Rex Nelson’s Arkansas High School Football Rankings – Week 1

I attended my first Arkansas high school football game of the season Monday night. My alma mater, Arkadelphia, took on Stuttgart at War Memorial Stadium, and the Badgers rolled to a 42-13 victory.

The game between these two tradition-rich programs brought back a lot of memories.

I was in the stands at War Memorial Stadium in 1970 when Max Graham’s Ricebirds upset Frank Spainhour’s Badgers in the state championship game.

A few years later, I played against Stuttgart as the Badger center.

In 1982, I covered a Stuttgart victory over one of John Outlaw’s good Badger teams in the state semifinals for the Arkansas Democrat.

If all goes according to plan, I will be back out at War Memorial Stadium tonight, Thursday night and Friday night for more high school football.

It’s a good week for football junkies.

Each week, we’ll reveal the Rex’s Rankings on Friday nights on the high school scoreboard show that I co-host on more than 50 stations across the state. In central Arkansas, you can hear us on KARN-FM 102.9 and KARN-AM 920. We’ll be on each Friday from 10 p.m. until midnight.

We’ll also post the rankings each Monday beginning next week here on the Southern Fried blog.

Here’s the first edition of Rex’s Rankings for 2014 as the season begins:

Overall

1. Bentonville

2. Fayetteville

3. North Little Rock

4. Pine Bluff

5. Greenwood

6. Conway

7. El Dorado

8. Wynne

9. Pulaski Academy

10. Cabot

To see each Arkansas high school football classification’s rankings, click here.