New Canaan and Greenwich are ranked 1-2 in the current GametimeCT 2026 Preseason Top 10 High School Football Poll going into the season-opening games on Thursday, Sept. 10.
There are three FCIAC teams ranked among the top four as St. Joseph is ranked No. 4 behind third-ranked Southington.
Thursday’s schedule of season openers includes all 16 FCIAC teams involved in eight conference games with five separate times for kickoff ranging from 4:30-7 p.m.
Bridgeport Central travels southbound down I-95 to play at Greenwich in the conference’s first kickoff of the season at 4:30 p.m. Danbury plays at Stamford at 5 p.m.
St. Joseph plays at Darien and Ridgefield plays at Fairfield Warde at 6 p.m. Norwalk travels up Route 7 to Wilton High School’s Tom Fujitani Field for a 6:30 kickoff.
Trumbull plays at New Canaan, Fairfield Ludlowe plays at Brien McMahon, and Westhill plays at Staples at 7 p.m.
New Canaan, Greenwich, and St. Joseph are the three FCIAC teams in Top 10 the season’s first GametimeCT state poll while six more conference teams received votes from any of the poll’s 21 voting members of the media.
Each voter ranked 15 teams in the state in order. Points were accumulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis, with 30 points for a first-place vote, 28 points for a No. 2 ranking, and so on down to the seven points for a No. 15 ranking.
After all the points were added up for the combined 33 teams, with the final four of them having had at least one coach list them in their rankings, it turned out that four-time defending Class L state champion New Canaan was unanimously ranked No. 1 by all 21 voters so the Rams received the maximum total of 630 points.
Second-ranked Greenwich received 560 points, and No. 3 Southington got 460 points, which was just a dozen more than No. 4 St. Joseph with 448 points.
Fifth-ranked Daniel Hand received 440 points. Windsor was ranked No. 6 and followed by Bunnell, Fairfield Prep, Berlin, and New Britain in the Top 10.
Last year coach Lou Marinelli’s New Canaan Rams finished 13-0 after they won the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L state championship game for the fourth consecutive year with a 34-13 victory over Cheshire.
New Canaan began that streak with 16-13 victory over Maloney in the 2022 Class L state championship game. That was followed by a 28-21 victory over Darien in ’23 and a 35-21 win over Darien in the Class L state championship rematch in 2024.
Coach Anthony Morello’s Greenwich Cardinals defended their CIAC Class LL state championship when they rolled to a most impressive 45-6 win over Southington and finished 11-2. Greenwich won the 2024 Class LL state title with a 14-0 victory over West Haven.
Coach Joe DellaVecchia’s St. Joseph Cadets finished 9-3 last year after their 6-3 loss to Brookfield in the CIAC Class M semifinals. Berlin won the Class M state championship with a 20-15 victory over Brookfield.
There were four FCIAC teams who were among the top 12 in receiving points in this year’s current GametimeCT preseason poll which was released Sept. 4.
Wilton received the 12th most polling points as the second team listed in the “Others Receiving Votes” category. Cheshire received the 11th most points.
Last year coach E.J. DiNunzio’s Wilton Warriors finished 10-2 after their 21-20 semifinal loss to Bunnell in the Class MM state playoffs which Windsor won with a 23-13 victory over Bunnell.
As for the other five FCIAC teams among the 23 teams statewide in that “Others Receiving Votes” category: Fairfield Ludlowe (7-4 last year) received the 15th most polling points, Darien (6-5) got the 18th most points, Staples (5-6) and Ridgefield (8-4) were the recipients of the 23rdand 24th most, respectively, and the Danbury Hatters got one media pollster to rank them 13th, so they were tied with Masuk for the 30th most polling points.