Top 10 high school football cities and metro areas

Graphic by Ryan Escobar

Which city in the United States plays the best brand of football? It's an ongoing debate with seemingly no way to come up with a possible answer.

Until now.

MaxPreps, using the Dynasty Ratings compiled through the Freeman Computer Rankings, has put together two sets of rankings to determine the city with the best high school football in the country.

First, there are the metroplexes. Cities like Los Angeles and Dallas and Chicago have many suburban towns that encircle the main metropolitan area. In those cities you will find plenty of outstanding football.

Second, there are the metropolitan cities themselves. Which cities, with the suburbs excluded, play the best high school football?

So here's how we came up with our list. For the metro areas, we took the top 10 high school football teams (based on the dynasty ratings) from cities within the suburban area of a major metropolitan city. Add up all of the ranks of the top 10 teams and the metro area with the lowest total is ranked No. 1.

It should be noted that a team's dynasty rating is based on its cumulative rankings in the Freeman Computer Rankings over the past 10 years.

For the title of best city, we took just the top four teams from that city and added up their dynasty ratings. The cities with the lowest overall totals were ranked accordingly.

Here's our list of the Top 10 metro areas and the Top 10 cities that play high school football in the United States. The numbers preceding the school represent where that school ranks in the Dynasty Ratings.

Top 10 Metro Areas

1. Los Angeles
9. Mission Viejo, 18. St. Bonaventure (Ventura), 32. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach), 33. Centennial (Corona), 36. Oaks Christian (Westlake Village), 51. Orange Lutheran (Orange), 53. Mater Dei (Santa Ana), 56. Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks), 64. Servite (Anaheim), 87. Edison (Huntington Beach)

2. Dallas
4. Carroll (Southlake), 12. Trinity (Euless), 17. Allen, 69. Highland Park (Dallas), 73. Aledo, 77. DeSoto, 113. Coppell, 124. Cedar Hill, 136. Celina, 158. Hebron (Carrollton)

3. Chicago
44. Wheaton-Warrenville South (Wheaton) 56. Maine South (Park Ridge), 96. Mount Carmel (Chicago), 107. Joliet Catholic Academy (Joliet), 118. Lincoln-Way East (Frankfort), 128. St. Rita (Chicago), 197. Loyola Academy (Wilmette, ), 230. Montini (Lombard),  247. Providence Catholic (New Lenox), 311. Naperville North (Naperville)

4. Indianapolis
9. Warren Central (Indianapolis), 37. Carmel, 70. Indianapolis Cathedral (Indianapolis), 92. Ben Davis (Indianapolis), 106. Center Grove (Greenwood), 186. Bishop Chatard (Indianapolis), 229. Hamilton Southeastern (Fishers) 318. Lawrence Central (Indianapolis), 375. Avon, 415. Fishers

5. Cleveland
24. St. Edward (Lakewood), 24. St. Ignatius (Cleveland), 84. Mentor, 90. Glenville (Cleveland), 199. McKinley (Canton), 230. Washington (Massillon), 242. Lake Catholic (Mentor), 272. Solon, 403. Dover, 421. Walsh Jesuit (Cuyahoga Falls)

6. Houston
14. Katy, 86. North Shore (Houston), 96. Westfield (Houston), 178. The Woodlands, 251. Pearland, 282. Kilgore, 318. La Marque, 436. Dekaney (Houston), 461. Dawson (Pearland), 582. Klein Oak (Spring)

7. Seattle
11. Bellevue, 27. Skyline (Sammamish), 178. Bothell, 245. Archbishop Murphy (Everett), 286. Lynden, 318. Issaquah, 344. Ferndale, 403. O'Dea (Seattle), 472. Lakes (Lakewood), 524. Woodinville

8. Cincinnati
3. St. Xavier (Cincinnati), 6. Colerain (Cincinnati), 26. Archbishop Moeller (Cincinnati), 31. Elder (Cincinnati), 139. La Salle (Cincinnati), 436. Middletown, 491. Lakota West (West Chester), 524. Winton Woods (Cincinnati), 540. Anderson (Cincinnati), 676. Sycamore (Cincinnati)

9. Philadelphia
60. St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia), 63. North Penn (Lansdale), 166. Easton, 275. Archbishop Wood (Warminster), 292. Parkland (Allentown), 326. Liberty (Bethlehem), 344. Wilson (West Lawn), 375. Malvern Prep (Malvern), 450. Cardinal O'Hara (Springfield), 540. Ridley (Folsom)

10. Pittsburgh
56. Central Catholic (Pittsburgh) 136. Gateway (Monroeville), 149. Upper St. Clair, 183. Central Valley (Monaca), 224. North Allegheny (Wexford), 358. Aliquippa, 415. Woodland Hills (Pittsburgh), 491. North Hills (Pittsburgh), 524. Penn Hills (Pittsburgh), 557. Bethel Park

Top 10 Cities

1. Cincinnati
3. St. Xavier, 6. Colerain, 26. Archbishop Moeller, 31. Elder

2. Indianapolis
9. Warren Central, 70. Indianapolis Cathedral, 92. Ben Davis, 186. Bishop Chatard

3. Miami
79. Northwestern, 82. Washington, 152. Central, 370. Columbus

4. Louisville, Ky.
5. Trinity, 19. St. Xavier, 344. Male, 654. DuPont Manual

5. San Jose, Calif.
128. Bellarmine, 134. Valley Christian, 482. Oak Grove, 503. Archbishop Mitty

6. Tulsa, Okla.
16. Union, 375. Cascia Hall, 436. Washington, 436. East Central

7. Houston
86. North Shore, 96. Westfield, 436. Dekaney, 690. Klein Forest

8. Mobile, Ala.
235. Davidson, 301. McGill-Toolen, 318. UMS-Wright Prep, 557. St. Paul's Episcopal

9. Memphis, Tenn.
113. Memphis University, 292. Christian Brothers, 534. Whitehaven, 550. White Station

10. Honolulu
143. St. Louis, 196. Punahou, 268. Kamehameha, 955. Farrington