The 2025 Kansas High School Football season is over and our overall Grand Champion is the Manhattan High School Indians. Let me tell you, this was the most difficult, final Super 10 rankings, we have ever done, in 20 years of doing this.
Our final rankings, of the Super 10, after the regular season was over, had St Thomas Aquinas as the number one team in the state and Manhattan at number 14.
Of course, this final 10 is pure speculation and I imagine if we actually invited the top 12 teams in this final rankings into a bracket and let them play it out on the football field, we would have plenty of upsets, just like we did during the playoffs, that have just completed.
Every year, we have some team that surprises everyone, during the playoffs. Most of the time, that surprise team, has not been ranked all season long and usually has a loss or two or three, but during the playoffs, everything comes together just right and that never ranked team, ends up winning the championship or taking second place. That team this year was the Salina Central Mustangs.
Also, it has been 20 years, I think, since Kapaun has won a championship in football, good for them!
And you have to feel deeply for teams like Sabetha, who loses a game by one point to the Champions Nemaha Valley, several games before the championship game. Oh the what ifs, are played over and over in their heads.
Sabetha was not the only team that lost like that, Rossville, Great Bend, Mill Valley, St Thomas Aquinas, Osage City, Hutch Trinity, Jackson Heights and most likely I have missed some teams.
Well the season is over and the seniors that just completed their final season, let me tell you that next fall, you will miss playing the game of football and the Friday night lights. You may not think that right now, but you will next fall.
If you can, try to stay involved in the game. Become a football official, or on a chain gang, or an assistant coach, or a coach of some little kids flag football team. Give of your time, knowledge, and love of the game, back to the game of football.
When you are serving others, you will find a since of well being, deep within your soul.
Super Top 10 All-Classes
1. Manhattan
2. Kapaun
3. Salina Central
4. Great Bend
5. Maize
6. Olathe NW
7. Hays
8. Gardner-Edgerton
9. Basehor-Linwood
10. Bishop Miege
11. Derby
12. Andale
13. Mill Valley
14. St Thomas Aquinas
15. Nemaha Central
6A
1. Manhattan
2. Olathe NW
3. Maize
4. Derby
5. Gardner-Edgerton
Others: Olathe West
5A
1. Salina Central
2. Great Bend
3. Basehor-Linwood
4. Hays
5. St James
Others: Mill Valley, St Thomas Aquinas
4A
1. Kapaun
2. Bishop Miege
3. Wamego
4. Labette Co.
5. Eudora
Others: Tonganoxie, Augusta
3A
1. Andale
2. Hayden
3. Rock Creek
4. Cheney
5. Jefferson West
Others: Pratt, Santa Fe Trail
2A
1. Nemaha Central
2. Sabetha
3. SE of Saline
4. Osage City
5. Hoisington
Others: Silver Lake, Garden Plain
1A
1. Sterling
2. Rossville
3. Jackson Heights
4. Smith Center
5. Hutchinson Trinity
Others: Riverside, St Marys Colgan
8-man D-I
1. South Central
2. Hill City
3. Lincoln
4. Leoti-Wichita Co.
5. Oberlin-Decatur Co.
Others: Trego Co., Sylvan-Lucas
8-man D-II
1. Hanover
2. Victoria
3. Axtell
4. Hutchinson Central Christian
5. Hodgeman Co.
Others: none
6-man
1. Cunningham
2. Weskan
3. South Barber
4. Tescott
5. Ingalls
Others: none
Long time Ranking team members
Rich Epp OpenSpacesSports Colby
Dusty Deines Ad Astra Radio Hutchinson/McPherson
Conor Nichol Sunflower Sports SolutionsHays
Jim Misunas Great Bend Tribune Great Bend
Adam Kadavy KSKL Scott City/Garden City
Brock Kappelmann KSCB Liberal
Tim McGonagle KSKL Scott City/Garden City
Rocky Downing KFRM 550 AM
Pat Strathman ESPN Wichita