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By The TL Sports Staff ; Interesting things, these polls.
Monday, October 20, 1997 Page: 10B
Everybody points to their flaws.
Check out the responses to this week’s “Fan Fare” question, which was:
Should publications like USA Today compile national rankings for high
school football teams? How accurate do you think these ratings are?
Every single caller blasted the accuracy of the high school polls. A couple
of callers even took a shot at the college polls.
But people read them.
And when their team is No. 1, you’ll see T-shirts, banners, etc. It seems
polls are things you want to turn away from, but can’t help but peek at.
Here are this week’s “Fan Fare” responses:
No, I do not think that the USA Today should publish the rankings, because
you can’t rank … obviously you can’t rank every high school in the nation,
it’s ridiculous. I’m from Berwick and I’ll tell you right now, we found out by
playing St. Ignatius. But, at least Berwick had the guts to play St. Ignatius,
which is more than I can say for a team like Valley West. Yes, Valley West
will get to the playoffs, but let me tell you what’s coming. They will get
their butts kicked. Big time, especially if they have to play a team like
Parkland or Dowingtown. They will get their little hineys kicked all the way
back to Kingston where they belong. Valley West is nothing but a big fish in a
little pond. They got lucky Friday night. Berwick should’ve beat them by two
or three touchdowns. Yes, they did win, but they had to do it in double
overtime and they had to use their soccer kicker to do it.
Editor’s note: Valley West won in the first overtime, not the second. As
for using a soccer kicker, what’s wrong with that? Seems that Valley West
coach Jim Cantafio deserves praise for finding the best possible kicker to
help his team.
Compiling the national rankings of high school football teams, no, I don’t
think they should do it. They are really not that accurate. Games are played
in the field, not in newspapers.
Well, instead of having rankings, maybe they should rank the school’s
schedules that they play and then they could determine whose No. 1 by judging
difficulty of their schedule. So, maybe they should just rank them on the
strength of their schedule and at the end of the year whoever has the least
amount of losses and plays the toughest schedule should be No. 1, if they are
not going to have a playoff. Now how does that sound?
No, I feel that publications such as USA Today should not compile rankings
for high school football teams because they might put Berwick ahead this year
because they have been ahead the past three years and they are not that good
this year.
I think that this question is for one reason and one reason only, so that
the people in Berwick can sit down there and cry that their team is getting
shafted in the rankings. They were beaten, embarrassed is a better word, by a
better team from Ohio, and then they lost another game. This is just so those
people can sit down and call in and cry about the rankings and how USA Today
rankings are not accurate. They might not be the most accurate rankings, but
they are the best anyone can come up with. People should just go by the
rankings and leave the people in Berwick to cry about it.
Editor’s note: You are insinuating that the question was written by a
pro-Berwick person. Believe us when we tell you nothing could be further from
the truth.
The USA Today publications are good in the way that they build up high
school football teams such as Berwick, but in a way are not accurate because
look at St. Ignatius, they were ranked No. 24 in the USA Today rankings and
they played Berwick that was ranked No. 4 and look how that turned out. How
many of those teams are ever going to play each other. So, that just shows you
that the rankings aren’t accurate at all.
I think national rankings for high school football teams are ridiculous.
How is it possible for … let’s say somebody from Northeastern Pennsylvania,
for instance, to tell you what kind of teams they have in California, Texas.
It’s impossible. It’s a matter of how many friends somebody has around the
country. The college polls are bad enough, at least you can see other teams on
television.
I don’t put much stock in USA Today’s national rankings. It’s impossible to
say which high school team is the best in the nation. Take Berwick, for
instance. They can’t even say they’re the best high school football team in
Pennsylvania because they never play the big Philadelphia high schools. All
USA Today is saying is who has some very successful programs.
Editor’s note: What the caller was pointing out is that although Berwick
has won five PIAA state championships, Philadelphia schools do not belong to
the PIAA and do not take part in those playoffs.
I don’t think high school rankings should be compiled. The accuracy has to
be questioned.