Austin Bishop
The Newton Record
NEWTON
August 20, 2008 03:57 pm
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This Thursday and Friday night all across this state high school football will be the talk of the town.
Actually, the talk began just days after the final MHSAA state champions were crowned in December, but it has definitely picked up over the last few weeks.
This week the MPSA will be playing regular season games, while most of the MHSAA schools will be participating in jamborees or scrimmages.
Most newspapers across the state are either completing their preseason football specials, or are working late into the night trying to put them to bed.
It’s football season that’s for sure.
During the 34 years I have been covering high school football, one of the most anticipated things each week — other than the games themselves, of course — is the release of the weekly football polls.
Fans, parents, players, media types, etc., love to hate those polls. Whether they admit it or not, most coaches have their feelings about them as well. A good portion can’t stand them, but they all seem to know what the rankings are.
There are two high school polls that over the years have carried the most weight in Mississippi. One is The Associated Press poll, which most daily newspapers run. The voters are usually media types from across the state. This poll can be pretty good, but it’s fair to say that a large number of the voters lean to the schools from their area when voting. That’s just the way it goes. Been there, done that.
Then there is the poll for the Jackson Clarion-Ledger put together by sportswriters Todd Kelly and Rod Walker. Both are very capable and very knowledgeable. While that poll is solid, it also belongs to the Clarion-Ledger.
The paper has never objected to other newspapers and entities using the poll or referring to it, but it still belongs to that newspaper.
I felt there was a need for another poll. Actually, from here on, we will refer to them as rankings. A poll leads one to believe that several people cast votes and then those totals are added together to get a final ranking.
These new set of rankings we’re about to discuss has nothing to do with democracy. It has everything to do with putting together the best rankings possible.
Myself and Bobby Gray, a longtime follower of prep football from the northern part of the state, have formed a partnership dedicated to covering high school sports in the state.
We hope there are grand things, including a website, in the future. Our whole goal is to promote high school athletics in Mississippi and to provide accurate information about what is going on throughout the state.
And yes, our venture does have a name. It will be known as Mississippi Prep Sports Source.
Out of this venture came the first-ever Mississippi Prep Sports Source High School Football Rankings.
While several people will have input on the rankings, the only two votes that really matter belong to Bobby and myself. We take responsibility, as well as credit and blame.
The rankings will be released each week and are being made available to weekly papers throughout the state at an embarrassingly low rate.
So far, six newspapers — The Newton Record, Star-Herald in Kosciusko, Kemper County Messenger, Winston County Journal, Webster Progress-Times in Eupora and Choctaw Plaindealer in Ackerman — have signed on to run the weekly rankings.
There are several things that make these rankings a little different.
At the forefront is what they symbolize. While you have to use the past to put preseason rankings together, to us it is the present that matters.
When you look at our rankings, which are broken down by class in the MHSAA with the MPSA having one overall ranking, you will see who we think are the best teams at the time the poll was released. Reputations don’t matter, just results.
So if a team is ranked No. 1 in a class, then we believe that if they played any other team in that class on a neutral field tonight, they would win. If they are ranked No. 2, then we believe they would beat anybody other than the No. 1 team. So for every notch you move down the rankings, we think that team would beat those teams below them and lose to the ones above.
It’s as simple as that.
There is another interesting twist. The rankings can change daily. Yes, daily. While we will release them just once a week (until our website hopefully becomes functional by next year), they can change daily.
If we find out one of the best teams in the state will have several key players out for a week or two, they could drop in the rankings whether they lose or not. Remember, it is all about who we feel will beat who on a neutral field tonight. Not last week. Not when the star players get back.
Eventually, hopefully next season, we will take the next step and try something that —to our knowledge — has never been done in Mississippi before. We will attempt to rank every team in every classification from top to bottom. But for now, just be content to enjoy what we have to offer with our listing of the Top 10s and honorable mentions.
If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to contact me at BrotherA4him@hotmail. com.
Now, take a look at our first preseason rankings and let us hear about it. I’m sure what you have to say will be interesting.
Austin Bishop is the former sports editor of The Meridian Star.
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Austin Bishop The Newton Record