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Flaws in the CIF-Southern Section football playoff system exposed again

loren ledin, ventura county star
·4 min read
Head coach Evan Yabu helped lead the Thousand Oaks High football team to an undefeated regular season. The Lancers' reward? A first-round playoff game on the road.
Head coach Evan Yabu helped lead the Thousand Oaks High football team to an undefeated regular season. The Lancers' reward? A first-round playoff game on the road.

Win a league championship, reap the benefits!

Uh, hold that thought. Two years into the CIF-Southern Section's new football playoff system, we've learned that first place in the regular season and a couple of bucks will get you not even a coffee at Starbucks.

Nor a favorable draw in postseason.

Thousand Oaks High became the third team in program history to finish the regular season undefeated. For its "reward," the Canyon League champion — a perfect 10-0 —will make a four-hour bus ride Friday night to open the Division 3 playoffs against 6-4 Chaparral High.

St. Bonaventure, a Division 2 entry, wins the Marmonte League and will now head to Hesperia to take on Oak Hills, where it lost a 14-point decision in September.

Fillmore is the hard-earned Citrus Coast League champion and ends up seeded No. 16 in Division 10. The Flashes are paired up with top-seeded Santa Ana in round one — on the road of course.

Mind you, football is the only Southern Section sport — the only one! — where a league champion is not guaranteed a first-round home game in the playoffs.

More: 13 area prep football teams headed to CIF-Southern Section postseason

More: The Star's High School Football Rankings 

Is the football playoffs system broken? It's at least deeply flawed, and not merely for sentencing league champs to lengthy road trips in round one.

How about the area's at-large selections — Oak Park, Calabasas, Santa Paula — all earning first-round home games despite finishing fifth, fourth and third in their respective leagues? Oak Park gets the No. 2 seed in Division 6 and Calabasas is right behind at No. 3.

Or the curious case of Moorpark — which defeated Oak Park in their Canyon League game, finished with the identical record at 6-4, and is left out of postseason?

Or tri-Channel League champions Rio Mesa and Pacifica (along with Santa Barbara) matched up as first-place teams against each other in the first round of Division 4?

After each team earned a share of the Channel League title, Pacifica and Rio Mesa will meet in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs.
After each team earned a share of the Channel League title, Pacifica and Rio Mesa will meet in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs.

First, a postseason caveat. Don't fault the CIF-SS.

The Southern Section will point out, and rightly so, that this playoff system was installed only with the overwhelming approval of its member schools. Everyone bought in with their eyes wide open.

Still, it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be corrected. The schools can figure it out.

The system's underlying principle — that Southern Section teams are ranked on the season's results and strength of schedule — is actually a sound idea. But the glaring lack of emphasis on league finishes and head-to-head results is a terrible omission.

The seedings and the first-round home scheduling are hardly the fault of Oak Park, Santa Paula and Calabasas. Like everyone else, they play who and where the draws place them. All are worthy at-large selections.

If the system decides Oak Park and Calabasas are Top 3 seeds, so be it.

Still, it's indeed troubling that a team can finish third, fourth and fifth in league and earn a more advantageous playoff position than the league champion. Camarillo ends up second behind Thousand Oak in the Canyon League, and is seeded No. 1 with a first-round home game.

Again, don't fault the Scorpions. But it may not be right, it's certainly not fair and it might even be outrageous.

How problematic are the factors that decides the placement of programs in divisions and leave some teams in and others out? Here's one example:

Quarterback Connor Smith and his Moorpark football team were left out of the playoffs. One of the reasons was because Eisenhower had to forfeit a game and was then moved down a division.
Quarterback Connor Smith and his Moorpark football team were left out of the playoffs. One of the reasons was because Eisenhower had to forfeit a game and was then moved down a division.

Moorpark was indeed set to be the last team selected for the Division 7 playoffs. Instead, Eisenhower — a Division 6 entry most of the season — has its players get involved in a fight in its regular-season finale and is forced to forfeit a victory.

So Eisenhower is pushed down into Division 7, and the Musketeers are pushed out of postseason.

How to correct this? Here's one sensible idea that's been suggested by several Ventura County coaches.

It's a hybrid combination of playoff systems past and present.

Under this solution, all teams are placed in divisions — based on past success and results — prior to the start of the season.

Then, according to what happens in the regular season, teams can opt to move up one division or down one division. But only one division.

Oh, and all league champions play first-round games at home.

Let's hope CIF-SS schools get it right going forward.

Loren Ledin is the Prep Editor for The Star. He can be reached at loren.ledin@vcstar.com or 805-437-0285.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Flaws in the CIF-Southern Section football playoff system exposed again