Ranking SEMO football teams

Back in the day, before semoball.com, there use to be a region football poll put together by the sportswriters and sportscasters that we (the staff at the DAR) use to put together by email. There was only one poll so picking which teams were the best always became a fun topic of discussion at the office. We'd get votes from around the region and everybody had teams set up differently because it's hard to rank small schools with larger ones.

Toby does a nice job with the Top 5 for the semoball coverage area but I was thinking about how I might rank the football teams based on large (Classes 3-5) and small (Classes 1-2) in the SEMO Conference.

This is what my preseason picks might have looked like: LARGE: 1. Farmington; 2. Jackson; 3. Poplar Bluff; 4. New Madrid; 5. Dexter. SMALL: 1. Hayti; 2. Charleston; 3. Scott City; 4. Chaffee; 5. East Prairie.

Here's what I came up with after Week 3:

Large Schools

1. Farmington (2-1) gave up just seven points on defense in first two weeks before losing 43-0 Saturday at sixth-ranked Jeff City Helias.

2. Jackson (1-2) opened the season with three straight road trips to St. Louis -- losing to Riverview Gardens, 32-31, and Gateway Tech, 14-7 -- that should pay off in the long run.

3. Kennett (3-0) stopped a two-point try by state-ranked Hayti with 4:33 left for a 27-26 win. Also beat Charleston and Caruthersville this season and feature area's top passing attack.

4. Poplar Bluff (1-2) after a come-from-behind win at New Madrid in Week 1, Mules have lost to state-ranked Union on the road and Hannibal with key personnel missing.

5. Sikeston (2-1) beat Dexter, 49-27, for first time since 2001 after losing to state-ranked Fredericktown, 42-29, and beating Charleston 48-6.

Others: New Madrid (1-2); Dexter (0-3) and Cape Central (0-3).

Small Schools

1. Hayti (2-1) suffered first regular-season loss since 2006.

2. East Prairie (2-1) beat Scott City 35-0 in battle of unbeaten South teams. Lost to Hayti 27-6.

3. Chaffee (1-2) lost to Crystal City 35-21 after an 34-28 OT loss at Fulton County, Ky. First home game this week.

4. Scott City (2-1) beat Malden and Portageville in first two weeks before loss to East Prairie.

5. Charleston (1-2) beat Portageville after losing to a pair of Class 3 schools (Kennett and Sikeston).

Others: Caruthersville (0-3); Malden (0-3); Portageville (0-3).

IT AIN'T OVER Before you stick a fork in the Cardinals, they're only 4 1/2 games out with six left against the Reds (St. Louis leads the season series 6-3).

TODAY'S DAR There were no photos from the Associated Press thanks to the winds from Hurricane Ike, which knocked out our dish, and the fact that the backup system didn't work. Any other day, no problem because we've got local photos to use, but Monday is a different story because even lazy sportswriters need a day off. Then again, using another photo of Marc Bulger getting sacked is already getting old.