Brookline High's football team sits at No. 23 in Division I in the MIAA's first power rankings of the 2026 season, well outside the 16-team playoff cutline.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) published the rankings Tuesday, Sept. 29, based on results entered by member schools into its Arbiter system. The Warriors carry a 2-1 record and a power rating of 0.8460, according to the Enterprise News.

The 16th and final playoff spot in Division I belongs to Methuen (1-2, 5.4117 power rating). Brookline's rating trails that mark by a wide margin.

Ninth-year head coach Chad Hunte's squad got off to a fast start. Quarterback Brendan Bottiglieri threw for 234 yards and two touchdowns in a 31-9 win over Newton South on Sept. 10, and the Warriors followed with a 46-6 rout of Lexington on Sept. 17, according to MaxPreps. Tailback Jonathan Cartwright added 168 all-purpose yards and two scores in the opener. The 2-0 start was the program's best since 2016, a turnaround from a 2-9 finish in 2025.

The momentum stalled Friday, Sept. 25, when Watertown rolled to a 35-7 win at Victory Field in Watertown. Watertown quarterback Coleman Keuchkarian McKeen completed 11 of 12 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns while adding a rushing score, according to the Boston Herald.

The loss hurt Brookline's power rating, but the early rankings come with a caveat. MassLive noted the first release is "a bit wonky" because most teams have played only two or three games and league play has barely begun.

Teams that scheduled higher-division opponents early received inflated boosts. Andover leads Division I at 26.6137 partly because its season-opening loss came against Division II power Catholic Memorial.

Under the current playoff format, the top 16 teams in each of the eight divisions with at least three wins qualify for the postseason. That structure stays in place for 2026.

Starting in 2027, a new Super 8 format will reshape the postseason. The MIAA Board of Directors voted 12-2 on Aug. 19 to create a Division 1A tournament that pools the top eight teams from Divisions I and II, as we reported Sept. 25. Divisional playoff fields will shrink from 16 teams to eight per division under that format.

Rankings update at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the regular season. Brookline hosts Hopkinton, a Division II program ranked No. 17 with an 0-2 record, in a non-league game Thursday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m.