High School

California High School Football Top 25 State Rankings - Dec. 9, 2025

The top two teams stay pat with bye weeks, but lots of movement in the bottom half of rankings as the state championships are upon us

Mitch Stephens

There's no looking back at last season's failure in the state finals, the Central East Bengals are now looking straight ahead to their state-title date at Saddleback College on Dec. 13 against unbeaten Pacifica Oxnard. Bayon Harris had touchdown catches of 49 and 30 yards on Saturday night in Pittsburg and now has 25 on the season. Central East moved inside the Top 25 in the state rankings this week.
There's no looking back at last season's failure in the state finals, the Central East Bengals are now looking straight ahead to their state-title date at Saddleback College on Dec. 13 against unbeaten Pacifica Oxnard. Bayon Harris had touchdown catches of 49 and 30 yards on Saturday night in Pittsburg and now has 25 on the season. Central East moved inside the Top 25 in the state rankings this week. / Photo by Dennis Lee

The last week is upon us. As far as the California High School football season anyway.

CIF BOWL BRACKETS | All 15 brackets here

There will be 15 games played between regional champions of the North and South Friday and Saturday (Dec. 12-13) at Saddleback College, Buena Park High School Stadium or Fullerton Union High School District Stadium.

The following rankings, at this point, don't really matter. All the these 30 teams care about is they made it to the final game.

Because they were both off due to their top seeding in each region, Santa Margarita and De La Salle remain at No. 1 and 2 in the rankings. The Eagles and Spartans face off 8 p.m. at Saddleback.

Check out our live updates, feature stories, stat packages and game stories from all the sites throughout the weekend.

CALIFORNIA’S TOP 25 FOOTBALL RANKINGS (DEC. 9, 2025)

No. 1 Santa Margarita (10-3, LW #1)

High school football California
Trent Mosley was all smiles after accounting for nearly 300 receiving yards in his team's surprisingly lopsided 42-7 win over Corona Centennial at the Rose Bowl for the 2025 Southern Section Division 1 title. / Photo courtesy of Santa Margarita High School

Last week: idle
Next: Saturday vs. De La Salle at Saddleback College

2. De La Salle (12-0, LW #2)

High school football California
De La Salle celebrated its 33rd straight championship on Nov. 21 at Diablo Valley College with a hard-fought 24-17 win over Pittsburg / Photo by Ernie Abrea


Last week: Idle
Next: Saturday vs. Santa Margarita at Saddleback College

No. 3 Corona Centennial (11-2, LW rank #3)

Season over

4. Mater Dei (8-3, LW #4)


Season over

5. Sierra Canyon (10-1, LW #5)

Season over

6. St. John Bosco (9-2, LW #6)

Season over

7. Mission Viejo (9-2, LW #7)

Season over

8. Folsom (13-1, LW #8)

Brody Rudnicki Folsom QB
After starting quarterback Ryder Lyons got injured during the final drive of the third quarter against undefeated Archbishop Riordan on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, Folsom junior backup Brody Rudnicki guided a pair of second-half touchdown drives to help the Bulldogs pull out a stunning 42-38 come-from-behind victory in the CIF NorCal Division I-AA regional championship. / Dorie Anderson

Last week: Riordan, 42-38
Next: Friday vs. Cathedral Catholic

9. Cathedral Catholic (13-2, LW #13)

Last week: Beat Los Alamitos, 42-21
Next: Friday vs. Folsom

10. Los Alamitos (12-3, LW #9)


Last week: Lost to Cathedral Catholic, 42-21
Season over

11. Oxnard Pacifica (15-0, LW #16)

Last week: Beat Granite Hills, 42-35
Next: Saturday vs. Central East

12. Central East (13-1, LW #18)

Last week: Beat Pittsburg, 55-36
Next: Saturday vs. Oxnard Pacifica

13. Riordan (12-1, LW #10)


Last week: Lost to Folsom, 42-38
Season over

14. Orange Lutheran (3-9, LW #11)

Season over

15. Servite (6-5, LW #12)

Season over

16. Pittsburg (12-3, LW #14)

Last week: Lost to Central East, 55-36
Season over

17. San Clemente (9-5, LW #13)

Season over

18. Carlsbad (10-2, LW #17)

Season over

19. St. Mary’s-Stockton (121-2, LW 24)

Last week: Beat Serra, 31-24
Next: Friday vs. Bakersfield Christian

20. Bakersfield Christian (13-0, NR)

Last week: Beat La Habra, 24-21
Next: Friday vs. St. Mary's

21. Granite Hills (10-5, LW 19)

Last week: Lost to Oxnard Pacifica, 35-28
Season over

22. Lincoln-San Diego (10-3, LW #20)

Season over


23. Leuzinger (10-2, LW #21)

Season over

24. Murrieta Valley (9-4, LW #22)

Season over

25. Oak Ridge (9-4, LW 25)


Season over

Published
Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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