2026 CFC25 Tier II Rankings WEEK 7: St. Paul dethrone their rivals in Alberta

TOP HEADLINES

• The theme of 2026 is officially expect the unexpected when it’s least expected to happen. Is that sentence hurting your brain? Because that’s how it feels right now to try and sort out the CFC25 Tier II Rankings this season. There’s so many quality programs across the country who have great talent and coaching to match it, which is a fantastic problem to have because we’re seeing new programs shaking up the establishment on a weekly basis.After Holy Rosary destroyed Holy Trinity Academy a few weeks back, there was no doubt in our minds that they had earned the chance to be our number one team this season despite their 3A classification. They responded in kind with another 78-0 victory over Fort McMurray, and obviously we don’t have any cameras in locker room, but it feels like they might have started reading the press clippings thinking the rest of the campaign was already pre-determined. The problem they didn’t foresee was that St. Paul was also reading the same headlines, and couldn’t wait to take another swing at their rivals. Safe to say they swung from their heels this time leading to a shocking 22-7 victory over Holy Rosary to take over the top seed in the Wheatland with one week left in the regular season.
  

  

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  Now we need the context to make sense of how big this win was for the Lions program.

  They’ve watched Holy Rosary become the darlings of the 3A division in Alberta going undefeated the past two seasons, which included five occasions where they were on the losing end of the rivalry by a combined score of 205-35. They’ve also witnessed Holy Rosary appear in ten straight 3A provincial finals, and they are currently looking for their fifth straight provincial banner. Last year they fell 44-15 to the Raiders in the North Championship. The year before they lost 53-0 in the same game. To summarize, the Lions program have been dreaming of this moment for a long time, and the day has finally arrived where they can say they were the better team when the final whistle blew.

  Now here’s the flip side or the equation. It’s an amazing achievment in the regular season, but if the script plays out how it has in the past, then the Raiders are going to have a chance to earn some revenge in the Wheatland finals, and probably one more matchup in the 3A provincial playdowns. This is just the first chapter in the 2026 story about Holy Rosary and St. Paul, but we couldn’t have imagined a better hook.

  How can you not be romantic about high school football?

• Alright now we can move onto the next reason why making the Tier II Rankings can be tough to sift through. This week we had Bishop J. Mahoney, Aden Bowman, Catholic Central and newly ranked Cardston all drop games against superior opponents in a higher classification. If you just take it on the surface, obviously your top ranked team losing 34-0 isn’t a fantastic look and doesn’t make sense to keep them there. Problem is, Holy Cross is currently the third ranked team in the nation on our CFC50 Rankings, and you’ve gotta ask yourself would anybody else on the list do much better? We’ll never truly know, but you have to imagine the answer is a hard no. If Saint-Joseph faced off against Saint-Jean-Eudes, who are currently ranked 4th on the CFC50 Rankings and have won three straight DI banners, we don’t think the result would be very flattering either, but fortunately for them that’s not how the scheduling works in Quebec. So for now, Bishop J. Mahoney have rightfully earned their place atop the rankings, but if we’ve learned anything this season, they’re sitting on a fragile perch that can crumble at a moment’s notice if they take their eye off the prize heading into the Saskatchewan 5A playoffs.

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• Next up we have to apologize for an error that was made last week in Manitoba. We unfortunately did not properly report about River East earning a huge 20-8 win over Springfield that improved their record to 4-1 at the time, and would’ve placed them on the list. Obviously not a great feeling on our end, but all we can do is correct the wrong and not shy away from the mistake that was made. The good news, River East are now officially in the top 25, and they have a great opportunity to rise again this week with their regular season finale against undefeated West Kildonan on tap. There’s a lot of exciting races to watch across the country with November creeping up, but do not sleep on the battle that’s about to take place in the Gustafsson Division with West Kildonan, River East, Sisler and Springfield all looking like they have what it takes to bring home the banner.
• Reverting back to the first sentence in this week’s recap, British Columbia is providing all the drama this season with Handsworth now making their debut on the rankings after holding on for the 26-25 victory against Argyle. The Royals sit at 4-1 on the season, with their only loss coming in exhibition play to CFC50 top 20 ranked Robert Bateman. They did pull off another big win against AAA Carson Graham that was an indication of their intentions this season, and it was probably one that we should’ve taken more serious when it happened, but it’s always tough to judge the lengthy exhibition campaign in BC. They now prepare for another tough contest against Ballenas, who will be feeling confident coming off a 42-0 win against Spectrum that leaves them at 4-1 heading into this week.
• We end off our recap back in Saskatchewan where the South Rural League playoffs kicked off last week. There were no surprises with all the higher seed moving on with ease, but now we can get to the meat of the situation. The South Rural League has been a roller coaster ride to follow if you remember reading our breakdown last week, and now we can finally get some definitive answers about who the best teams really are with Yorkton taking on the defending 5A champions Central, and Swift Current facing off against Greenall. The winner of the bracket will move onto the 5A provincial playdowns where they will take on the winners from the Regina league, while on the other side of the fence we’ll see the winners from the North Saskatchewan and Saskatoon leagues battle it out in the 5A semifinals.

PAST RANKINGS: WEEK 1 – WEEK 2 – WEEK 3 – WEEK 4 – WEEK 5 – WEEK 6

#	Last Week	School	City	Prov.	League	Non-League	USA	Results
1	2	Bishop J. Mahoney Saints	Saskatoon	SK	5-0	1-1	0-0	L 34-0 vs. CFC50 Holy Cross
2	3	Saint-Joseph Vert et Or	Trois-Rivieres	QC	7-0	0-0	0-0	W 36-0 vs. Collège de Lévis
3	4	Cochrane Cobras	Cochrane	AB	7-0	0-0	0-0	W 23-3 vs. George McDougall
4	5	St-Jean-Vianney Dragons	Montreal	QC	6-1	0-0	0-0	W 39-23 vs. Deux-Montagnes
5	UR	St. Paul Lions	St. Paul	AB	2-0	3-0	0-0	W 22-7 vs. Holy Rosary
6	6	West Kildonan Wolverines	Winnipeg	MB	6-0	1-0	0-0	W 39-0 vs. Windsor Park
7	9	Westsyde Blue Wave	Kamloops	BC	3-0	2-1	0-0	W 37-0 vs. Nechako Valley
8	7	Aden Bowman Bears	Saskatoon	SK	2-1	2-2	0-0	L 45-14 vs. St. Joseph
9	8	Catholic Central Cougars	Lethbridge	AB	2-2	5-0	0-0	L 54-0 vs. CFC50 Raymond
10	11	John Barsby Bulldogs	Nanaimo	BC	3-0	0-2	0-0	W 27-7 vs. Mount Douglas
11	1	Holy Rosary Raiders	Lloydminster	AB	1-1	5-0	0-0	L 22-7 vs. St. Paul
12	12	Collège Jean-Eudes Aigles	Montreal	QC	4-3	0-0	0-0	W 20-11 vs. Estacades
13	13	Bev Facey Falcons	Sherwood Park	AB	3-2	2-0	0-0	BYE
14	19	College Heights Cougars	Prince George	BC	0-0	4-0	0-0	W 56-31 vs. Seaton/Kalamalka
15	UR	River East Kodiaks	Winnipeg	MB	5-1	0-1	0-0	W 21-13 vs. Kelvin
16	15	Holy Trinity Academy Knights	Okotoks	AB	0-0	4-2	0-0	BYE
17	16	Yorkton Raider Gridders	Yorkton	SK	5-1	0-0	0-0	BYE
18	22	Roger-Comtois Patriotes	Quebec	QC	5-2	0-0	0-0	W 21-7 vs. Triolet
19	17	Swift Current Colts	Swift Current	SK	6-1	0-0	0-0	W 36-0 vs. Estevan
20	20	Carlton Crusaders	Prince Albert	SK	4-0	0-1	0-0	W 34-28 vs. Martensville
21	UR	Handsworth Royals	North Vancouver	BC	2-0	2-1	0-0	W 26-25 vs. Argyle
22	21	Vernon Panthers	Vernon	BC	2-1	1-1	0-0	W 15-0 vs. Pleasant Valley
23	23	Bishop Carroll Cardinals	Calgary	AB	5-0	0-1	0-0	BYE
24	24	Greenall Griffins	Balgonie	SK	5-2	0-0	0-0	W 38-15 vs. Peacock
25	UR	Cardston Cougars	Cardston	AB	2-2	2-0	0-0	L 47-26 vs. CFC50 Lethbridge CI