This post is a little shorter than the Upstate 20 intro last year. Promise.

And the wait will be shorter too.

The inception of The Upstate 20 was well worth the time & effort put into it last winter. Feedback was active & productive. It forced me to look at teams & games from a different lens, and frankly, it basically put pen to paper on something I’ve been doing for a while anyway. It’s a no-brainer in my head to run it back for 2025-26. So if you’re new to it, hello! If you were tapped into it last year, welcome back!

After all, I still think it’s fair to say no gets cover-to-cover in Upstate New York like me, so why not do weekly rankings (or at least periodic installments that makes sense with the regular season schedule) for all classes? A brief refresher on The Upstate 20 with answers to commonly or naturally asked questions:

• What are you calling ‘upstate’?: In the interest of including everyone in New York that I’ve considered my ‘primary coverage region’, I’m loose with my interpretation of Upstate New York. Using the NYC definition, which is everything north of NYC. All NYSPHSAA sections except for VIII & XI – aka Long Island – are included. Nothing against Long Island of course, I just don’t get to you nearly enough and I’m not going to include an area that I can’t promise to be fully locked into during the winter.
• Just NYSPHSAA teams?: No, I’ll include everyone north of NYC from any association that was part of the ‘Federation’. For regional purposes, read that as the CHSAA teams, which basically just includes Monsignor Martin teams in Western New York (O’Hara, St. Mary’s-Lancaster, etc.) and a couple others. This may get confusing, but I plan to include all CHSAA teams within the Class AAA rankings. That’s because stuff gets weird with class representation in the Monsignor Martin – what class a team represents in CHSAA playoffs in March depends on playoff results – just making it uniform & grouping them with the AAA class that has the least depth (quantity) in my coverage region.
• Just rankings?: No! I won’t stop at just a general list. Each installment for each class will include “evaluator notes” which allow readers to get a brief catch-up on the class and get a glimpse into why I have teams listed as they are. Also featured will be results of note from the most recent stretch, games of note for the immediate upcoming stretch, and a weekly “All-Upstate Team” which highlights the biggest, most notable & eye-catching individual showings of the week in each class. One stop shop.
• Free or subscriber content?: Subscriber stuff. I actually did think about this, but it’s a serious time commitment and I’m not about to have some anonymous, photoless dude on Twitter with 4 bot followers eviscerate me for having a team at #15 that should at least be #12. If you’re going to rip into me, you’ll at least have to pay a few bucks for it. Subscription is $6.99 monthly, $49.99 annually, and can be canceled whenever. There’s some good stuff on here. It’s worth it, I promise.

I’m ready, so I’m getting on it early. The “Way Too Early” beginning of season ranks come out for all classes in coming days. Classes C & D get it jumping on Thursday, 12/4, and each day after (ending with AAA on Monday, 12/8) features a new class, going up the line. Stay organized and find them all at this link throughout the year: https://empirestatetakeover.com/premium-content/the-upstate-20/.

All systems go for the 2025-26 season… let’s have some fun with it. See you in the gym soon!