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Greatest Games

The most dramatic, highest-quality games in high school football history — 1877 to present

Last updated: —
How Games Are Ranked
The Pulse Rate Index (PRI)

Each game is scored by the Pulse Rate Index, which combines two things: how good both teams were, and how close the game was.

The formula is:

PRI = (Home Team Rating + Visitor Team Rating) × Margin Multiplier

Team ratings use the Combined Rating from the end-of-season final (Week 52) — a machine-learning–derived measure of program strength for that season. Only elite programs qualify (see below).

The Margin Multiplier rewards close games and penalizes comfortable wins:

MarginMultiplierReasoning
Tie0.85Less decisive than a one-point game
1 point1.00Maximum drama
2–3 points0.90Field goal range
4–7 points0.75One score game
8 points0.60TD + two-point conversion
9+ points—Excluded (not "close" by any standard)
Elite Program Filter

To appear in these results, both teams must qualify as elite programs for that season. A team qualifies if it meets all three criteria:

  • Combined Rating > 20 for that season (approximately top 9% nationally)
  • Five-year rolling average Combined Rating > 20 (sustained excellence, not a one-year wonder)
  • At least 2 seasons of data within the five-year window

This filter ensures that the results represent genuinely elite matchups — not flukes between programs with thin historical records.

The PRI Score Shown in the Table

The PRI score is displayed on a 0–100 scale, where 100 represents the highest-scoring game in the dataset. This makes it easy to compare across eras without needing to interpret the raw formula values.

Known Limitations
Early Texas data (pre-1995): Coverage gaps in early-1990s Texas data compress team ratings for that era. Some historically significant Texas games (including John Tyler vs. Plano East, 1994 — the "61-point game") rank lower than they deserve and will improve as historical data fills in.
Games with margin > 8 points are excluded by design, even if they were historically significant matchups. The De La Salle vs. Long Beach Poly rivalry, for example, falls outside the cutoff in most of their meetings.
Program classification is ongoing: Some states have not yet completed the team-level classification review to confirm which programs played 11-man vs. 8-man or 9-man football. Results from those states are included but classification is based on best available data. The list improves as state-by-state review progresses.
Coverage is uneven across eras: Digitized newspaper archives provide rich pre-1970 coverage for some regions but not others. Ratings for programs in less-covered regions may be compressed.
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Greatest Rivalries Coming Soon

Which two programs have produced the most consistently great, dramatic games against each other over time? Greatest Rivalries will rank head-to-head series by aggregated game quality, weighted by recency and competitive balance — giving a definitive answer to who the best rivalries in high school football history really are.

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