Rick Suter, USA Today high school football ranker
Today’s interviewee is USA Today senior content strategist Rick Suter, who works on the publication’s weekly national high school football top-25 rankings. USA Today’s most recent rankings put Class 6A finalists Buford and Carrollton at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. That means Buford and Carrollton are likely playing for their first national championship when they face off in the Class 6A championship on Tuesday. Buford also is No. 1 with ESPN, and Carrollton is No. 1 with MaxPreps. Grayson was No. 1 for two weeks and is now No. 8.
1. What has impressed you the most about national powers Buford, Carrollton and Grayson this season? “Back in August, when we did our preseason, we were high on all three. Carrollton was basically 26th of the preseason 25. As we started to look at the talent and people that are worth identifying, we saw all three of them being really strong competition. As the season moved along and we got into this crunch time, Grayson was someone that was moving really close [to getting USA Today's No. 1 ranking after a 5-0 start with victories over three nationally prominent teams, including Alabama Class 7A champion Thmpson], and then that game with Carrollton was just incredible to see how [Carrollton] handled that team on both sides of the ball.” [Carrollton beat Grayson 34-14 in the Class 6A quarterfinals and moved up to No. 4. Buford became No. 1 the next week, and now Carrollton is No. 2. Grayson remains in the top 10 at No. 8.]
2. How much do head-to-head results affect rankings when comparing teams that don’t play and don’t have common opponents? “That’s such a big part of our selection process. For me, there’s always going to be that sort of subjective argument across the country. I’m out here in Southern California, so we deal with it all the time. But it’s how you’re able to handle what’s presented in front of you. The 6As, 5As things like that. Both teams, Buford and Carrollton, it’s like, ‘These guys are so clearly a class above others when it comes to being able to control the competition.’” [Carrollton has won every game by 20 points or more except for a 28-21 win over Rome after trailing 21-7 late in the third quarter on Aug. 29. Buford has won each game by 15 or more except for a 20-13 decision over Milton and 34-26 victory over Douglas County in pre-region play.]
3. How does USA Today compare dominant teams from different parts of the country without ever seeing them compete? “We rely on a lot of the information that people are seeing, sort of the boots on the ground in those areas that can feed into the national lens. Every year, it’s going to be Texas, Georgia, Florida, California, places like that where you’re going to have kind of that hotbed. But the Georgia product, especially as we’ve started bringing back the All-American teams and whatnot, you have your Bryce Perry-Wrights [Buford defensive lineman] and people like that are just massive standouts that would do just as well in California as they would in North Carolina or Texas. It helps us to really start to kind of narrow down those things knowing that it’s always going to be that subjective.” [Buford has eight seniors who have signed with Power 4 Conference teams and others who still might. Carrollton has 11 senior Division I signees with four going to ACC or SEC schools.]
4. How does the national championship selection process work? “It bases off the same thing as the preseason list. We look at how we had them, the roadblock. We sit back and go, ‘OK, if this team was playing this team,’ like, you have to come up with some of those hypotheticals. When you come down to it, it’s finding the best teams."
