MIAA boys midseason tiers: Who are the favorites, challengers and wild cards?

Catholic Memorial has emerged as a Division 1 contender at the halfway point. (Catholic Memorial)

On our MIAA boys’ midseason podcast this week, my co-writer, Sam Robb O’Hagan, reminded me that my preseason top 10 looks rough right now.

Six teams from that poll weren’t in last week’s edition, and two more teams may be out by the time our next rankings drop. That’s been the story of the 2026 MIAA boys’ season at the midway point. New contenders have emerged. Several preseason favorites have stumbled. And the state tournament landscape looks a lot different than it did just a month ago.

One team I did hit on, though? Concord-Carlisle. The Patriots are undefeated and atop the Division 1 power rankings, looking like a serious threat to capture a seventh state title under Ray Pavlik. But beyond C-C, plenty of questions remain about how the championship picture will shake out.

MIAA BOYS TOP 10: A new No. 1 takes over for the third time already

That brings us to this week’s exercise. Instead of putting together another set of rankings, we separated the championship hopefuls in Divisions 1, 2 and 3 into three tiers: favorites, challengers and wild cards.

The tiers aren’t based solely on records or the MIAA power rankings. We considered quality wins, strength of schedule, recent form, postseason experience and, ultimately, how much we trust each team to make a run in November.

Here’s where the MIAA boys state-title picture stands at midseason.