With plenty of debate swirling around who’s this year’s “mythical” national champ — Mater Dei (California) or North Shore (Texas) — we decided bring our media compilation poll out of the moth balls one year after retiring it at the end of last season.
For those you you that forgot how our Media Poll Top 25 works or for those not familiar with it, the poll awards points to a team on the basis of its ranking from each national ranking service. For example, the No. 1 team receives 25 points, the No. 2 team receives 24 points and so forth.
Our media poll uses the USA TODAY Super 25, MaxPreps’ Xcellent 25, MaxPreps’ Freeman Computer Rankings, the Massey Ratings, Prep Nation’s National Prep Football Poll and PrepForce.com‘s national rankings.
It should also be pointed-out that the High School Football America 100 is created with our proprietary algorithm, or in essence a computer ranking. Freeman and Massey are computer rankings, while USA TODAY, MaxPreps, the National Prep Poll and PrepForce are opinion polls.
So with all of the formalities out of the way, Mater Dei, the two-time High School Football America 100 national champs, finishes No. 1 in our media poll with 172 total points out of a possible 175. Aside from the HSFA 100, the Monarchs were No. 1 with USA TODAY, the Freeman Rankings and the Massey Ratings.
North Shore finishes No. 2, eight points behind with 164 total points after being named national champs by MaxPreps, PrepNation.com and PrepForce.com.
St. John Bosco (California), the only team to defeat Mater Dei on the field, finishes No. 3, followed by IMG Academy (Florida) at No. 4 and Duncanville (Texas), which lost to North Shore on a final play Hail Mary, is No. 5.
In all, 59 different teams made the Top 25 in the seven polls combined. Nine of those teams — Mater Dei, North Shore, St. John Bosco, IMG Academy, Duncanville, Archbishop Hoban (Ohio), De La Salle (California), Corona Centennial (California) and St. Joseph’s Prep — were named Top 25 by all seven ranking services.
High School Football America Media Poll Top 25
| Team (State) | HSFA100 | USAT | MP | PrepNation | PrepForce | Freeman | Massey | Pts. |
| #1 Mater Dei (California) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 172 |
| #2 North Shore (Texas) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 164 |
| #3 St. John Bosco (California) | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 163 |
| #4 IMG Academy (Florida) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 151 |
| #5 Duncanville (Texas) | 17 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 119 |
| #6 St. Frances Academy (Maryland) | NR | 4 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 115 |
| #7 St. Louis (Hawaii) | NR | 12 | 7 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 97 |
| #8 (tied) Archbishop Hoban (Ohio) | 9 | 8 | 16 | 8 | 24 | 13 | 7 | 91 |
| #8 (tied) Warren Central (Indiana) | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 23 | NR | 12 | 91 |
| #10 De La Salle (California) | 11 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 88 |
| #11 Corona Centennial (California) | 16 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 87 |
| #12 St. Joseph’s Prep (Pennsylvania) | 4 | 6 | 11 | 19 | 22 | 22 | 14 | 84 |
| #13 Folsom (California) | 12 | 16 | 17 | 17 | NR | 7 | 10 | 77 |
| #14 St. John’s College HS (Washington, DC) | 6 | 20 | 13 | 18 | 8 | 20 | NR | 71 |
| #15 Dutch Fork (South Carolina) | 8 | 9 | NR | 7 | NR | 23 | 15 | 68 |
| #16 Lakeland (Florida) | NR | 23 | 18 | 10 | 9 | 19 | 13 | 64 |
| #17 Allen (Texas) | 21 | 15 | 8 | 25 | 14 | NR | NR | 47 |
| #18 Chandler (Arizona) | 18 | 17 | 15 | NR | NR | 21 | 19 | 40 |
| #19 Milton (Georgia) | 20 | NR | 19 | 13 | 16 | NR | NR | 36 |
| #20 Central (Phenix City, AL) | 10 | 24 | NR | 9 | NR | NR | NR | 35 |
| #21 St. Edward (Ohio) | NR | 22 | 24 | 24 | NR | 10 | 16 | 34 |
| #22 Carol City (Florida) | NR | NR | 12 | NR | 7 | NR | NR | 33 |
| #23 Christian Brothers (Missouri) | NR | 21 | NR | 21 | 25 | 11 | 21 | 31 |
| #24 Miami Central (Florida) | 22 | NR | 20 | NR | 6 | NR | NR | 30 |
| #25 Gonzaga (Washington, DC) | 14 | 18 | 23 | NR | 20 | NR | NR | 29 |
