Arizona POP Rankings 2026: Top 10 at Every Position Through Week 9

These are not opinion rankings. Nobody at SPIN picks who is No. 1. POP, Production Over Potential, is calculated from what each player has actually done this season, game by game, from the box scores of his games, weighed for who he did it against and where. Stars, offers, highlight tapes and reputation are not in the math. Two things are: what he produced, and the competition he produced it against.

That is why big numbers against weak opponents do not rank high here, and why a big game against a great opponent is the most valuable thing on these boards. Consistency counts too: a full season of steady games is worth more than one monster night surrounded by quiet ones. The rules are set before the numbers come in, and they apply to every player in every region the same way.

Below: the Top 10 at every position across Arizona through Week 9, games of Oct. 8 to 10 included, plus the Two-Way board. This is the first Arizona board. It covers every AIA conference, 6A through 2A. The full Top 25 at every position, a Top 10 for every conference and every rated player in the state live on the Player Rankings tab, updated every Wednesday at noon.

What to know about the first Arizona board

• Three 98s and no 99. Torrin Hill of Centennial (Peoria) at tight end, 31 catches for 777 yards and eight touchdowns in six games, and the two defensive linemen, Lachlan Geier of Queen Creek and Luke Franklin of Centennial, sit at 98. Kaden Miller of Liberty (Peoria), 97 at defensive back, and Ian Fullmer of Pinnacle, 96 on the defensive line, complete the five Arizona players at 95 or better.
• Liberty of Peoria holds 11 of the 70 Top 10 spots across the seven position boards. Hamilton (Chandler) holds seven; Chandler, Mesa and Mountain View (Mesa) six each; Centennial (Peoria) five. Sixty of the 70 belong to 6A programs.
• The Two-Way board is where the smaller conferences show up. Ryder Noche of Brophy College Prep is No. 1 at 87. Behind him, Corbin Wood of Show Low and Jaxon Crick of Round Valley (both 3A), Paul Delgado of Walden Grove (4A) and Caleb Murphy of Scottsdale Christian Academy (2A) are all inside the Top 10. Eight of the ten play outside 6A.
• Out-of-state games count the same way. Liberty's win over Corner Canyon, Centennial's at Servite, Chandler's over Cathedral Catholic and Hamilton's over Arbor View are weighed for the opponent like any other game, and so is Basha's loss at Orange Lutheran.
• Six games, not nine. Most Arizona starters carry six games with a stat line; Utah's carry eight or nine because its season started earlier. Every rating sits on one national scale, so a 95 here means what a 95 means anywhere, and the number rewards what a player did against whom, not the length of the calendar.
• Two rules to know. A Top 25 spot requires a real share of the load at the position; a player under that line is still rated and still listed, just not ranked. And return yardage counts fully in competitive games and is discounted in mismatches; turnovers and touchdowns always count.

Coaches, post your box scores. POP can only count what gets recorded. About seven in ten Arizona games from Oct. 8 to 10 had a box score in when this week's numbers were run Tuesday evening. Basha has no box in our data for its Oct. 9 game and Phoenix Christian none for Oct. 9, so their players carry fewer games than their opponents until next week's board; Chandler's Oct. 2 date and Pinnacle's Sept. 25 date carry no box either, which is why those starters stand on five games. When a program posts no box score, or logs only part of what its players did, those players lose credit for work they actually did. Post full box scores, offense and defense, every week. If a stat is wrong, tell us and show us; the corrected rating shows on the next board.

Quarterbacks

Running Backs

Wide Receivers

Tight Ends

Defensive Backs

Linebackers

Defensive Line

Two-Way (Athletes)

How to read the number

A POP rating runs 25 to 99 on one national scale, so a 95 in Arizona means the same thing as a 95 in Utah or Southern California. GP is games with a posted stat line. Two-Way players must be rated on an offensive board and a defensive board; the Two-Way number is built from both sides.

How every number on this board is built: the SPIN Production Rankings methodology. Why we built it: Stars Are a Bet. Yards Are a Receipt. This week's other boards: Utah, NorCal and SoCal, all through Week 9.

Utah, Nevada, Northern California, Southern California and Arizona are live on the Player Rankings tab. A national board follows.