Who Has Faced the Toughest 2026 Flag Football Schedule So Far?

A first-pass strength-of-schedule story from the September 9 Alabama flag football ratings snapshot, with caveats for early-season sample size.

Records alone do not tell you who has been tested. Strength of schedule is the model's estimate of the average opponent faced so far, adjusted onto the same point scale as the power rating. A team can be 1-2 against a brutal opening slate and still be more dangerous than a 3-0 team whose wins came against provisional opponents.

TeamDivisionRecordSchedule strengthTeam rating
Dothan High School6A0-127.96.0
Johnson Abernathy Graetz (JAG) High School6A0-327.30.5
Booker T. Washington Magnet High School1A-4A0-122.1-2.5
Montgomery Catholic Preparatory SchoolPrivate2-121.922.4
Oak Mountain High School6A2-117.714.4
Moody High School1A-4A5-017.637.3
Mae Jemison High School5A0-217.4-11.3
Opelika High School6A1-216.613.7
Hale County High School1A-4A0-115.3-13.9
James Clemens High School6A0-315.1-2.1

What the division averages show

The division averages in this snapshot are: 1A-4A: -3.4 across 55 teams, 5A: 1.1 across 45 teams, 6A: 7.6 across 31 teams, Private: -3.3 across 14 teams, Unclassified: -8.8 across 3 teams. Those averages matter less than the spread inside each division. The strongest team in a smaller division can be a better statewide opponent than the middle of a larger division.

How coaches can use it

If your next opponent has played a much tougher opening schedule, treat its record with caution. Watch the film against its best opponent first, then ask what translated: did the offense still create conversion chances, did the defense force long fields, and did the opponent's speed change the script?

Data and methods

Schedule strength is published in public/data/rankings.json by the rankings pipeline. It is descriptive, not a separate trophy: early opponents, missing score reports, and jamboree/exhibition filtering can all move the number during September.