Daily Oklahoman Week 9 Rankings

Maybe Ringling and Mangum above Gore.?

I can’t put Pawnee up that high. Yes they’re undefeated, but their schedule is awful. I thought Stroud’s was bad, but holy moly. Pawnee’s opponents’ are 18-37. They’ve already played 2 teams that are 0-8 and are playing a third Friday in Drumright. That will push their opponents’ record to 18-46. And the fact that one of my good friends was at the Stroud-Pawnee scrimmage and told me how much better Stroud was than them. I’m sure they have improved since then, but so has every other team, including Stroud. And yes, I know it’s just a scrimmage and you can’t take too much from it. But you can tell which team has better looking kids and athletes. Oh well. Doesn’t really matter anyway. Just my $0.02.

Very good chance Pawnee comes to Stroud in round 2 if everything shakes out as it should.

No, I agree with you. MaxPreps' rankings aren't my rankings. If I were doing the rankings at this point (which I'm not because I have been largely out of the loop to this point, but in any case) I would put Rejoice at #1, Cashion at #2, Pawhuska at #3, Minco at 4, and Stroud at 5. Ringling would be at 6 or 7; Gore would be at or around 20-21.

MaxPreps currently has Wynnewood at #33, so if the Gore-Wynnewood rematch takes place, and if the current placings hold (which they won't), it will be 29 vs 33 in that game. I'll take Wynnewood in that one; I think Gore is well coached and senior heavy, and getting better by the year, but I also think Wynnewood went there last year thinking the Pirates would be an "easy out." I am betting that won't happen again, but we'll see.

They’re one of the few teams I’ve yet to see. But I view them similar as Pawnee. They’re undefeated, but really haven’t played anyone either. 2 winless teams, a 1-win team, and a JV team. Although I do think they are better than Pawnee, I don’t think they’re #1. I’d say they’re probably about #6. They might end up being better, but I have a hard time putting teams like Pawnee and Pawhuska up there when they finished 4th and 5th in their district last year. I know teams get better, but if they haven’t done anything lately, they have to prove it to me before I put them that high.

"West side bias." Lol. That's kind of like East side bias on the flipside, right? Ha, ha.

I should imagine we're all, or virtually all, at least a little biased towards our own teams and (native) region(s) of the state. But as you intimate, we are where we are, which makes us part of who we are. And it is rather natural for human beings to incline towards their own kith and kin above all others. Whenever you see otherwise, it's a very good possibility (I would say a high probability) that you've encountered a Philanthropic Sneak.

I believe Colcord and Gore are both highly overrated by the Oklahoman and others, and that your hopes for their playoff success in particular are going to be dashed. But ya never know. As far as playing the teams that are in front of you goes, yes, of course, I used to say that all the time about e.g. Talihina when people would criticize them for their weak schedule and the district they were/are relegated to playing in, saying they were "overrated" and stuff like that. That West side bias you talked about above got the best of me back in or around 2012 before I saw them play that year or the next. But my point with regard to Gore in particular is that whereas Talihina was blowing everyone off the field (district opponents and otherwise) that were put in front of them back in '14 for example when most of the polls had them ranked close to or in the top 5, Gore is not doing that, and I believe the reason they're not doing it is because they're really just an average team or perhaps a little above average. But I could certainly be wrong. We'll find out in short order.

crimsonandcream I have no doubt Pawhuska is a team on the rise. And obviously they are better than they have been in quite some time. I’m not denying that and I don’t think most people are either. However, myself, as well as some others, are just hesitant to quickly put them in the top 5 (or even #1 as MaxPreps did) until they prove it. Being 9-0 and beating a bunch of average, below average, and frankly bad teams does not prove anything, IMO. Yes, I realize that you can only play who is put on your schedule. And while no fault of their own that some teams in their district are very bad (Woodland and Drumright), it still does not prove anything when they beat up on them.

Also, on the surface one would think beating Tonkawa and Morrison would be good wins. And they would’ve been great wins last year. But Tonkawa is down considerably. They’re not even going to make the playoffs. Morrison is down considerably and they had to squeak out a win against them. So, like I said, until they beat someone that is actually in contention to win something (i.e. Pawnee week 10), I, as well as others, will reserve judgement against them being “all that they’re cracked up to be.”

And like I stated previously, I have not actually seen them play as I have many of the other top teams (Stroud, Cashion, Pawnee, etc. just to name a few). So my opinion is more of a guess than anything and if I had seen them play, I’m sure that my opinion would change for the better on them.

The problem with the MaxPreps rankings is and always has been that there is no direct human element involved, so the sort of analytical thinking you have engaged re: Pawhuska and other teams simply is not there; it's just a computer program crunching out numbers from week to week. This is not altogether bad, but it isn't altogether good (or especially accurate early on in a given season) either. Since I have been looking at their rankings (dating back about ten years or so) the one consistency is that they are usually way off one way or the other with certain teams early in the season, but begin to become more accurate after about week 5 or week 6.

Btw, at first glance on their MaxPreps homepage, one is led to believe Pawhuska has a roster consisting of 47 players, which of course is a big roster for a class A team. If you click on the "roster" button and read down the list, however, you quickly realize *(and this is a fairly common problem with the accuracy of information on MaxPreps team homepages from year to year) that five or six players on the roster are duplicates, meaning their information is added twice. They also have at least ten freshmen listed on their roster, so, in essence, their roster (assuming everything else is more or less accurate) is typical class A roster as far as numbers go.

*We've had similar roster problems at Ringling's MaxPreps homepage before as well. Early this season, for example, the roster still had several players on it who graduated last year and/or moved away, as well as a problem with the schedule. I fixed the schedule thing before the season started, but neglected to attend to the roster situation until a couple weeks in after I kept noticing in my MaxPreps updates that a few of the players whose numbers I was entering on a given play were coming up in the updates with the wrong name attached. I didn't, at the time, have a reliable roster in front of me to go by, so I changed what I knew to change from memory, and then someone else (I'm assuming coach Koons or one of the staff) came in after me and cleaned up the rest. Anyone can do this for their team at MaxPreps, btw, but the changes have to go through a coach or an authorized representative of the team. Unless of course *you* happen to be an authorized representative from your team, which authorization can be given by the HC.

I have no problems with the rankings the way they are, so long as a team with a loss is ranked lower than the team that beat them. If you are undefeated, its hard to argue that you should be lower. Time will tell if its a strength of schedule issue. Look at Davis in the past from 2A. Had to go through murderers row in non-district just to get a game back in the day. Anyways, the rest of it will all come out in the wash in a few weeks. I still think whoever is playing their best ball week 10 has the best chance. Either that or those that have been through adversity.

No issue with the rankings. I think Pawhuska is that good. I can see them making a deep run.

I’m still not sold on Cashion being one even though I think they are a solid football team. I expect them to also make a deep run but I can see them losing early as well.

Rejoice is legit. Good luck whoever plays them.

Gore is probably a team that should be ranked somewhere in the range of 10-15. I don’t see them making it past round 2.

I still think Minco is overrated. I’m not saying they’re a bad team but I don’t think they are a top 5 team. I see too many inconsistencies the way they play. That will get them through round 1 but it can hurt them in Round 2 especially if they finish 2nd in their district and have to travel.

Ringling just depends on how well they play defense. I think they will struggle against teams that are faster than they are and have athletes.

I’m not at all surprised at Stroud. I’d figure there would be games where they struggled and they did but they haven’t lost. Stroud is one of those teams where if they get hot they’ll be tough to beat. They also play down to their opponents level which could hurt them.