We have five weekly regional contests during the season. EKY, NKY, WKY, Central and Louisville. In your opinion, which area boasts the best football this year?

 

EKY - Hazard, Raceland, Prestonsburg, Corbin, Somerset, Belfry, Breathitt, Bell, Johnson Central, Ashland, etc. Hurt by lack of large schools?

 

NKY - at least one strong representative in all classes this year except 3A. Beechwood, NCC, Holmes is on the rise, Highlands, CovCath, Ryle, etc.

 

WKY - Mayfield, Murray, Ft. Campbell, P-T, Franklin-Simpson, Lone Oak, Bowling Green, Christian County, etc. Same lack of dominant big-school powers as EKY?

 

Central - LCA, Frankfort, Boyle, LexCath, Henry Clay, Clark County, etc.

 

Louisville - Holy Cross, DeSales, CAL, Central, Western, Trinity, St. X, Male, Manual, Eastern, etc. By its nature. loaded at the 6A end of the scale?

 

Not tryiing to intentionally leave anyone out or misclassify (by region) anyone; just trying to get opinions.

 

If you had to intriduce a complete stranger to high school football in the Commonwealth, where would you point them? Where's the best ball being played this season?

Normally this would be a much easier question to answer, but this year we are seeing some teams that are normally great drop a little, and some teams that are normally less then great rise a little. Not to climb up on the fence, but I'm not sure you can say one area is head and shoulders above the others this year.

 

EKY - Some of the normal powers are struggling some this year. Russell is having some trouble, still a top 15 team in 3A, but not beating the bigger schools like normal. Raceland is still a top 10 team in 1A, but again not beating the bigger programs in the area. Ashland has their strongest team in quite a few years is boosting the quality of football in the area. Johnson Central's rise as one of the states best teams in their class. Belfry is good as always, even though I know some would say not as good as normal. Somerset is strong. Bell is very strong and could be on their way to a State Championship. Greenup County, a normal bottom dweller is strong and will win a lot of games this year. Lawrence County coming off an undefeated season is again strong. Rowan County, who has not seen much success in a while, is a decent team. West Carter is better then many would think. Not a program that has been overly successful, but is now capable of upsetting some very good teams. Fairview is a top 10 team in 1A and doing well.

 

NKY - Of course Highlands is a top program in the state. Ryle has risen to one of the top big schools in the state is giving NKY that large school success they need. Simon Kenton, although, not as strong as last year is still helping NKY is their quest for 6A success. NCC is good, I'm not sure how they rank among their normal success, but still a quality program. Some say Beechwood is down a little. Maybe not beating the larger schools like in the past, but still one of the top 1A programs in the state. Holmes is obviously trying to build a strong program and they are making big strides. Covington Catholic appears to still be down a little more then normal, I'm having trouble getting a good read on them, but overall a good program. Other then Beechwood, the 1A schools seem to be struggling a good deal. To make 1A football better in NKY, some of the 1A schools really need to step it up and challenge Beechwood. That will make all the 1A programs in NKY better.

 

WKY - Mayfield is strong and could possibly be the State Champions in 1A this year. They are beating teams regardless of class. Fort Campbell is not as strong as they have been the last three years. They are still a quality team, but not where they were. Lone Oak has been under the radar a little this year, but is a good program. Bowling Green is very strong, and is doing better then most would have thought. Could they beat Highlands this year? I'm not sure, but they may have the best shot of anyone.

 

Central - LCA is still a great team, but not as dominate as last season, that was a special team. But, LCA is still a very good team. Frankfort is a top 10 1A team is doing well. Boyle strong. Lexington Catholic not as strong as normal, a little down from recent years. Henry Clay up a little, but not dominate. Lexington still needs to improve football as a whole, not strong across the board.

 

Louisville - Obviously strong in 6A and no one else can claim that. Trinity, St. Xavier, Male, Manual, and Ballard's new rise. 6A belongs to Louisville, but some of the other classes are lacking. Holy Cross is giving them a strong 1A team this season, something they were lacking. Central is very strong. Many of the other programs are not dominate. Louisville is strong in 6A, but needs improvement in most of the other classes.

Ram, your analysis is superb, as always, but I'm going to disagree with you on your look at metro Louisville -

 

1A - Louisville Holy Cross is ranked as high as #2 in this class. Kentucky Country Day is ranked as high as #7 in some polls (and amazingly omitted in the BGP poll).

 

2A - DeSales is for real and ranked #4 in BGP; CAL is ranked #10 in BGP. Litkenhous has these two ranked #3 and #6. Only NKY has as many top 10 teams in NCC and Cov Holy Cross (in Litkenhous).

 

3A - This is a class metro Louisville is probably under-represented to begin with, with just 7 teams out of 36. But Central is #1 in BGP, and Litkenhous has Central #4, North Oldham #6, and Henry County #10. (North is probably a little high in Litkenhous, but they are probably better than their 2-2 record due to injuries... their two losses have been to 2A top 10 CAL and a very good 5A Jeffersontown team, without their star running back and a dozen of his teammates!)

 

4A - Western is consensus top 5, and Collins should be with one of the most explosive offenses in the state of any class. Hard to believe they are absent from the BGP top 10, despite blowout wins over Sheldon Clark and Elizabethtown, a win over North Hardin, and a three point loss to Marion County on the road. (Collins is #8 in Litkenhous).

 

5A - John Hardin is a solid top 3 pick, and Oldham County is hovering just outside the top 10.

 

6A - overwhelmingly metro Louisville's strong suit, with St. X, Trinity, Ballard, Male, Manual, and Eastern all in most top 10s, plus Seneca and Fern Creek.

 

Just using the BGP polls, metro Louisville has a team in the top 3 in every class except 2A, where DeSales is ranked #4. To me, that means metro Louisville is arguably the only region that has at least one top contender in every class.

Have to remember that metro Louisville includes John Hardin, Oldham County, Collins, etc.

Overall, I'm stunned at how few truly competitive matchups there are in NKY on a week-by-week basis. Sure, there's a game or two every week, but I struggle at times running the NKY Contest to come up with more than a handful of games in which the outcome of the game isn't obvious before it's played.

Louisville, hands down.

Overall, I'm stunned at how few truly competitive matchups there are in NKY on a week-by-week basis. Sure, there's a game or two every week, but I struggle at times running the NKY Contest to come up with more than a handful of games in which the outcome of the game isn't obvious before it's played.

 

I'm having the same issue in Lexington. The Lexington / Central Kentucky contest is a struggle every week. I always try to have games featuring two teams considered in the Lex/CKY region, but often have to have games involving "out of region" teams to have competitive games.

Louisville, no question

Jefferson County. Little argument here.