Rex Nelson’s Arkansas high school football rankings: The preseason

High school football season has arrived, a week earlier than usual due to the addition of an extra week that will allow teams to have an open date during their 10-game regular season.

If you love high school football, it’s the week you live for.

After five games earlier in the week, there will be a full slate of games on Friday night across the state.

On Saturday, Aug. 25, there will be two day games starting at 10 a.m. at the North Little Rock High School stadium followed by the annual Salt Bowl (which attracts the biggest high school crowd of the year) between Benton and Bryant that evening at War Memorial Stadium.

I’ll again be hosting a Friday night scoreboard show each week on almost 50 radio stations across the state. During the show, I’ll update the rankings. The updated rankings will later be posted on the Democrat-Gazette website and the Southern Fried blog.

Here are the preseason rankings as we prepare to begin the 2018 season:

OVERALL

  1. North Little Rock
  2. Bentonville
  3. Bryant
  4. Greenwood
  5. Pine Bluff
  6. Pulaski Academy
  7. Warren
  8. Benton
  9. Fayetteville
  10. Bentonville West

CLASS 7A

  1. North Little Rock
  2. Bentonville
  3. Bryant
  4. Fayetteville
  5. Bentonville West

CLASS 6A

  1. Greenwood
  2. Pine Bluff
  3. Benton
  4. El Dorado
  5. West Memphis

CLASS 5A

  1. Pulaski Academy
  2. Little Rock McClellan
  3. Batesville
  4. Texarkana
  5. Alma

CLASS 4A

  1. Warren
  2. Arkadelphia
  3. Joe T. Robinson
  4. Pea Ridge
  5. Nashville

CLASS 3A

  1. Booneville
  2. Prescott
  3. McGehee
  4. Clinton
  5. Charleston

CLASS 2A

  1. Mount Ida
  2. Junction City
  3. Foreman
  4. Hazen
  5. Mineral Springs

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