Statewide Rankings - Week 9

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First the Media poll:

1. Great Crossing (16 FPV - Up 6 from last week)
2. Lexington Catholic [Up 1]
3. Trinity [Up 1]
4. Lyon County [Down 2]
5. Newport [Up 1]
6. Covington Catholic [Down 2]
7. St. Xavier
8. Harlan County
9. Bowling Green
10. Manual [Up 1]
T-11. Evangel Christian [Down 1]
T-11. George Rogers Clark [Up 1]
13. North Oldham [Up 1]
14. Bryan Station [Down 1]
15. Woodford County

Others receiving votes: DeSales 15, Frederick Douglass 12, Cooper 6, Boyd County 1, Henry Clay 1, Male 1.

*Great Crossing became a unanimous selection at #1 for the first time following Lyon County's losses.  Lexington Catholic may have had a legitimate shot at #1 if they'd been able to hold on in their head to head with Great Crossing.

*Same 15 teams in the top 15 as there were a week ago.  Bryan Station probably held on due to their solid win over Frederick Douglass.

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*All of these comparisons will be to the polls released two weeks ago, since last week's were mostly a wash with fewer rankings and no new games.

*We're up to six polls this week! In addition to Martin Media returning after a week off and Nations Elite after two, I found Big Things Kentucky has released rankings, and so they join the group. Big Things Kentucky only rates the top 20 teams, and the Media Poll only had 20 as well this week, so expect a few more "unicorns".  

*We have a consensus at the top! Great Crossing was unanimously #1 by every outlet, and was unanimous by the Media Poll voters (all 16).  

*38 teams were rated in at least one poll, up two from two weeks ago, the last time we had as many as four rankings. Six teams were rated this week but not the previous one - Cooper (Media 18, Nations Elite 18, KSR 18, KYHSZ 18), Oldham County (Nations Elite 22, KYHSZ 23), Ashland (Nations Elite 21), South Laurel (Nations Elite 23), Lawrence County (KYHSZ 24), and Elizabethtown (Nations Elite 25).  You may notice the overlap there in by and large which outlets added new teams to the mix.  Breathitt County, Daviess County, Fleming County, Madison Southern, and Murray all dropped out.  Breathitt County had ridden into the ranks following their 14th Region All "A" win, but have dropped four of five since then.  Daviess County lost to Owensboro two weeks ago, their only loss since December 9th, but didn't have the body of work to hold on. Fleming County was rewarded with a rank after nocking off DeSales, but drops following a loss to Montgomery County.  Madison Southern had been ranked for a while, but have now dropped four of five, and two nights ago lost to 7-11 Jeffersontown.  Murray is the oddest one - apparently their loss to Evangel Christian in the All A was enough to knock them out.  

*With the increase to six polls, and two of them having only 20 teams ranked, we had a jump to 12 unicorns (teams rated by a single outlet).  Those were Corbin (Nations Elite 20), Hazard (Martin Media 20), Ashland (Nations Elite 21), North Hardin (Martin Media 21), Pikeville (KYHSZ 21), Adair County (Martin Media 23), Lloyd Memorial (KSR 23), South Laurel (Nations Elite 23), Bell County (Martin Media 24), Lawrence County (KYHSZ 24), Butler County (KYHSZ 25), and Elizabethtown (Nations Elite 25).  Unsurprisingly, the 20 team polls had no unicorns.  The Media Poll and Big Things Kentucky each had 16 of their 20 teams rated in every single other ranking.

*Those 16 teams that were consensus rated:

Great Crossing
Lyon County
Lexington Catholic
Newport
Trinity
Covington Catholic
St. X
Harlan County
Bowling Green
North Oldham
Evangel Christian
Bryan Station
Woodford County
DeSales
Male
Frederick Douglass

*With the exception of Frederick Douglass, who were rated 25th by Martin Media, all the other consensus rated teams were in the top 20 of all rankings.  

*With the return of Nations Elite came some very, very odd rankings. When we last saw Nations Elite three weeks ago, they had Manual ranked #3.  Now, I understand the loss in the LIT to Butler wasn't the BEST loss, but it's also one of only two Manual has on the whole year.  Apparently that was enough to drop them from #3 right on out of the rankings.  And lest you think they were just forgotten, note that Manual shows up in the "Others receiving votes" portion of that graphic.  None of the other outlets had them rated lower than 18th, and they were still rated as high as 10th.  Less egregious in the size of the drop but standing out like a sore thumb in how the other outlets ranked them is George Rogers Clark.  Three weeks ago, Nations Elite had them 19th. They haven't lost since.  Yet somehow, they dropped from their rankings.  Have they played a murderer's row of opponents? Certainly not.  But they were ranked then by them, went 6-0 since with only one of those games closer than 10 points, so it is quite odd to drop them entirely.  Like Manual, they too are listed in the "Other receiving votes", so they weren't forgotten.  They are not ranked lower than 14th by any other outlet, and Martin Media has them highest at 8th.  It doesn't explain both of them, but consider that Nations Elite ranked South Laurel 23rd - the only outlet to rank them and who were UNRANKED by even Nations Elite three weeks ago - and South Laurel has gone 2-2 since including a loss to North Laurel, who isn't setting the world on fire, and you have a weird, weird decision to have them in and both of those others out.  They're also the only outlet to rank Corbin, who have dropped two in a row.  Granted, one of those came the same day they released the rankings, but it seemed odd to have Corbin at #20 when no other outlet ranked them at all.  Perhaps Nations Elite needs to knock off the rust.

*As usual, Martin Media was responsible for the largest discrepancy in rankings, as they are every week, though this week I'll give them a bit of a pass.  George Rogers Clark is rated 8th by Martin Media, which is a gap of at least 18 ranked spots between it and Nations Elite's unrated finish for GRC.  Manual has a drop of at least 16 spots between their 10th ranking in the Media Poll and Nations Elite's non rated finish.  But less understandable is Martin Media's darling Henry Clay, consistently rated much higher in that poll than any other.  This week, Martin Media keeps them at 11th.  That's 8 spots higher than any other ranking, and two of the five other polls have them unranked entirely.  Ironically, neither of those not rated finishes come from the polls that have only 20 teams, so most agree they should be rated, but no one agrees they should be that high.  Martin Media also has the highest rating of Bryan Station ranking them 6th, while no one else is higher than 10th.  

*The consensus top 5 has four teams this time, which is the most we've had despite adding another poll.  Great Crossing, Lyon County, Lexington Catholic, and Newport are in everyone's top 5.  Trinity narrowly misses the honor as well, ranked 6th by KYHSZ and 9th by Martin Media.  Those five teams are the only consensus top 10 teams, as Covington Catholic (KSR 11), St. X (KYHSZ 11), and Bowling Green (Big Things KY 11) all narrowly missed out due to one rating.  Bowling Green would have been consensus going by the five polls we had been using to this point.

*Two weeks ago we looked at the Massey ratings to find some notable teams that were unranked - two of those (Oldham County and Ashland) find themselves in the rankings now. Campbell County was the third, but after getting trucked by CovCath, they may still be a ways away.