The NC Football News High School Football Fabulous 15 is a consensus-style look at the top high school football teams in North Carolina.
The 2026 rankings combine four statewide polls and computer ratings: HighSchoolOT, the Charlotte Observer/News & Observer Super 25, MaxPreps and Massey Ratings. Each source is weighted equally to create a composite ranking showing which programs are most consistently viewed among the state’s best.
The Fabulous 15 will be updated throughout the 2026 season as new rankings are released. The list is designed to provide a statewide snapshot of where teams stand, rather than predict future results.
2026 NC High School Football Fabulous 15 + The Next Ten
(After Week 5 games on Sept. 17-21)
We’re nearing the halfway point of the North Carolina high school football season, and the state’s top teams are starting to sort themselves out. The order of our Fabulous 15 and Next Ten lists have been rearranged some after Week 5 games, but only one team dropped out – East Forsyth, which sits in the No. 26 overall spot.
Undefeated Hough, coming off a 45-0 win over Green Run (Virginia Beach), remains the consensus No. 1 as it has all season. Providence Day and Grimsley flip-flopped places – again – right behind the Huskies. That has been a feature of the 2026 season so far between the Chargers and Whirlies.
Lake Norman won a big game against unbeaten Reagan on Friday and slid up two spots to No. 5. Chambers also moved up two spots to No. 6.
Mallard Creek, which jumped six spots and rejoined the Fab 15, has the most intriguing resume of our top teams. The Mavericks (3-2) don’t appear in either human poll this week (HighSchoolOT or Charlotte Observer Super 25). But Massey ranks them No. 5 in the state, while the MaxPreps formula puts them at No. 7.
Another team moving up in the computer rankings but not yet on the human voters’ radars – Ambassador Christian. The Huntersville private school now owns a 5-0 record and moved up four spots to No. 21 overall in our rankings.
🔄 Last Updated: September 24, 2026 2:21 pm| Rank | Change | Team (2026) | Class | Avg. | CharObserv | HSOT | MaxPreps | Massey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | — | Hough (5-0) | 8A | 1.00 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2. | ▲1 | Providence Day (4-1) | Ind | 2.50 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| 3. | ▼1 | Grimsley (4-0) | 7A | 3.25 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 4. | — | Weddington (5-0) | 7A | 4.25 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 5. | ▲2 | Lake Norman (5-0) | 7A | 5.75 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 7 |
| 6. | ▲2 | Chambers (5-0) | 8A | 8.00 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 11 |
| 7. | ▼2 | Millbrook (4-0) | 8A | 8.25 | 6 | 4 | 17 | 6 |
| 8. | ▼3 | Cardinal Gibbons (3-2) | 7A | 9.75 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 12 |
| 9. | — | Reagan (4-1) | 7A | 10.75 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 15 |
| 10. | — | Southeast Raleigh (4-1) | 7A | 12.25 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 18 |
| 11. | — | West Forsyth (4-1) | 8A | 13.00 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 13 |
| 12. | ▲1 | South Point (5-0) | 5A | 15.75 | 16 | 13 | 20 | 14 |
| 13. | ▲6 | Mallard Creek (3-2) | 8A | 16.00 | 26 | 26 | 7 | 5 |
| 14. | ▼2 | Clayton (5-0) | 7A | 16.25 | 8 | 17 | 31 | 9 |
| 15. | ▼1 | Cleveland (4-0) | 7A | 16.50 | 26 | 23 | 9 | 8 |
The Next Ten
These schools represent places 16-25 in our composite rankings.
| Rank | Change | Team (2026) | Class | Avg. | CharObserv | HSOT | MaxPreps | Massey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16. | ▲2 | Crest (3-1) | 5A | 17.25 | 18 | 20 | 14 | 17 |
| 17. | ▼3 | West Charlotte (3-2) | 8A | 18.50 | 19 | 26 | 19 | 10 |
| 18. | ▲5 | Palisades (4-1) | 8A | 19.50 | 14 | 14 | 28 | 22 |
| T-19. | ▲1 | Myers Park (2-2) | 8A | 19.75 | 26 | 22 | 15 | 16 |
| T-19. | ▼2 | Hoggard (3-1) | 8A | 19.75 | 10 | 18 | 32 | 19 |
| 21. | ▲4 | Ambassador Christian (4-0) | Ind | 22.00 | 26 | 26 | 16 | 20 |
| 22. | — | Jay M. Robinson (4-0) | 5A | 23.50 | 13 | 9 | 46 | 26 |
| 23. | ▼2 | Garner (3-2) | 7A | 23.75 | 26 | 26 | 18 | 25 |
| T-24. | ▲1 | Rolesville (1-2) | 8A | 24.00 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 23 |
| T-24. | ▼1 | J.H. Rose (5-0) | 6A | 24.00 | 21 | 19 | 35 | 21 |
How The NC Football News Fabulous 15 Works
To build the NC Football News Fabulous 15 and Next Ten, we reviewed statewide high school football rankings and power ratings from HighSchoolOT, MaxPreps, Massey Ratings and the Charlotte Observer/News & Observer Super 25.
Each team’s ranking from those sources is entered into a spreadsheet and averaged to create a consensus score. The lower the average, the higher the team appears in the Fabulous 15 and Next Ten.
The computers (Massey and MaxPreps) rank every school in the state. But the HighSchoolOT and Charlotte Observer polls only include 25 teams in their rankings. When using those sources, we give a No. 26 ranking to every team not included in one or both of the human polls.
Final 2025 NC High School Football Fabulous 15
State champions Hough, Grimsley and Providence Day led the way in our final rankings of the 2025 season.
| RANK | TEAM | CLASS | AVG | HSOT | Simmons | MaxPreps | HSFA 300 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Hough (14-0) | 8A | 1.75 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2. | Grimsley (15-0) | 7A | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 3. | Providence Day (13-0) | Ind | 2.25 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| T-4. | Weddington (12-2) | 7A | 4.5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| T-4. | West Charlotte (10-3) | 8A | 4.5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 6. | Millbrook (13-1) | 8A | 7.25 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| 7. | Independence (10-3) | 7A | 8.75 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| T-8. | Cardinal Gibbons (12-2) | 7A | 10.5 | 20 | 6 | 9 | 7 |
| T-8. | Clayton (12-3) | 7A | 10.5 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 12 |
| T-8. | Myers Park (9-3) | 8A | 10.5 | 11 | 14 | 11 | 6 |
| T-11. | Crest (13-2) | 5A | 10.75 | 7 | 9 | 14 | 13 |
| T-11. | West Forsyth (10-3) | 8A | 10.75 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 13. | Hoggard (12-1) | 8A | 13.25 | 9 | 16 | 15 | 13 |
| 14. | Watauga (15-0) | 6A | 13.5 | 6 | 18 | 17 | 13 |
| 15. | Mooresville (9-3) | 7A | 14 | 17 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
The Next Ten
These schools represent places 16-25 in our final 2025 composite rankings.
| Team (2026) | Class | Avg. | HS-OT | CharObserv | Massey | MaxPreps | Massey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16. | Reagan (10-3) | 7A | 18.50 | 17 | 15 | 22 | 20 |
| 17. | Lake Norman (8-4) | 7A | 19.00 | 11 | 13 | 27 | 25 |
| T-18. | Cleveland (10-2) | 7A | 19.25 | 26 | 26 | 12 | 13 |
| T-18. | Myers Park (9-3) | 8A | 19.25 | 26 | 26 | 10 | 15 |
| 20. | Mooresville (9-3) | 7A | 19.75 | 26 | 26 | 15 | 12 |
| 21. | Garner (9-4) | 7A | 21.50 | 18 | 26 | 19 | 23 |
| 22. | Charlotte Christian (7-6) | Ind | 22.00 | 26 | 26 | 20 | 16 |
| 23. | East Forsyth (7-5) | 7A | 22.50 | 20 | 24 | 17 | 29 |
| 24. | Sun Valley (9-4) | 6A | 24.25 | 26 | 26 | 23 | 22 |
| 25. | Richmond Senior (9-3) | 7A | 24.50 | 26 | 23 | 28 | 21 |
What stands out from the final 2025 list
- Hough finished No. 1 after winning the 8A state title and ranking first in both HighSchoolOT and Simmons.
- Grimsley and Providence Day, both unbeaten championship teams, were close behind, giving the final list a clear top three.
- Weddington and West Charlotte tied at No. 4, rounding out the top tier.
- Watauga finished 15-0 and won the 6A title, but landed outside the top 10 because some rankings weighed schedule strength differently.
- Several state champions finished outside the top 25 consensus list, including Reidsville, Tarboro and Shelby, showing the difference between classification dominance and statewide consensus rankings.
Follow the 2026 North Carolina high school football season
The Fabulous 15 is one piece of our 2026 high school football coverage at NC Football News.
Throughout the season, we’ll use our high school football scoreboard hub to track weekly scores from across North Carolina, with playoff brackets and postseason updates added as the year moves along.
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