Analytical, computerized rantings, similar to what is used in college and pro sports, is coming to the prep level in Nebraska, beginning with basketball
High school basketball in Nebraska is home to Hurrdat Sports and now, NebPreps, a newly launched, analytical and computerized ratings solution. Software driven sport polls are common throughout college and pro sports; however, the prep landscape was noticeable bare of such a digital asset. Prep basketball in Nebraska debuted this Hurrdat Sports designed, comprehensive computer ratings system built to scale across high school athletics, a few weeks ago beginning with basketball. The Sports Techie community blog chatted with Mike Sautter, Reporter and Content Creator for NebPreps, about the need for such a sports technology product in 2026, how it compliments human complied coaches’ polls, and what the future of the innovative creation looks like. Words like ‘fact-based’ and ‘transparent’ describe their cutting-edge ratings system that provides fans, coaches and the media with a powerful new tool updated on a weekly basis built to evaluate teams and rank them, across Class A, B, C-1, C-2, D-1 and D-2 throughout the season.
“High school sports fans deserve the same analytical tools that college and pro sports fans have had for years,” Sautter said. “This fills a gap in Nebraska high school sports coverage with transparent, fact-based ratings that will spark conversation and give fans a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape.”
NebPreps Path
NebPreps model evaluates teams across six key classifications based on game results, strength of schedule, margin of victory and timing. The system was designed by data analyst, Jeff Swanson, @jeffgswanson, in about a months’ time, to complement traditional coaches’ polls while reducing subjective bias and identifying underrated programs.
More and more decisions are data-driven so it’s no surprise to see this trend extend into youth and high school sports. The novel concept was to use algorithms to reshaping evaluation systems beyond the pro level, from recruiting to playoff seeding. This new platform is now available to schools, sports fans, reporters and recruiters.
NebPreps computer ratings for boys and girls basketball are available at https://hurrdatsports.com/nebpreps/computer-ratings/. Look for weekly updates published every Monday throughout the regular season with additional sports such as football, to be added in the near future.
Why Computer Ratings Matter
Computer ratings reduce subjective bias from the ranking process. While human editorial polls rely on perception, reputation and limited observations, the NebPreps computer ratings will evaluate every team based solely on what happens on a court, diamond or field. The result is a comprehensive assessment that:
- Rewards quality wins while accounting for strength of schedule.
- Identifies underrated teams that may fly under the radar.
- Provides consistency each week with transparent methodology.
- Predicts future performance better than win-loss records alone.
- Informs playoff discussions with objective seeding insights.
NebPreps, which provides comprehensive coverage, polls and awards for Nebraska high school sports, will continue to publish a weekly coaches poll to give fans both traditional and analytical perspectives. The computer ratings will provide an objective complement to human-driven polls, similar to models used in college sports.
How the Ratings System Works
The NebPreps computer ratings system is built on a points-based efficiency model that evaluates teams through these key dimensions:
- Game results: Every win and loss from the season.
- Opponent strength: Who a team beats (or loses to) matters more than just winning.
- Margin of victory: By how much does a team win or lose.
- Game location: Home vs. away impacts the value of results.
- Game timing: Recent games carry slightly more weight than early-season results.
“We waited until week five of the high school basketball season to launch the rating system to allow for sufficient data collection,” Sautter said. “Early-season ratings with limited game samples can be unreliable and volatile. By week five, basketball teams have typically played six to eight games, which provides enough information for meaningful initial assessments, while still leaving most of the season ahead.”
Ratings are recalculated after each week’s games, so every result matters. A rating of 50 represents an average team in each class, while higher ratings indicate stronger teams.
Limitations, Context
The computer ratings have limitations:
- They don’t know about injuries or other roster changes that affect team strength.
- They treat all game conditions equally, such as weather and travel.
- Early season ratings are less reliable due to small sample sizes.
- They don’t replace human evaluation. They complement it.
“Our ratings are one lens through which to evaluate teams,” Sautter said. “We encourage fans and analysts to consider ratings alongside traditional polls, expert opinions and their own observations. The best analysis combines multiple perspectives.”
Looking Ahead
As the season progresses, the NebPreps computer ratings system will:
- Become more accurate and stable with larger data samples.
- Help identify the strongest teams, regardless of record.
- Provide context for playoff seeding discussions.
- Enable analysis of schedule strength and competitive balance.
“We’re excited to bring this analytical dimension to Nebraska high school sports,” Sautter said. “We encourage fans to follow NebPreps for weekly updates and join the conversation as we track the 2025-26 high school sports season through data-driven insights.”
Hurrdat Sports
Hurrdat Sports offers spectators a new, engaging way to consume local sports media in Nebraska. Covering athletic events from Nebraska, Creighton, UNO and everything in between, Hurrdat Sports strives to generate podcasts, video and social media content that contains in-depth coverage, player perspectives and expertise that can’t be found anywhere in the state.
Follow Hurrdat Sports on social media at:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
Media Contact: Kevin Schuster, 402-917-6001, kschuster@lukaspartners.com
Sports Techie, I enjoyed speaking with Mike, he’s a very easy going, well-spoken and down-home dude. After doing my due diligence on NebPreps and Hurrdat Sports, I can share the following with certainly. These people pump out relevant content like it’s nobody’s business. They produce nonstop posts, videos and interviews about professional, collegiate and high school sports in Nebraska at an impressive pace. Because of this, the logical question to pose to Mike was whether he gets any sleep? He laughed, and acknowledged at times, not so much!
A key point he emphasized several times was how the computer polls aim to become a compliment to human polls, one that keeps coaches poll value in place even though they tend to rank teams the same, week in and week out. The system offers a more comprehensive scope that looks at additional metrics, while attempting to remove bias. The new, data-driven model measures a variety of metrics such as all games, win and losses, margin of victory, opponent strength, home and away, and timing – meaning slightly more weight is given to later games in the schedule compared to early season matchup results.
The model is programmed to be more stable 4 or 5 weeks into the hoops season which is about 8 games and after holiday tournaments. He believes it can also offer a better gauge in both divisions and classes. More data equals more accuracy resulting in a more improved method of identifying the best teams going forward. Predicting future performance using the software is an excellent guide for districts and state playoffs.
An interesting data point to learn was that boys’ rankings are gathering more traction than the girls. Because women and girl sports are soaring in popularity, I expect it might flip the other way because of the popularity of the WNBA and women’s college basketball and across girls’ high school and youth hoops.
One product goal is to replace the wildcard points system used by the NSA for playoff seeding by complimenting it by using a deeper dive and more genuine perspective provided by NebPreps data.
Mike also was consistent with sharing the system’s limitations. A key metric such as all the daily injuries that occur are too much manual date entry work at this time, as are entering constantly changing weather factors like snow and wind, in addition to a variety of travel factors. With enough demand, adjustments can be made in time for the next football season making NebPreps more of a true metric measurement and ultimately, a new standard of high school athletics polls.
Mike has never seen a media entity such as NebPreps and he has covered high school sports in Nebraska for 15 years. As far as he knows, other states do not offer anything like it. Jeff is a developer and took about a month to design, program and roll out the platform back in August. Mike mentioned their internal tools are a key feature, it has data not currently available to the public yet. He found the lists to be ‘amazing’ and likes the ability to search the data using a drop-down menu that uncovers more statistics.
I asked couple more questions. First, is it available to purchase? Mike mentioned. “The backend is done but the computer rankings system needs to be finetuned before selling through to other states. It is not currently available for purchase.” Where he sees a good immediate fit is as a replacement for a wild card playoff determination.
I asked whether a product sponsor was a consideration. He said, “Perhaps, as it (NebPreps) draws more attention, we will look at the numbers, it is only 2 weeks (now 3 weeks) into it. Thus far it is pretty good from an engagement side, it is a wait and see before we run the numbers. The interaction on social media, especially Instagram, has been a positive, with several comments liking the computer rankings over the coach’s poll.”
One reason for this is NebPreps can identify teams that fly under the radar better than the coach’s poll. A team can be ninth in the subjective rating but second in the computer rankings.
Sautter also mentioned one of the main reasons to create NebPreps was to increase engagement and thus far, it seems to be working, especially on Instagram.
Often times engagement comes with negative comments. I wondered how they plan to handle posted complaints about topics like improper ratings or the criteria and resulting metrics. Sautter understood my thought and shared, “Hurrdat Sports celebrates the story differently, we celebrate athletes and teams, emphasizing positivity, in a unique way.”
I voiced a concern about the margin of victory metric. Once coaches understood the system, what prevents schools from running up scores, too often in an unsportsmanlike way, to manipulate the algorithms for better rankings. Mike said, “Victory margin is a play on college basketball and net ratings.” He explained that they hadn’t round tabled this thought but felt it was not something of immediate concern.
NebPreps is shared on Mondays, this week will be the third poll release. Their Nebraska coaches’ poll is released on Sundays, and Mike believes that together with the computer ranking, this unique combination can drive engagement and discussions.
My son and I drove from Georgia to Idaho two summer ago including driving all the way through Nebraska. It is cool to put this story about NebPreps next to memories of driving through the state with family, going to see more family, as a means of understanding the ratings, pride and growth of prep sports throughout the state.
My gratitude goes out to NebPreps, Hurrdat Sports and to Mike, for sharing this sports tech story.
Computerized high school ratings may soon be available in your state.
See you later sportstechie in Seattle, Atlanta and around the world!
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