Weekly OSSAA Rankings Roundup (Week 2)

The weekly OSSAA rankings have been released for August 28 (week 2). These rankings are a guideline that the OSSAA uses to place the teams for regionals.

Let’s take a look.

Class A

I said last week there were 45 1st place votes given and only 39 went to Oktaha. Either I miscounted or more coaches voted this week, because there’s a total of 48 – 1st place votes. However, Oktaha still DIDN’T get all the votes and I’m trying to wonder why. I don’t mean to sound like an Oktaha cheerleader, but the Tigers are clearly the best team in either class so far this season. In the current rankings they’ve beaten #2, #3 (twice), #4, #8, #11, and #12.
Someone messaged me last week saying he understood my criticism of the rankings, but “that’s the way it’s always been done.” He didn’t say it was the right way, however. I respect him for letting me know, but the coach who voted Navajo #1 shouldn’t get to vote again. Wister getting a #1 vote is far more plausible than Navajo getting one.
Wister moves up to #2….after losing to Silo?
With their 2 losses last week, Dale moves out of the #2 slot and they trade places with #2 Wister.
Preston moves up 2 spots to #6 after their road win over Dale.
Silo slips to #7 after beating Wister? Sure the Rebels lost to a team in Missouri, but that team is the defending Missouri state champ.
Tushka move up 3 spots to #9 after beating Wright City and winning the Roff tournament. (How is Wright City still ahead of them?)
Arapaho-Butler enters the rankings at #18 after winning their own tournament with wins over Wright City and Sterling in the semis and finals respectively.

Class B

While I don’t personally rank them as the top team in Class B (Tupelo followed closely by Calumet), it doesn’t really bother me that they are #1 here. They are still 11-3 and have wins over Class A’s #5, #10, #11, #12, #13, and #17. However, you can’t overlook the fact they have lost back to back games and the way they lost them. After leading Tushka late in their game, they gave up 5 unanswered runs to lose 5-2 and got run ruled by Rattan 13-1. That is 18 runs given up in that time to only 1 run scored. Yikes. Let’s see if they bounce back at the H.E. Labor Day Tournament this week.
Tupelo was #2 last week and won their 3 games by a combined score of 32-2 with a pair of those wins over ranked teams. They also gained 2 – 1st place votes. So it’s natural they don’t drop right? Wrong. They are at #3. SMH.
Calumet jumped Tupelo and I understand why. Not a fan of it, but I get it. Calumet went 5-0 last week and closed out the week winning the Okarche/AmPo Invite with wins over Okarche (A, #10) in the semis and AmPo (A, #5) in the finals. They won those games by giving up only 1 hit each to both teams. I’m big on the Chieftans as state title contenders, but not sure about them jumping Tupelo…yet.
Stuart is the team that doesn’t get attention, but is definitely one to watch out for. They are 1 of only 4 undefeated teams left (Oktaha, Preston in A; Calumet, Stuart in B) and appear to be contenders in Class B. They do step up a level in competition this week as they host Wright City and play in the Preston Tournament on Thursday and Friday.
No disrespect to Hammon, but whoever voted them #1 should look at what I said about the person who voted Navajo #1 above. Same thing applies.
Asher moved up 3 spots after winning the Caney tournament last week. They beat Caney in the finals.

So there you have it. I know that the rankings have been done this way for a long time, but it is a shame to the players and coaches who put in the work for a few to play favorites, don’t pay attention, or just plain don’t care. Maybe who voted for who should be posted each week with the rankings? Think that’ll change things?

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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