Alaska Elite 12 High School Football Rankings: Soldotna Starts 2026 at No. 1

Another year, another undefeated season in for Soldotna, as the Stars claimed their 14th football state championship in 18 seasons in 2025.

The 10-0 finish also marked Soldotna's 12th unbeaten campaign since 2006, when the Stars claimed their first title in Alaska's Small School division, now Division III. That includes a 4-0 record in the 2020 season, when the playoffs were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since losing to West Anchorage on Aug. 10, 2018, Soldotna has gone 69-5, with all five losses coming against Lathrop.

Now playing in Alaska's Division II, the Stars routinely defeat the top teams from the state's Division I ranks, including an early-season 56-7 rout of defending state champion Dimond last fall.

Only one program in recent seasons, in fact, has managed to beat the Stars on the gridiron. Since losing to the West Anchorage Eagles on Aug. 10, 2018, Soldotna has gone 69-5, with all five of those losses coming at the hands of the Lathrop Malemutes, who also compete in Division II, which was known as the Medium Division before 2025.

It all adds up to one inescapable conclusion: The road to a Division II state championship in Alaska runs through Soldotna, and the team that wins that division is probably, once again, the best team on the Last Frontier.

Alaska high school football Elite 12 rankings. — High School On SI

1. Soldotna

Last Season: 10-0

Soldotna enters the 2026 season on a 13-game winning streak, and the Stars have gone 31-1 over the past three seasons. They've won three straight state championships in that span with their last title game loss coming in a 21-18 setback to Lathrop in Alaska's Medium Division state championship game in 2022. Their run as Alaska's dominant high school football program stretches back 20 years to their first Small School state title. The Stars have appeared in a state championship game in 17 of the past 18 seasons.

2. South Anchorage

Last Season: 9-2

Thanks to Soldotna, Alaska is that rare state where the champion of the top division is rarely the best team in the state. That was the case again last year when South Anchorage claimed the Division I title with a 37-3 rout of the Bartlett Golden Bears. It marked the fifth straight season with a new champion in the state's top division, but the Wolverines are the only team since 2019 with two championship trophies.

3. Bartlett

Last season: 7-3

Bartlett advanced to the state championship game last fall but came up empty in that loss to South Anchorage. Two of its three losses, in fact, came against the Wolverines, including a much closer 14-7 overtime loss early in the season. It's a program that hasn't won a title since 2017, and to reach the top, it will have to find a way to get past the Wolverines while holding off the other top challengers in Anchorage.

4. West Anchorage

Last Season: 8-2

Like Bartlett, West Anchorage's season ended in a playoff loss to South Anchorage, a 24-10 setback in the semifinals. Unlike Bartlett, however, the Eagles actually slipped past the Wolverines in the regular-season meeting, winning 13-8 in the season opener. They are likely to be among the top challengers again as they look to steal the crown from their rivals.

5. Lathrop

Last Season: 6-4

As noted above, Lathrop is the only program in eight years to solve the Soldotna puzzle, and the Malemutes are still the main threat to Soldotna's supremacy in any given season. That figures to be the case in 2026 as well following a season in which two of their four losses came to the Stars, including a 51-28 loss in the state championship game.

6. Palmer

Last Season: 7-2

Palmer was a Division II semifinalist a year ago and split its two games with Lathrop, although it lost the one that mattered most — a 38-35 heartbreaker in the playoffs. But a season-opening 78-41 loss to Soldotna shows how much ground the Moose need to make up to catch the division's front-runners.

7. Service

Last Season: 7-3

In terms of state titles, Service is in the midst of the third-longest dry spell among the eight high schools in the Anchorage School District ahead of only Chugiak (1996) and Eagle River (no titles). The Cougars haven't collected any hardware for their trophy case since winning the Large School championship in 2011, but they were one of the two schools that managed to beat the Division I champs from South Anchorage a year ago. In fact, their three losses a year ago, including two to Bartlett, were by a grand total of just 14 points, indicating they were as close as they've been to reaching the top since a 2019 loss to South Anchorage in the title game.

8. Homer

Last Season: 9-1

Homer has won three of the past four titles in Alaska's Division III — the first three football championships at any level in school history. There's no reason to think the Mariners won't be in the running again in 2026 after beating Barrow 20-0 in last year's title game. It was their second shutout win of the season over their northern rivals following a midseason loss on the North Slope to the Whalers.

9. Juneau-Douglas

Last Season: 3-6

The road was not friendly to Juneau-Douglas in 2025, with the Crimson Bears going 0-5 away from home. That more than canceled out a solid 3-1 showing in Juneau, which included a narrow loss to eventual state champion South Anchorage in a crushing 29-28 defeat. They've got to figure out a way to win away from home if they want to make any significant progress in 2026.

10. Colony

Last Season: 2-7

Colony got out of the gate fast with two wins in its first three games a year ago, but those turned out to be its only wins in a season that quickly turned south. The Knights enter the 2026 season on a six-game losing streak.

11. Bettye Davis East Anchorage

Last Season: 2-7

BDEA started 0-5 before showing signs of life down the stretch, winning two of its final four games. The Thunderbirds look to carry that momentum into the new season and get off to a stronger start in an effort to make a run at their first state title since 2021.

12. Barrow

Last Season: 7-3

Barrow's three losses a year ago all came via shutout, but the Whalers were 7-0 whenever the offense scored points. They've also been shut out in three of their past four games against the two-time defending champions from Homer, dating back to a 6-0 loss in the 2024 playoffs. They did manage to beat the Mariners on their own Cathy Parker Field last season, but they'll likely have to find a way to beat them in the playoffs. To have the best shot at that, they'll need to find a way to secure home-field advantage.

Soldotna remains the clear standard when it comes to Alaska high school football, and you can almost pencil their name in as Division II champions before the season starts, The real battle is for the Division I title in most years, and South Anchorage, Bartlett and West Anchorage headline a crowded group of challengers. Finally, in Division III, don't be surprised if Barrow and Homer end up on a crash course to face each other for the state championship once again.

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