AZPreps365 high school football power rankings for the Fall 2022 season

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — AZPreps365 just released their first high school football power rankings this year for the open division. There are a couple of surprises, but it’s still early, and rankings can change fast. Mark McClune talks about the rankings with AZPreps365′s Jose Garcia on “The Extra Point Podcast.”

JG: You’ve got four premier region teams in the open rankings, of course, and we knew that from the start that was going to happen. But Liberty being ranked No. 1.

MM: And hammering people.

JG: Yes, the job that they’re doing and the job that they did against Basha, right off the bat, second week in a row that they score on their opening drive. They are on a journey. They want to make a statement after what happened the previous two seasons and for them to be No. 1, not surprising at all like you said after all the blowouts in the first five games.

MM: So you got Liberty No. 1. Chandler’s No. 2?

JG: Chandler’s No. 2. They made a statement against Casteel -- it took them two days to finish -- I think they went up 35-nothing against Casteel then Casteel did a good job in the second half. But I think Chandler wanted to make a statement of its own because I think it’s the first time Chandler’s not ranked No. 1 in the power rankings during the first week that we show the power rankings.

JG: We do have Casteel in there.

MM: Did Basha go down after last week?

JG: No, Basha’s in there as well. Desert Mountain, one of the 5A teams, the only 5A team.

MM: So, that’s interesting. Does Desert Mountain want to be in there?

JG: I don’t think their fans do. Maybe the players do, you know, they want to go up against the best and the first week when we release the big school rankings, there’s some head-scratchers in there for sure. Desert Mountain lost to Notre Dame on Friday but Desert Mountain is still ranked ahead of Notre Dame. Higley lost to Horizon and Horizon’s ahead of Higley. And I tell fans all the time the computer that does the rankings, they (sic) only have 50% of the information so wait until the end and everything pretty much level out and you’ll see where teams are supposed to be ranked at the very end. The No. 1 goal of the power rankings is to seed the playoff teams and we’re not at that point yet.

AZPreps365 power rankings for the open division (as of Oct. 14):

Check AZPreps365 website for up-to-date information.

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