State power rankings live in separate rooms. Utah's board never has to answer for Nevada's, Nevada's never has to answer for Utah's, and every top ten looks bulletproof as long as nobody crosses a state line. Friday night in Salt Lake City, somebody crossed.
West of Salt Lake City, the No. 8 team on our Utah Power 10, beat Arbor View of Las Vegas, the No. 3 team on our Nevada Power 10, 20-14. The Nevada board had been public for about six hours when its bronze medalist lost to the eighth name on the other state's board.
| The top of each board, opening weekend | |
|---|---|
| SPIN Utah Power 10 | 6-0 against teams off the board; losses only to each other |
| SPIN Nevada top five | Gorman won 41-0 in a half; Nos. 2, 3 and 5 all lost |
Rank 8 beating rank 3 is the whole point
A state board only ranks teams against their neighbors. The one board where Utah and Nevada programs sit together is our Out West 25, and ordering it is mostly projection: film, history, recruiting, common sense. Head-to-head evidence arrived exactly once this opening weekend, which is why one Friday in August carries this much weight.
The evidence says our Utah No. 8 was better, in person, than the team we ranked third in Nevada, a number that two of our three composite sources agreed with. It says so by six points, at home, on the only scoreboard the two states shared. If you believe boards should answer to results, this is the result.
How we grade a state against a state
Here is the house method, stated plainly. We compare states at the top of their boards, where the state title contenders live. When somebody asks whether Utah football is better than Nevada football, they are not asking about the fortieth-best team in either place. They are asking whose contenders would win, and the only honest way to answer is to watch the contenders play.
Nevada teams beat Utah teams elsewhere on Friday, in games between programs neither board ranks. Those results say something about regional depth. They say nothing about this.
By that method, the opening weekend reads one way. Utah's top ten went 6-0 against everyone outside it. Nevada's Nos. 2, 3 and 5 all lost, each in its own way: a shutout second half on Oahu, a two-point stunner at home in Reno, and the six points in Salt Lake City that started this column. Gorman won 41-0 and only needed a half, and Gorman is the reason none of this reads as a Nevada collapse. The ceiling in Las Vegas is national. The conversation is about everything below the penthouse.
The counterargument, cooked
The Arbor View defense writes itself: season opener, road game, one-score final, a board that had existed since Friday afternoon. All true. And this is not a team we overrated by accident. Arbor View is the reigning runner-up in Nevada's top classification. That is exactly why the result carries. A state's No. 3 is supposed to survive a road opener against somebody's No. 8, and the reigning runner-up most of all.
One game does not reorder 25 teams. It tells you which way the next reorder leans, and it leans north.
September is holding the sequel
The calendar already has one, and it is a doubleheader. On September 4, Bishop Gorman visits Lone Peak, which is the Nevada board's No. 1 walking into the building of the Utah board's No. 2, while Skyridge visits Liberty of Henderson, Nevada, the same night. Corner Canyon is at Liberty of Peoria, Arizona, too, in case two border tests are not enough for you.
Until then, the tops of the two boards share exactly one result. Utah owns it.
