High school football rankings: Mater Dei back at No. 1 in this week's media composite top 25

Mater Dei (Calif.) reclaimed the top spot in this week's Top 25 media composite high school football rankings. The Monarchs avenged their only loss of the season on Friday, beating St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.) 35-7 in the Southern Section Division 1 final.

Mater Dei has an overall ranking of 1.8 while Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas) sits closely behind with a 2.1 rating. Among the six national media outlets in the Top 25 composite, CalPreps, Blue Star Media and High School Football America all rank the Santa Ana squad as the No. 1 team overall.

Bishop Gorman holds the top position in both the MaxPreps Top 25 and USA Today rankings. The lone media outlet without the Gaels in either the top two spots is National HSFB, placing them at No. 5 overall.

National HSFB has IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) as its top team. The Ascenders, who finished their season 10-0, boast an average ranking of 4.8.

Chaminade-Madonna (Hollywood, Fla.) and St. John Bosco are Nos. 4 and 5, respectively, as the Lions find themselves inside the top 5 in five of the media outlets, with CalPreps ranking them at 10. Despite the 28-point loss to Mater Dei, the Braves maintained a 4.6 ranking.

The media composite top 25 takes into account a wide range of approaches to high school football rankings by six different outlets. That includes computer algorithms by CalPreps and High School Football America as well as expert rankings from MaxPreps, USAToday, Blue Star Media and National HSFB.

To be considered for the rankings a team must be recognized by two or more media outlets. Teams were assigned a score of 40 for each media outlet that did not recognize them as part of their top 25, rewarding teams that received consensus acclaim.

Media composite top 25 football rankings