January in Wisconsin usually means one thing: huddling inside while the wind howls off Lake Michigan. But for anyone obsessed with the gridiron, the chill hasn't cooled down the debates over the wisconsin high school football rankings. We just wrapped up a 2025 season that honestly felt like a fever dream. If you were at Camp Randall back in November, you saw the hierarchy of the state get flipped on its head.
Rankings are weird. They're basically just an educated guess until the mud starts flying in Level 3 of the playoffs. Most people look at the final MaxPreps or Wissports lists and think that's the gospel. It isn't. You've got to look at the "Performance Factor" points and how the WIAA is reshuffling the deck for 2026 to see who actually owns the state right now.
The Power Vacuum at the Top
For a long time, the conversation started and ended with Kimberly or Franklin. Not this year. The wisconsin high school football rankings shifted toward Hartland and West De Pere in a way that feels permanent.
Arrowhead finishing 13-1 and taking down the top-ranked Bay Port Pirates 18-15 in the Division 1 title game was a statement. It wasn’t just a win; it was a "we’re back" moment for a program that hadn't hoisted the gold trophy since 2013. They did it with a brutal schedule, too. When you look at the strength of schedule metrics, Arrowhead was playing a different sport than half the state.
Then you have West De Pere. Going 14-0 is hard enough. Doing it while staying at the top of the Division 2 rankings from August to November is almost impossible. Patrick Greisen, their senior QB, basically operated like a surgeon. He shared the WFCA Large School Offensive Player of the Year honors with Notre Dame’s Kingston Allen, and honestly, you could argue either deserved it outright.
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Small School Dominance and the Undefeated Obsession
It’s easy to get blinded by the big schools. But if you want to see the real "pound-for-pound" kings in the wisconsin high school football rankings, you have to look at the smaller divisions. We had a ridiculous amount of undefeated champions this year.
- Grafton (14-0): They took the Division 3 title in a 17-15 nail-biter against Reedsburg. First title since 1982.
- Winneconne (14-0): They owned Division 4.
- Mayville (14-0): They survived a 42-32 shootout against Northwestern to claim Division 5.
- Darlington (14-0): They finally got back to the mountaintop in Division 6.
- Kenosha St. Joseph (14-0): The Lancers didn't just win Division 7; they proved their ranking wasn't a fluke by handling Cochrane-Fountain City in the final.
Most people get it wrong when they compare these teams. You can't just say a D1 team would crush a D6 team and call it a day. The rankings reflect dominance within their ecosystem. Darlington, for instance, has appeared in 13 championship games. That kind of historical weight matters when voters are looking at the weekly polls.
The WIAA Performance Factor: The Ranking Killer
Here is what nobody talks about: the "Success Factor" is changing the wisconsin high school football rankings for 2026 before a single snap has been taken. The WIAA uses a points system based on playoff success over a three-year period. If you win too much, they kick you up a division.
Take a look at the 2026 assignments that just dropped. Badger and West De Pere are both being forced up into Division 1 because they’ve been too good. This completely shifts the preseason rankings for next year. Suddenly, the "big boys" in D1 have two more monsters to deal with. Meanwhile, schools like Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln and Oregon are moving down to D2 because of the same points system.
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It’s sorta like a promotion and relegation system in soccer, except it’s based on a math formula that leaves coaches scratching their heads. If you're looking at the rankings and wondering why a perennial powerhouse is suddenly ranked lower, check their division. Moving from D2 to D1 is a massive jump in depth and size.
Standout Talent You Might Have Missed
Rankings are driven by stars. Period. You can't talk about the best teams without talking about the kids making the plays.
Richie Flanigan over at Green Bay Notre Dame is a name you're going to hear a lot in 2026. He’s only a junior, but he already snagged the Large School Lineman of the Year award. Usually, those awards go to seniors who are heading to the Big Ten. For a junior to take it? That’s rare.
On the defensive side, Waunakee’s McCoy Smith was the absolute heart of that unit. He took home the Large School Player of the Year. Waunakee always seems to reload, and even though they lost a heartbreaker to Arrowhead in the semifinals, they stayed in the top five of the wisconsin high school football rankings all season because of guys like Smith.
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What the Computer Polls Miss
I’ve spent way too much time looking at the Massey and MaxPreps computer rankings. They’re great for data, but they miss the "Friday Night" factor. Computers love blowouts. They see a team win 50-0 and they move them up ten spots.
But in Wisconsin, we have the "mercy rule" (the running clock). Coaches here—especially the legends like those at Stratford or Kimberly—tend to pull their starters early. A computer might see a 35-7 win as "weak," but a human scout knows that game was over in the second quarter.
This is why the WFCA coaches' poll is usually more accurate than the algorithm-based ones. The coaches know who has the toughest offensive line and who’s just padding stats against a winless conference rival. Honestly, if you want to know who the real top ten are, look at who the other coaches are afraid to play.
Actionable Insights for the 2026 Season
If you're already looking ahead to the 2026 season, don't just follow the 2025 final standings. Things are about to get messy.
- Watch the D1/D2 Shuffle: Keep an eye on West De Pere. Their transition to Division 1 is the biggest storyline of the offseason. They have the talent, but the physical grind of a D1 playoff bracket is a different beast.
- The Junior Class Peak: Notre Dame Academy is going to be scary. With Kingston Allen and Richie Flanigan returning as seniors, they are the odds-on favorite to dominate whatever division they land in.
- Monitor Transfer Portal Fallout: It isn't just for colleges anymore. We're seeing more "open enrollment" movement in Wisconsin than ever before. Schools like Oak Creek have been active in getting high-end talent to move in, which can spike a team's ranking in a single summer.
- Track the New Coaches: Stratford is entering a new era with Marshall Lehman taking over for Jason Tubbs. Stratford has a record 10 titles. Any dip in their ranking will be a massive shock to the system.
The wisconsin high school football rankings will reset this August, and with the division realignments, the 2026 preseason poll is going to look nothing like the one we just finished.