SoCal 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 Southern California through Week 9, games of Oct. 8 to 10 included, plus the Two-Way board. This is the first SoCal board. It covers the Southern Section, the San Diego Section, the Los Angeles City Section and the southern end of the Central Section, Bakersfield to the Central Coast. The full Top 25 at every position, a Top 10 for every section and every rated player in the region live on the Player Rankings tab, updated every Wednesday at noon.

What to know about the first SoCal board

• Five players at 99. Tegan Ogas of Norco (tight end), Braylin Spencer of JSerra Catholic (linebacker), Caleb Joy of Chaparral (defensive line) and two Santa Margarita freshmen, Aydan Steen (linebacker) and Kaleb Herndon (defensive line). The three other boards live today, Utah, Nevada and Northern California, have two 99s between them.
• The depth is real. Forty-eight Southern California players rate 95 or better on the seven position boards. Utah, Nevada and Northern California have 22 combined. That is not a thumb on the scale for the region: every rating sits on one national scale, and a 95 here means what a 95 means anywhere. It is what Trinity League, South Coast League and San Diego Section schedules produce when the games are weighed for who was on the other side.
• Santa Margarita holds 12 of the 70 Top 10 spots across the seven position boards, with three of the Top 10 defensive backs and three of the Top 10 defensive linemen. St. John Bosco, JSerra Catholic, Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon hold five each.
• Jaxson Rex of San Clemente is the region's top two-way player at 94. He is No. 4 among defensive backs at 96 and No. 17 among receivers at 93, both against a Heavy schedule.
• Bishop Gorman is rated on the Nevada board, live since Oct. 14.
• 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 Southern California games from Oct. 8 to 10 had a box score in when this week's numbers were run Tuesday evening. Los Alamitos has no box in our data for its last two games and Long Beach Poly none for Oct. 10, so their players carry fewer games than their opponents until next week's board. 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 Southern California means the same thing as a 95 in Utah or Northern 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 through Week 9 and NorCal through Week 9.

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