SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Rankings

Unless Wando is ranked #2 then they suddenly become relevant, at least during the CCC, and thats not true about seeing all the teams either. At the state level I know for a fact(partly because I used to sit in an office on Sunday night and read emails w the Heises) that a lot of info is obtained and used for rankings.


For the National Rankings I know that Sheldon from ESPN is very very involved and has a TON of contacts that sees A LOT of the teams and players. He also sends out emails periodically to "soccer people" within the state.

I agree that the national rankings are "aloof", as we are prolly not the 6th best team playing this spring, but i still say its harsh to say rankings are irrelevant.

What does Wando have to do with it? They could be 1, 10, unranked. I'd still say, irrelevant.
Now, if a ranking helps create interest, OK. Or if it boosts confidence? Great. Or reinforces a coach's message? Fine.

Rankings are interesting for now but once the playoffs roll around, rankings are thrown out the window

Thank you, sir.

You may have another!

Backscreen17....please stop being such a "Negative Nancy" and just accept that the high rankings of South Carolina teams is a good thing as it stands. It does drive interest in some of the games, which is a GOOD thing. They have rankings all over the place, in many sports. People like to try to compare apples to apples when possible. I am sure that they do not pull these rankings from their backsides. It may be difficult at times to discern which team would be better, and you really can't know until they meet on the field...but then again there are many factors that could be going on with high school kids that could affect the outcome of the game. Just because a team upsets another team, I'm willing to bet that in the longrun if the teams met a couple of times, the "better" team would win most of the games. Look at the NBA and MLB, the better teams win the series, but sometimes the underdog can match up better on a given day.

YOU CAN'T RANK WANDO LOWER THAN 1!!!! THOSE PEOPLE GOT MONEY!!!!

Geez guys, I didn't say that rankings are bad, inaccurate, etc. I didn't say any particular team should be ranked higher, lower, or not at all. The word I used was "irrelevant." As in, when you don't see all (or even most) of the teams, any ranking is wildly subjective.
Yes, I can tell you that this kid plays for this team, and therefore they should be good. I can also show you numerous examples where that's NOT the case. I can show you comparative scores, but any jack*** knows comparative scores are meaningless.
What I can tell you is that the state champion in any given classification is likely to come from among 2-4 teams. But does that always happen? No.
So, if rankings make people happy as a talking point, or a justification, or a motivational tool, fine. But please, please, let's not pretend they have any other role than that, and certainly aren't a reliable predictor of outcomes.
Otherwise, Irmo would be your defending Class AAAA boys state champion, and we'd all be mailing this year's trophy to whoever is on top this week.
That ain't Negative Nancy. That's reality.

I believe these rankings are relevant. They may be imperfect, but they are relevant. I consider something irrelevant when it has nothing to do with what is being considered. State or national HS soccer rankings are relevant to considering the best HS soccer teams - they are imperfect but certainly relevant based on the information we have (ie: there is a system, process and knowledge base to determine these rankings). You may disagree, but even by virtue of the discussion on this topic, they are relevant.

any scores from Palmetto cup?