NATIONAL RANKINGS: Taking a look at High School Football America and MaxPreps’ preseason national rankings

With the high school football season here, we felt it was time to look at what the national preseason rankings had to say about our teams in Florida.

As we go through the season, we will update you with the national ranking have to say about the Sunshine State, focusing on High School Football America’s 100 rankings as well as MaxPreps’ Top 25 rankings as well as any Top 100 rankings they produce through the season.

First with High School Football American which released its preseason rankings last month, it should be no shock that Florida is heavily represented on the list.

The stands outs among the Top 25 include defending Class 7A State Champion, Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas starting the season at No. 4 while defending 2020 National Champion Bradenton IMG Academy sits at No. 5.

Only two other teams from round out the initial Top 25 which includes defending Class 5A State Champion, Plantation American Heritage at No. 18, and Class 6A State Champion, Miami Central at No. 22. Miami Central will defend their state title as a Class 5A school this season as the Rockets dropped a class in the one-year classification cycle that was released back in March.

Teams inside the Top 50 include defending Class 4A State Champion Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons at No. 28 with Miami Northwestern at No. 32, who will now compete in Class 6A for this season after spending the last two years in Class 5A.

Jacksonville Trinity Christian who won the 2020 Class 3A State Championship, starts its title defense at No. 45 as a member in Class 2A, while the team they defeated, Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna, which remains in Class 3A, sits at No. 46.

Miami Columbus, who won the gold bracket of the Tri-County Championship last year after opting out of the FHSAA state series due to COVID-19, starts the 2021 season at No. 50.

The rest of the teams to crack the High School Football America 100 include defending Class 8A State Champion Sanford Seminole at No. 71, Orlando Jones at No. 73, Class 7A State Runner-up Orlando Edgewater at No. 86, Venice at No. 91, and Tampa Jesuit at No. 96.

High School Football America’s 100 rankings are derived from a proprietary formula developed by High School Football America’s founder, Jeff Fisher.

In the MaxPreps rankings, which were released at the end of June had some differences compared to High School Football America 100 rankings.

The rankings which are compiled by Zack Poff, National Football Editor for MaxPreps had IMG Academy ranked No. 2 to start the season while St. Thomas Aquinas was ranked No. 6.

Other Florida teams to crack MaxPreps’ Top 25 rankings includes Plantation American Heritage at No. 9, and Miami Central at No. 16.

Inside the Top 50 for MaxPreps features one team, Miami Northwestern at No. 36, while Cardinal Gibbons is just two spots away from cracking the Top 50 at No. 52.

Rounding out the Top 100 includes Jesuit at No. 47, Jones at No. 68, Sanford Seminole at No. 86, Columbus at No. 88, Jacksonville Trinity Christian at No. 90, and Pinecrest Gulliver Prep at No. 96.

Stay tuned here on FloridaHSFootball.com all season long as we keep track of the national rankings from these two great resources!