And I edited my original post as well!

But sometimes a link from a while back has changed content (updated rankings as in your post), I don't see the harm in using the workaround - as long as it doesn't get abused

You can put the html code in your post:

You will have to edit this post to see the code in the following example. If you're logged in, log out and edit. Don't worry, you can't save an edit without providing my user name and password, but you can see the source.

Here's the example:

Hoopgurlz 2018 Recruiting Rankings

I put the underline tags (u and /u in brackets) before and after the HTML code for linking to make the link stand out more. The target="_blank" part of the code makes the link open in a new window or tab.

I don't advocate using this approach to bypass the restraint on duplicating links. There is a good reason it's designed that way. However, there are times I want to put multiple links in a post; and using the HTML code is a way to do it. Also, sometimes I want a link embedded in a sentence instead of being placed at the bottom of the post. HTML code works for that, too.