Proliferation of high school polls spurs subjective debateJamie DeMoney, Founder and Editor
DeMoney is a 1994 graduate of the University of Iowa School of Journalism, and a member of the Football Writers Association of America and the United States Basketball Writers Association.DeMoney has covered high school sports and been involved with prep recruiting and evaluation for over 15 years. He has compiled the National Prep Poll, which is distributed by World Features Syndicate and the Associated Press, since 1999. His preseason rankings have also been included in national magazines published by Sporting News and RISE.
DeMoney is former managing editor of American Football Monthly, the premier trade publication in America for football coaches. He is currently a full-time staff member of Forbes Recruit Evaluation, a football scouting service subscribed to by more than 300 college coaching staffs. Each football season, DeMoney helps evaluate thousands of high school football players and teams in person and on tape. DeMoney maintains a library of more than 4,000 high school game tapes from the last four seasons.
It isn't likely that any other national high school rankings compiler watches as much game tape of the teams he considers for rankings as DeMoney does.
DeMoney worked with USA Today Super 25 rankings originator Dave Krider in 1999-2000 at All-Stater Sports magazine and HighWired Sports.
DeMoney's other credits include serving on the selection panel for the Old Spice Red Zone Player of the Year, editor of Gridiron Greats recruiting yearbook (1995-99), Associate Editor of Hawkeye Nation magazine, contributor to NFLHS.com, and doing play-by-play high school sports for KCJJ-AM in Iowa City, Iowa, during the mid-90s.
DeMoney has offered his views and insight on high school sports and recruiting to a variety of media outlets over the years, including USA Today, MaxPreps.com, The Dallas Morning News, New York Times, and San Francisco Chronicle.
About PrepNation PrepNation.com was originally launched August 1, 2001, for the purpose of creating a permanent online home for the National Prep Poll football and boys basketball rankings.
About the National Prep Poll: Compiled weekly weekly since 1987 and distributed by World Features Syndicate and the Associated Press, the National Prep Poll is the nation's second oldest weekly high school sports rankings. Doug Huff of Student Sports compiled the rankings from 1987 until 1999. Jamie DeMoney has compiled the poll since the start of the 1999 basketball season until the present.
The National Prep Poll is the only high school poll distributed to newspapers and Web sites around the United States by the Associated Press national wire service. The National Prep Poll is the first high school football and boys basketball poll to released in the preseason and during each week of the regular season.
Among the criteria used in the weekly compilation of the National Prep Poll rankings are strength of schedule, the ability to accomplish the ultimate goal on a team's schedule (i.e. winning a championship), impact players and performers, a team's coaching and recent tradition.
Jeremy Plowman, Basketball Contributor
Plowman is one of the nation's most knowledgeable evaluators of high school basketball teams and individual talent. Plowman holds a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Iowa, and is currently a professional educator and high school basketball coach in the Kansas City metro area. His experience includes running high school basketball exposure camps (Midwest Basketball Showcase and High 5), working for a college recruiting company, and freelancing for HighWired Sports/All-Stater Sports.
How national and regional rankings are determined Final determinations of rankings and team selection are formulated by DeMoney and Plowman (with input from writers and analysts across the nation) after viewing ranked teams either in person or on tape before and during the season. DeMoney accumulates a library of more than 750 game tapes (mostly provided by high school coaches) throughout the course of each football season. The process of comparing high school teams from different states that rarely play each other (nor even share common opponents) can suffer from an overload of subjectivity. Opinions from sportswriters in one particular state are generally reliable when they are related only to the teams they see in their own state. In other words, we don't ask a writer in North Carolina to compare the top team in his state to the top team in California, unless of course, he has seen a good number of teams in BOTH states play (which is rare). Instead, we ask the writer to evaluate the team in his own state or region in comparison to other outstanding teams from his own state or region from today and recent history. So, our poll is a "poll of opinion" from across the country rather than a college football style "one person, one vote" tabluation of ratings points.
In addition, we apply a set of four basic criteria to all teams considered for a national or regional ranking. These criteria (listed in no particular order) help facilitate a process that ensures the utmost consistency in our rankings. No one criterian outweighs another, rather it is the team with the best combination of these qualities that warrants the best ranking.
Strength of schedule: This mostly speaks for itself. How difficult is the week-in and week-out competition a team is facing? A team that faces a demanding schedule has the opportunity to compile a more impressive body of work. This, of course, leads us to the "power states" like Texas and Ohio in football and New York City and California in basketball, for example. The top teams in the top states in any given year generally earn a national ranking for being the best in a great state. However, because ours is a national poll, we try to be as inclusive as possible and strive to reward excellence of teams from nearly all states.
Accomplishing the ultimate goal on your schedule: We have a simple motto: If you haven't proved on the field or on the court that you are the best in your state, how can you expect us pollsters to assert that you're among the best in the nation? We can't, and we won't. Therefore, it is almost essential that you achieve the ultimate prize on your schedule (be it a state, section or city championship) in order to hit rankings gold. There are exceptions, of course. For example, during the 2004 season when then-No. 11 Lufkin (Texas) lost its only game of the season by 3 points to eventual national champion Southlake Carroll. Lufkin did not prove it was the best team in Texas, but made a strong case it was the second best team in a great football state. The Panthers finished the season ranked No. 23 for that reason.
Impact players/performers: Teams that have one or more real difference-makers in their lineup have the best opportunity to win big games and stand the test of time as one of the "special" teams in the history of their state or region. However, teams are not great just because they suit up a lot of Division I recruits. Scoreboard is always more important than the recruiting board.
Coaching/tradition (especially recent tradition): Funny thing about high school sports, the great traditional programs generally tend to stay on top. When determining just how good a team is, it is usually instructive to look at recent history to see if a team has the coaching pedigree and tradition of winning to prove it is not merely a "one hit wonder." One hit wonders are usually not a good bet in a big game with a national ranking at stake.
