Staff writer Jim Paulsen ranks the top 25 teams in the state that are still alive in the postseason playoffs.

Three teams in the top 10 — No. 3 Rosemount, No. 8 Forest Lake and No. 9 Byron — lost to teams that didn’t make the list.

The first full week of the postseason led to Moorhead’s quick rise and not much else.

Media members from across the state spent weeks refining the top 10s. As the playoffs begin, here is their last batch of the season.

Moorhead and Woodbury entered the rankings, and Rosemount kept rising in the top five.

The ranked teams lost mostly to each other, but Edina (loser to Moorhead) and Cretin-Derham Hall (loser to Elk River) were spectacular exceptions.

Minnetonka plays at Maple Grove in a rematch of the 2024 title game, and Lakeville South travels to Rosemount for a game pitting top-five teams.

Ahead of the final games of the regular season, Centennial and Lakeville South moved into the upper echelon in Class 6A.

The Minneota football team’s last loss was to Dawson-Boyd in 2022.

Moorhead wide receiver David Mack and Maple Grove running back James Engle Jr. joined Randy Shaver on “Strib Varsity Live.”