After being handed out this year’s enrollment breakdowns for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section football playoffs during Thursday’s media gathering at the section office in Lodi, it was quickly noticed that defending Division II champion Folsom was the first school on the Division II list with an enrollment of 1,994.
But looking over the 32 schools in the section with enrollments higher than Folsom, you can see that there’s a good chance that 16 of those won’t be making the playoffs. All of that means that it seems likely to us that Folsom will end up in the Division I section playoffs this year instead of Division II.
From a CIF state bowl perspective, Folsom being D1 or D2 in its section won’t have much impact since both Sac-Joaquin D1 and D2 champions would be in the D1 bowl game or open division. It would possibly mean, however, that both the Bulldogs (who return 14 starters from a 14-1 team) and defending CIF Division I state bowl champ Granite Bay would be in the same section playoffs and thus that one of them would lose and not get a bowl game. Folsom and Granite Bay play on Friday, Sept. 6 in the upcoming regular season at Granite Bay.
If Folsom were D1 and not D2 on the section level, it also helps possible Sac-Joaquin D2 powers such as Elk Grove, Del Oro of Loomis or St. Mary’s of Stockton since none of them probably wouldn’t have to beat Folsom to win a section crown.
