The Super 25 football teams outscored their opponents by a combined 573 points in Week 12, and five of those wins were shutouts. USA TODAY’s weekly Super 25 roundup has the full tally: a perfect 12-0.
Do the math and the average margin of victory comes out to roughly 47.8 points. That is nearly seven touchdowns per game.
Nobody on the list sweated. The scoreboard operators did.
Super 25 football scores that jumped out
Only a handful of results made it into the details we could confirm. Trinity of Louisville, Kentucky, ranked No. 17, blanked Pleasure Ridge Park 49-0. In Houston, No. 18 C.E. King did the exact same thing to Channelview, also 49-0. No. 25 Tupelo in Mississippi shut out DeSoto Central 38-0.
No. 16 Hough, out of Cornelius, North Carolina, also won, though we can’t confirm its score. The same goes for the other eight games on the list. Those results come from a single outlet, so we are reporting only what we can stand behind.
What the USA TODAY Super 25 numbers really say
So are the best programs in America scarier than ever? Not quite. USA TODAY notes that many nationally ranked teams were idle this week, and only 12 ranked teams actually played. A dozen teams stacking up big numbers against local opponents is a good week, not a trend.
Still, the numbers show what the top of the sport looks like. When one of the top-ranked high school teams lines up against a district opponent in early November, the question is rarely who wins. Instead, it’s whether the running clock kicks in at halftime.
College football has its own lopsided drama, too. Just look at how No. 1 Miami must face Notre Dame without Malachi Toney. Injuries, not opponents, are what level the field at the top.
Where the national high school rankings go from here
November is where the easy weeks end. Many state playoffs are starting or already underway. The Chicago Sun-Times, for one, covered the second round of the Illinois playoffs on Nov. 6. Because playoff opponents have to win their way in, 49-0 results get much harder to come by.
Meanwhile, if you have a kid, a nephew or a neighbor suiting up this fall, check your state association’s bracket for dates. Schedules vary by state, and that is where the real games are about to happen.
If the pro game is more your speed, see how the NFL’s No. 1 seed race is shaping up. And watch next week’s Super 25 update. After a week this lopsided, someone is about to get a real test.
