The Brownwood Lions will enter Friday’s season opener against Class 5A Division II Abilene Wylie ranked No. 13 in the state in Class 4A Division I by Harris Ratings Weekly.

The teams ranked ahead of the Lions include No. 1 China Spring, No. 2 Boerne, No. 3 Tyler Chapel Hill, No. 4 Stephenville, No. 5 Corpus Christi Calallen, No. 6 Celina, No. 7 Decatur, No. 8 Lumberton, No. 9 Anna, No. 10 Kilgore, No. 11 Bay City and No. 12 El Campo.

Only of those teams – Decatur – resides in Region I with Brownwood, and the Lions scrimmaged the reigning regional champion on Aug. 11.

The Lions – coming off a 10-3, district championship campaign in 2022 – face only one team ranked above them in the regular season, that being No. 4 Stephenville in the “Battle of 377” on Sept. 29 at Gordon Wood Stadium.

Abilene Wylie enters Friday’s game ranked No. 17 in Class 5A Division II and posted a 10-4 record last year with a trip to the regional final.