[Hoot Gibson]

http://sports.espn.go.com/sportsnation/n...munityfbIP

Is the one I was looking at.. it has SC at #32 and WV at #31

That is the same one that I posted, but the only rank that matters for this discussion is the high school rank. Like I said, it was the first one listed from a Google search, and I was just looking for a reasonable random list to show where non-Kentuckians might rank Virginia.

I think too much importance is placed on the quality of the top teams in states versus the overall depth of quality teams. There are far more strong football teams in the Indianapolis metro area than there is in the entire state of Kentucky, for example. Large metropolitan areas make scheduling easier and generally provide good teams with better competition without having to travel unreasonable distances.

IMO, it is the quality of football played outside of large metro areas that provides the best measure of the quality of a state's football programs- not two or three well financed schools that get USA Today's attention. A state whose football teams totally lack parity are not good football states, IMO. When there are a half dozen or more schools in each class that begin each season with a realistic shot at winning the state title in Kentucky, then I will consider it a football state.