How Are High School Basketball Teams Ranked?
High school basketball teams only play a small percentage of the potential opponents available to them, so the rankings are often subjective. A number of organizations rank high school basketball teams, but the process generally involves a voting system.
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Ranking Organizations
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A variety of groups rank teams, usually from No. 1 to 25. For example, news organizations such as the Associated Press (AP) and USA Today have their own rankings, as do sports-oriented websites such as Maxpreps.com. Organizations rank teams both regionally and nationally. Teams often rank similarly across the board, but sometimes differ depending on ranking method. USA Today and the AP tend to name the same top team.
The Ranking Systems
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The AP ranks teams based on a voting system in which a select group of sports writers rank their top 25 teams. Some AP writers rank regionally (for example, a group of AP writers in California might list the top 25 California teams), while other writers rank nationally. Writers rarely create the same list as other writers, so the more high votes a team gets, the more highly it will be ranked overall. For example, if one team ranks first on 13 of 20 ballots, it is likely to be the first team overall.
Like AP, USA Today uses input from sports writers. USA Today also uses input from high school coaches and compiles a final list based on factors such as strength of schedule and the subjective "quality" of the team's players.
Some sites, such as MaxPreps, use a computer model to determine rankings. The site assigns a numeric value to wins against opponents, and the computer determines throughout the course of the season how teams rank based on calculations. This is an attempt to remove human bias and subjective factors.
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Region
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In general, the more populated a region is, the more talented the players because there is more competition. Rankings reflect this regional bias. For example, MaxPreps 2009-2010 final top team Yates High School is from Houston, a large population center.
Private Schools
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Rankings tend to give additional credit to private schools because private schools can essentially "recruit" talented basketball players to their school. This gives private schools an edge over public schools, which have only the players living in their assigned regions. "Prep" (private) schools therefore appear disproportionately in top 25 rankings.
Champions
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Most of the top teams finish their seasons at the state championship of their respective states. While national tournaments exist, none is the definitive championship. Because hundreds of teams cannot compete in a single tournament, team rankings serve as an informal way of determining national champions.
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References
- Photo Credit basketball image by aline caldwell from Fotolia.com
