Bryant on Top of First High School Football Poll

Hornets favored to bring home fifth straight championship

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Aug 23, 2022 12:50 PM EDT

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — To nobody's surprise, Bryant is the unanimous choice of the statewide media to win a state title again.

Buck James' Hornets continue at the top of the Arkansas State Media poll released Monday evening.

Central Arkansas schools brought home the top three positions in the poll. Conway second followed by North Little Rock.

Bentonville at No. 4 and Fayetteville rounded out the top five in both the overall category and Class 7A.

Pulaski Academy moved up from Class 5A to 6A and will start the season at the top of their new classification, ahead of perennial power Greenwood. Benton, still looking for a state championship, is third ahead of Little Rock Christian and Lake Hamilton in Class 6A.

Little Rock Parkview will start the season at No. 1 in Class 5A ahead of Joe T. Robinson and Shiloh Christian, who moved up in classification after battling for the Class 4A title last season.

In Class 4A, Arkadelphia edged Warren for the top spot by a single point in the polling.

The Badgers got nine first-place votes while the Lumberjacks had five.

Prescott will start out atop the Class 3A rankings and Hazen tops Class 2A.

For the first time this year, the state's media will rank 8-Man Football and Fountain Lake is atop the Class 4A-3A. Strong-Huttig is in first place in the 2A-1A category.

Buck James-Bryant — Bryant Hornets coach Buck James walks off the field at War Memorial Stadium after winning the 2019 Class 7A Championship game. (Ted McClenning / allHOGS Images)

Arkansas Sports Media High School Football Poll

Following is the final Overall Top 10 high school football teams in Arkansas and the top five in Classes 7A, 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A and 2A and the top three in the two 8-man divisions, as voted by a panel of sports media from around the state for the 2022 preseason. Ranking is given with first-place votes received, records, total points and ranking from last year’s final poll:

OVERALL

(Record Pts Prv)

Bryant (14) 0-0 146 1
Conway 0-0 128 3
North Little Rock 0-0 92 5
Bentonville 0-0 87 6
Fayetteville (1) 0-0 85 2
Pulaski Academy 0-0 84 5
Greenwood 0-0 70 9
Cabot 0-0 38 10
Bentonville West 0-0 26
Benton 0-0 21

Others receiving votes: Little Rock Parkview 14, Little Rock Christian 13, Springdale Har-Ber 8, Fort Smith Northside 6, Joe T. Robinson 5, Shiloh Christian 1, Warren 1.