SALT LAKE CITY — In the buildup to the high school football season this summer, the Deseret News asked every head coach in the state what they thought about the UHSAA’s shift to using RPI rankings to determine playoff seeding.
There were strong opinions for and against the change, but wait-and-see responses were by far the most common.
On Monday morning, the UHSAA unveiled its initial rankings — which are based heavily on wins and then wins by an opponent — and not surprisingly the release elicited a lot of strong responses.
Corner Canyon (6A), Salem Hills (5A), Park City (4A), Manti (3A) and Millard (2A) are the top teams in their respective classification after the initial RPI release, all five of which are undefeated through five weeks.
Many of the coaches that the Deseret News contacted on Monday about the rankings expressed a similar wait-and-see approach, but now from a standpoint that they hope the final rankings after Week 10 are more accurate than the Week 5 rankings.
“I think it’s too early to pass judgement. I think that for the most part it will sort out the way it should by the end of the regular season,” said Beaver coach Jon Marshall. “I do think there will be some glitches that will need to be worked out as we move forward after the season regarding playing teams from different classifications, everyone not playing the same common opponents and quality of opponents. One thing for sure, it has people talking more about high school sports.”
Olympus coach Aaron Whitehead also said he’s hopeful the rankings sort themselves out over the rest of the regular season because they’re inaccurate now.
Whitehead didn’t express concern about his own team checking in at No. 5, but rather where some of the other strong 5A programs like Orem and Timpview are ranked.
“I’m an advocate for what we’ve done in the past, allowing region play to dictate where we are seeded. Computers are great for conducting research, doing family history and ordering pizza, but there’s not a formula for ranking teams that accurately shows where the teams truly rank,” Whitehead said.
He believes Orem (No. 12), Timpview (No. 15) and Alta (No. 19) have been punished in the initial RPI rankings for following the old scheduling model of playing a tough preseason schedule to prepare for region play.
“These three teams are among the best in 5A, but Orem is ranked right in the middle of the classification and Timpview and Alta are ranked at the bottom half. It would be less than ideal to finish in the top half, only to be rewarded by playing one of those three during the first round,” said Whitehead.
There’s a good chance the final RPI rankings will fall more in line with reality, but what if they don’t?
In 6A, Bingham is only ranked ninth and then Region 1 teams like Davis (3-2) and Fremont (2-3) are ranked 19th and 20th behind winless Jordan at 16th.
Jordan has played the toughest schedule in 6A, but it has only been competitive in one of its four games. Herriman is ranked second behind Corner Canyon, but coach Dustin Pearce doesn’t know that it means anything right now.
“I honestly don’t know what to expect. It’s something new. We have just approached each week the same as past years. Each game is important to improve. We want to be playing our best football when region play approaches,” said Pearce.
In 4A, one of the first oddities is No. 2 Green Canyon ahead of No. 4 Sky View, even though Sky View beat Green Canyon on Friday.
What if the teams both win out? It’s possible that Green Canyon could finish the year ahead of Sky View in the RPI rankings despite finishing second in the region standings. That was one of the biggest complaints from the coaches in the preseason.
Stansbury coach Eric Alder reiterated that stance on Monday.
“I like the RPI system in theory. However, we need to find a way to include region standings into the formula. Playoff rankings based solely on RPI totally devalues region standings, which I think is wrong,” said Alder.
Morgan is second in the initial 3A rankings behind Manti, with Grantsville in third and North Sanpete in fourth. For North Sanpete, it’s a bit of a head scratcher to be behind Grantsville despite winning the Week 1 matchup, but again, many are hopeful it sorts itself out by season’s end.
For Morgan coach Kovi Christiansen he has other concerns.
“It makes it really difficult to schedule games, especially close ones,” he said. “Schools that are bigger don’t want to play smaller and we have mostly bigger schools close. There is a reason that colleges went away from the RPI rating systems. It is not an accurate way to measure how good a team is.”
“Pretty hard to believe that Juan Diego isn’t in the top 10 on RPI,” he continued. “Beating a 6A school doesn’t account for very much. So the higher seeds will see a team like Juan Diego first round of the playoffs?”
Millard is the surprise No. 1 team in the 2A rankings just ahead of Beaver. Of all the classifications though, 2A is the one that seems most likely to work itself out as most of the top teams play each other over the 10 weeks.
Class 6A
Listed by rank, with win-loss record and RPI also reported
1. Corner Canyon — 5-0 — 0.75097
2. Herriman — 4-1 — 0.729047
3. Pleasant Grove — 5-0 — 0.697564
4. Lone Peak — 4-1 — 0.684489
5. Skyridge — 4-0 — 0.668038
6. Syracuse — 4-1 — 0.633299
7. American Fork — 3-2 — 0.631747
8. Riverton — 4-1 — 0.623485
9. Bingham — 3-1 — 0.616119
10. Kearns — 4-1 — 0.592647
11. Roy — 3-2 — 0.568452
12. East — 3-2 — 0.550041
13. Hunter — 4-1 — 0.540755
14. Westlake — 1-4 — 0.505642
15. Weber — 3-2 — 0.496807
16. Jordan — 0-4 — 0.46466
17. West Jordan — 2-3 — 0.459562
18. West — 3-2 — 0.459298
19. Davis — 3-2 — 0.455138
20. Fremont — 2-3 — 0.449774
21. Copper Hills — 3-1 — 0.419154
22. Layton — 1-4 — 0.408942
23. Granger — 0-5 — 0.383819
24. Northridge — 1-4 — 0.362505
25. Taylorsville — 0-5 — 0.300962
26. Cyprus — 1-4 — 0.299819
27. Clearfield — 0-5 — 0.264924
Class 5A
Listed by rank, with win-loss record and RPI also reported
1. Salem Hills — 5-0 — 0.7467
2. Springville — 4-1 — 0.704903
3. Woods Cross — 5-0 — 0.683652
4. Farmington — 4-1 — 0.674932
5. Olympus — 4-1 — 0.644573
6. Provo — 4-1 — 0.640083
7. Highland — 4-1 — 0.606572
8. Brighton — 3-2 — 0.591291
9. Lehi — 4-1 — 0.570944
10. Wasatch — 3-2 — 0.570809
11. Maple Mountain — 3-2 — 0.549976
12. Orem — 2-3 — 0.546579
13. Murray — 4-1 — 0.535439
14. Bonneville — 3-2 — 0.524259
15. Timpview — 2-3 — 0.501867
16. Box Elder — 2-3 — 0.499204
17. Payson — 2-3 — 0.480126
18. Skyline — 3-2 — 0.465323
19. Alta — 1-3 — 0.460283
20. Spanish Fork — 2-3 — 0.416081
21. Bountiful — 1-4 — 0.408803
22. Timpanogos — 0-5 — 0.406542
23. Viewmont — 1-4 — 0.396078
24. Mountain Ridge — 0-5 — 0.351421
25. Cottonwood — 0-5 — 0.27934
26. Hillcrest — 0-5 — 0.2468
Class 4A
Listed by rank, with win-loss record and RPI also reported
1. Park City — 5-0 — 0.747582
2. Green Canyon — 4-1 — 0.711029
3. Dixie — 4-1 — 0.693574
4. Sky View — 4-1 — 0.683494
5. Mountain View — 5-0 — 0.635445
6. Stansbury — 3-2 — 0.564048
7. Ogden — 1-4 — 0.508899
8. Bear River — 2-3 — 0.498059
9. Tooele — 2-3 — 0.49366
10. Pine View — 3-2 — 0.490413
11. Ridgeline — 2-3 — 0.477059
12. Cedar — 2-3 — 0.472298
13. Desert Hills — 2-3 — 0.446699
14. Logan — 1-4 — 0.421429
15. Snow Canyon — 2-3 — 0.410414
16. Mountain Crest — 1-4 — 0.398021
17. Crimson Cliffs — 1-4 — 0.352027
18. Uintah — 0-4 — 0.342477
19. Hurricane — 1-4 — 0.34177
20. Cedar Valley — 1-4 — 0.332241
21. Canyon View — 0-5 — 0.294426
22. Ben Lomond — 0-5 — 0.265179
Class 3A
Listed by rank, with win-loss record and RPI also reported
1. Manti — 4-0 — 0.756495
2. Morgan — 4-0 — 0.686857
3. Grantsville — 3-2 — 0.67776
4. North Sanpete — 5-0 — 0.66304
5. San Juan — 3-2 — 0.651132
6. Juab — 4-1 — 0.611353
7. South Summit — 2-2 — 0.590807
8. Delta — 2-3 — 0.571
9. Summit Academy — 2-2 — 0.569014
10. ALA — 4-1 — 0.538116
11. Juan Diego — 2-3 — 0.516471
12. Richfield — 1-3 — 0.483872
13. Grand County — 1-3 — 0.480526
14. Union — 2-3 — 0.42805
15. Emery — 0-5 — 0.406132
16. Carbon — 1-3 — 0.390454
17. Judge Memorial — 1-4 — 0.358201
18. South Sevier — 0-5 — 0.327547
Class 2A
Listed by rank, with win-loss record and RPI also reported
1. Millard — 5-0 — 0.7966
2. Beaver — 5-0 — 0.79524
3. Milford — 4-1 — 0.764036
4. Monticello — 2-1 — 0.711002
5. Duchesne — 4-1 — 0.709403
6. Kanab — 3-1 — 0.621952
7. Enterprise — 3-2 — 0.599848
8. Parowan — 2-2 — 0.584851
9. North Sevier — 2-3 — 0.471976
10. North Summit — 2-3 — 0.452529
11. Gunnison Valley — 1-3 — 0.436896
12. Layton Christian — 1-3 — 0.37767
13. Rich — 0-3 — 0.227581