you might think, because most if not all of the public schools ranked in the Top 25 have at many similar advantages to Good Counsel and Gilman.

[eaglesinsider]

That Saint Thomas in Florida has a couple loses, why are they ranked so high.

Because the USA Today Top 25 is similar to the BCS. If you lose, the earlier you lose the better. St. Thomas Aquinas lost early (games 3 & 5) and 1 loss was to Don Bosco (NJ), who was highly ranked at the time. They then made pollsters forget about those losses by going on a tear through the playoffs, blasting a nationally ranked Manatee team in the semis and looking like the best team in FL by far by the end of the season.

[afan]

Because the USA Today Top 25 is similar to the BCS. If you lose, the earlier you lose the better. St. Thomas Aquinas lost early (games 3 & 5) and 1 loss was to Don Bosco (NJ), who was highly ranked at the time. They then made pollsters forget about those losses by going on a tear through the playoffs, blasting a nationally ranked Manatee team in the semis and looking like the best team in FL by far by the end of the season.

I still say Bradenton Manatee was a fluke. I would say STA would loose 9 out of 10 times they meet but this one game was a fluke. Manatee was not prepared and thought by beating a team like Fort Pierce Central the week before 51 to 0, they were unbeatable. Not every game is an indication of who the best team is but rather if a team can hang early, gain momentum and go on from there. I think if they played again Manatee wins by 20.

[hssports]

Congrats to both teams, they were definitely the class of the state. They represented MD well. They will both be very good next year but DeMatha will have a lot to say with whose #1 in the state.

I agree, but will Gilman and DM play next year? If not, that is too bad,The kids deserve to settle it on the field.

[GREYHOUND ALUM]

I agree, but will Gilman and DM play next year? If not, that is too bad,The kids deserve to settle it on the field.

I don't know, it's all on DM. They called the game off. Their administration didn't want to play the game.