Manhattan High wasn't supposed to be here. Not like this. If you looked at the kansas prep football rankings back in mid-October, the Indians were a solid team, sure, but they weren't the "team of destiny" that everyone was talking about. That was St. Thomas Aquinas. Or maybe Maize. But as the frost settled on the turf in Emporia this past November, it was Manhattan hoisting the 6A trophy after a 27-0 shutout of Olathe Northwest.
High school football in Kansas is basically a religion in small towns and a source of intense pride in the suburbs. The rankings are the liturgy. But if you’ve followed the sport for more than a minute, you know the weekly polls are mostly just conversation starters. They’re a way for us to argue at the gas station or on Twitter about whether a one-loss team in the Sunflower League is better than an undefeated powerhouse in the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail.
Honestly, the 2025 season was a perfect example of why the numbers on the screen often lie.
The 6A Shakeup and the Rise of the Indians
The final 6A kansas prep football rankings look clean now, with Manhattan at the top. But getting there was a total mess. For most of the season, Maize was the team to beat. They were sitting at 10-0 and looking invincible until they hit the sub-state wall.
Manhattan's path was different. They finished 11-2, but those two losses served as the seasoning they needed. In the title game, Finn Watson was the absolute engine, rushing for 142 yards and throwing for 118. He didn't just play quarterback; he managed the game like a pro. J.J. Dunnigan’s 68-yard touchdown catch before halftime basically sucked the soul out of Olathe Northwest’s sideline.
It’s wild to think that Olathe Northwest, the 4-seed in the East, made it all the way to the final. They were the ultimate "don't count us out" team of 2025. They knocked off a massive Gardner-Edgerton squad 42-28 in the sub-state round, a result that busted almost every bracket in the state.
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Class 5A: The Salina Central Resurrection
If you want to talk about a team that the early kansas prep football rankings completely missed, it’s Salina Central. They weren't even ranked to start the year. Can you believe that? A program with that much history, and they were essentially "others receiving votes" for the first month.
They finished 12-1 and ended up as the 5A state champions. The way they did it was even more impressive. In the championship game against Basehor-Linwood, they were actually trailing 14-10 at the half. Most teams might panic. Salina Central just came out and forced five turnovers in the second half.
Cooper Reves is a name you'll be hearing for a long time. 250 rushing yards and four touchdowns in a state final? That’s legendary. He single-handedly turned a close game into a 51-34 blowout. Basehor-Linwood’s Carson Dixon threw four touchdown passes of his own, but when your defense gives up 37 points in the second half, those stats don't feel like much of a consolation prize.
Why Andale Still Owns Class 3A
Death, taxes, and Andale winning football games. That’s basically the law of the land in Kansas.
They entered the season as the No. 1 team in the kansas prep football rankings and they finished exactly there. A perfect 13-0. They’re currently riding a 26-game winning streak. In the 3A final against Topeka Hayden, they won 38-6. It wasn't even as close as the score looks.
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Andale’s Sam Harp is the kind of player every coach dreams of. He had 144 yards on the ground and three scores in the final. But it’s not just the stars; it’s the weird, lucky breaks that seem to follow teams that play that hard. There was this play where Harp hit Crus Kaiser for a pass, the ball got stripped at the goal line, and Hunter Grimes just happened to be there to recover it for a touchdown. When you're good, the ball bounces your way.
Andale has now won six of the last seven state titles. At some point, we have to stop asking if they’re the best and start asking if anyone in 3A will ever catch them.
The Small Town Giants: 2A through 6-Man
The kansas prep football rankings for the smaller classes often feature the most consistent programs in the state.
- Class 2A: Nemaha Central went 13-0. They’ve become a powerhouse that simply refuses to rebuild; they only reload. They took down a very good Southeast of Saline team 35-6 in the final.
- Class 1A: Sterling was another "unranked to start" story. They finished 13-0 and proved that preseason polls are mostly just a popularity contest.
- 8-Man Division I: South Central stayed at the top of the kansas prep football rankings from start to finish, capping it off with a 12-0 record.
- 6-Man: Cunningham took home the gold, beating Weskan 51-8. It's a different kind of football—fast, high-scoring, and played on a smaller field—but the intensity is exactly the same as 6A.
The Reality of the "Super Top 10"
Every year, sites like Kpreps and Kansas Prep Football try to rank the best teams regardless of class. It’s a fun exercise, but it's fundamentally flawed. How do you compare a 13-0 Andale to an 11-2 Manhattan?
Manhattan usually ends up No. 1 because of the strength of schedule in 6A, but if you put them on the field against Kapaun Mt. Carmel (the 4A champs) or Salina Central, it would be a dogfight.
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Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s 56-21 demolition of Bishop Miege was one of the most eye-opening games of the year. They rushed for 540 yards. Five hundred and forty. Ken Huff had 250 of those. When a 4A team is putting up those kinds of numbers against a program like Miege, you know they belong in the conversation for the best team in the state, period.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Rankings
People tend to look at the record and the ranking and assume they know who the better team is. But in Kansas, the "Regional" and "Sectional" rounds of the playoffs are where the truth comes out.
The East and West brackets are seeded by record, which sounds fair, but it creates "districts of death." You might have the third-best team in the state sitting at a 7-seed because they play in a brutal conference. When they knock off the 2-seed in the second round, people call it an upset. The players in the locker room? They just call it Friday night.
Actionable Insights for the 2026 Season
If you’re a fan, a parent, or a player looking toward next season, don’t get bogged down in where your team sits in the preseason kansas prep football rankings this August. Instead, focus on these metrics that actually correlate with winning:
- Turnover Margin in October: Teams like Salina Central proved that being "opportunistic" on defense is more important than being statistically dominant.
- Rushing Depth: In the Kansas playoffs, the weather almost always turns. If you can’t run the ball with at least two different guys (like Kapaun did with Huff and Sullenger), you’re going to struggle when the wind starts blowing 30 mph.
- The "Sub-State" Factor: Look for teams that have played a brutal schedule and have 2 or 3 losses. They are often more prepared for the pressure of the playoffs than a 9-0 team that has cruised through a weak district.
The rankings are a fun way to track the season, but the real story is always written on the field in late November. Manhattan proved that. Sterling proved that. And as long as they keep playing the games, there will always be a team that makes the "experts" look like they weren't paying attention.
To stay ahead of the curve for next year, start tracking the returning starters in the 4A and 5A classes particularly, as those divisions saw the most upheaval in 2025 and are ripe for new dynasties to form. Keep an eye on the junior class at Kapaun and the defensive line recruits coming out of the Blue Valley schools; they are the ones who will be shifting the rankings in 2026.