Indiana Preps | The State — Power 25 Football Rankings
The top three did not move.
Everything behind them did.
Brownsburg and Warren Central remain unbeaten at Nos. 1 and 2. Westfield stays No. 3 after moving to 7-1. But Week 8 gave the rest of the Indiana Preps Power 25 a shake. Lawrence North owns the biggest result. Center Grove takes the biggest fall. And Evansville Memorial continues to make it harder to keep the Tigers near the bottom of this board.
With one week remaining in the regular season, here is the latest Indiana Preps Power 25.
THE RANKINGS
| Rank | Team | Prev. | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsburg | 1 | 8-0 |
| 2 | Warren Central | 2 | 8-0 |
| 3 | Westfield | 3 | 7-1 |
| 4 | Lawrence North | 5 | 6-2 |
| 5 | Crown Point | 6 | 8-0 |
| 6 | Penn | 7 | 8-0 |
| 7 | Carroll (Fort Wayne) | 8 | 7-1 |
| 8 | Center Grove | 4 | 6-2 |
| 9 | Cathedral | 10 | 5-3 |
| 10 | East Central | 11 | 7-1 |
| 11 | Bishop Dwenger | 12 | 7-1 |
| 12 | Bishop Chatard | 13 | 7-1 |
| 13 | Bloomington South | 9 | 7-1 |
| 14 | Carmel | 14 | 4-4 |
| 15 | Merrillville | 15 | 7-1 |
| 16 | Roncalli | 16 | 6-2 |
| 17 | Decatur Central | 18 | 7-1 |
| 18 | Warsaw | 21 | 8-0 |
| 19 | New Palestine | 19 | 5-3 |
| 20 | East Noble | 22 | 8-0 |
| 21 | Andrean | 23 | 7-1 |
| 22 | South Bend St. Joseph | 24 | 8-0 |
| 23 | Evansville Memorial | 25 | 8-0 |
| 24 | Zionsville | 25 | 6-2 |
| 25 | Floyd Central | 20 | 7-1 |
Dropped out: Avon (5-3)
In consideration: Danville, Lafayette Jefferson
Lawrence North Changes the Order
Lawrence North has two losses.
The résumé still belongs in the top four.
The Wildcats beat Center Grove 28-20 Friday behind 230 rushing yards and three touchdowns from Zayveon Moore. They led 28-3 before Center Grove’s fourth-quarter push and finished the job when Elijah Hughes intercepted the Trojans’ final comeback attempt.
Move Lawrence North from No. 5 to No. 4. More importantly, move the Wildcats firmly into the conversation with Indiana’s best 6A teams. Their losses came against Warren Central and Brownsburg. Their wins now include Carmel, Ben Davis and Center Grove.
At some point the résumé has to outweigh the loss column. It does here.
Center Grove Falls, But Not Out of the Picture
Center Grove drops four spots from No. 4 to No. 8.
That is a significant move without being an indictment of the Trojans. They are 6-2. Both losses are to teams currently inside the top four — Warren Central and Lawrence North — and their résumé still includes wins over Carroll, Carmel and Ben Davis.
But the board has changed around them. Crown Point is 8-0. Penn is 8-0. Carroll is 7-1. All three move ahead.
Center Grove remains dangerous. It just does not own a top-four résumé right now.
Warren Central Has the Championship and the Résumé
No movement was needed at No. 2.
Warren Central beat Carmel 42-28, improved to 8-0 and secured its first outright MIC championship since 2019. Keyon Thomas followed his 379-yard, six-touchdown performance against Lawrence North with another major night against Carmel.
The Warriors have spent the season validating their preseason ranking. Now they have hardware attached to it.
Brownsburg remains No. 1. Warren Central remains the team sitting directly behind the Bulldogs. Nothing about Week 8 changed that.
Crown Point and Penn Keep Applying Pressure
Crown Point moves to No. 5. Penn moves to No. 6. Both are 8-0.
Neither needs a dramatic weekly storyline anymore. The story is the consistency. Crown Point has handled the Duneland schedule without taking a loss. Penn continues to stack wins as one of northern Indiana’s most reliable programs. The undefeated records become harder to ignore this late in the season.
Both move ahead of Center Grove this week because of it.
The 4A Block Is Getting Serious
East Central, Bishop Dwenger and Bishop Chatard now sit consecutively at Nos. 10-12. That feels appropriate. East Central is 7-1. Dwenger is 7-1. Chatard is 7-1.
And East Noble is waiting at No. 20 with an 8-0 record.
There may not be a classification with a more interesting postseason board beneath the obvious favorites. East Noble deserves particular attention. The Knights moved to 8-0 with a 62-20 win over New Haven and jump two more spots this week. At some point, unbeaten stops being a nice early-season story. We are there.
Warsaw Makes the Biggest Climb
Warsaw moves from No. 21 to No. 18 after improving to 8-0.
The Tigers beat Concord 37-29 and remain one of the few unbeaten teams left in Indiana. Their rise has been steady rather than spectacular. That is not a criticism. Eight straight wins do not need much decoration.
Warsaw has done enough to move beyond the edge of the poll and into the top 20.
Memorial Keeps Forcing the Issue
Evansville Memorial started too low. We can acknowledge that now.
The Tigers move to No. 23 after one of the best wins of Week 8 — coming back from 21-0 down to beat previously undefeated Floyd Central 34-28. That came one week after Memorial beat previously unbeaten Reitz 30-27.
Two weeks. Two undefeated opponents. Two wins.
Memorial is now 8-0. The ranking still looks conservative compared with the résumé, and another week like the last two will make another significant move unavoidable.
Floyd Central Falls, But the Season Did Not
Somebody had to lose Friday. It was Floyd Central.
The Highlanders fall from No. 20 to No. 25 after surrendering a 21-point lead against Memorial. That is a difficult loss. It does not erase a 7-1 season. Floyd Central had never started 7-0 before this year and pushed an unbeaten Memorial team into the fourth quarter before losing by six.
The Highlanders stay in. Barely.
New Palestine Stays Put After IMG
New Palestine remains No. 19 after falling to 5-3.
The Dragons’ third loss came against IMG Academy. That requires context. New Palestine deliberately built one of Indiana’s most ambitious schedules, adding IMG to a slate that already included East Central and Roncalli. The Dragons are not being rewarded for losing — they are also not being punished the same way they would be for a loss to an ordinary in-state opponent.
The bigger evaluation comes once tournament play begins.
Avon Is the Casualty
Avon falls out after dropping to 5-3.
The Orioles have quality wins and remain capable of becoming a difficult postseason opponent. But the board has become crowded with teams that simply have stronger current résumés. Eight-win Warsaw. Eight-win East Noble. Eight-win South Bend St. Joseph. Eight-win Memorial.
Somebody had to lose a chair. This week, it is Avon.
One Week Left
Brownsburg and Warren Central remain untouched. Westfield continues to hold No. 3. Lawrence North just forced its way into the next tier.
Behind them, undefeated teams are climbing and the margin between Nos. 10 and 25 continues to shrink.
There is one regular-season Friday left. Then we stop asking what these teams look like on a rankings board.
The bracket gets to answer it.