High school football season is back, and we are bringing back our power rankings for the second straight year.
News-Leader reporter Wyatt Wheeler ranked more than 50 teams in southwest Missouri before cutting the list down to the Top 25 while also including the first 10 teams who missed the cut in alphabetical order.
Among the considered factors in the preseason rankings:
- Returning players
- Loss of impact players
- Watching the teams play
- Previous rankings
- Program success
Note that rankings don't necessarily mean a Class 1 team ranked higher than a Class 5 team would beat them head-to-head, but the rankings show dominance by class.