Beyond No. 1 Clovis, questions abound in section football rankings

Central Section football rankings, only two weeks into the season, have already evolved into a card shuffle and questions that can only be answered with time.

Examples: Buchanan defeats Edison by two points; Buchanan loses to Bullard by five; and Edison wins by seven at Bakersfield, which was ranked No. 3 from the beginning.

And what to do with Liberty-Bakersfield – No. 2 behind Clovis out of the gate?

The Patriots are 0-2, having lost 27-14 to state-ranked Mission Viejo, a 3-0 Southern Section power from Orange County; and 29-14 to Ridgeview without their starting quarterback, Jordan Love (concussion symptoms).

Love, who led 10-3 Liberty to a Division I runner-up finish to Edison last year, is expected to return for a nonleague game Friday at the Tri-River Athletic Conference’s Central – 0-2 and dazed following a 55-7 drubbing at the hands of state-ranked Grant-Sacramento.

And, also, what to do with Ridgeview, which opened with a suspect 37-30 win over Frontier?

Or is there more to be said for Frontier, a Southwest Yosemite League representative coming off a 5-6 season and 30-10 loss in the first round of the D-I playoffs to a Clovis West team that finished 6-6?

For now, it’s Clovis holding firm at No. 1 following an impressive, 527-yard, 41-27 win over D-II heavyweight Lemoore, and then guesswork in The Bee’s overall Top 20.

And, meanwhile, there’s partial movement atop divisional rankings with Tulare, Hanford, Liberty-Madera Ranchos, Immanuel and Kennedy atop D-II to D-VI.

This story was originally published September 7, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Beyond No. 1 Clovis, questions abound in section football rankings."