High school football doesn’t have the luxury of college and the NFL in which the best teams go head-to-head in a defined championship game, so it falls on the media to fulfill the excruciating task of deciding which team is the best in the nation.
On occasion, it’s fairly straightforward. For example, when Mater Dei went 15-0 in 2017 with an offense led by JT Daniels and Amon-Ra St. Brown, all seven media outlets voted for the Monarchs; similarly, in 2021, when they went 12-0.
But most years, it’s a near-impossible task. Who can say with certainty that one elite team full of Division I talent would beat another elite team full of Division I talent? Who can even say with certainty that a rematch wouldn’t flip the script in a game between those teams?
This year, four teams had a case for the No. 1 spot in the country. USA TODAY High School Sports selected St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), as did the other six outlets that voted, but history should not show that this decision was made lightly.
The top four spots were:
No. 1 St. John Bosco (13-1)
No. 2 Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) (14-1)
No. 3 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) (12-1)
No. 4 Central (Miami) (14-0)
