According to a phone call received on Tuesday from Ron Nocetti, the associate executive director of the CIF, the official enrollment total for Parker of San Diego has been updated to 510.
Nocetti is aware of how carefully we at Cal-Hi Sports try to follow these things so we appreciate him reaching out to us.
The impact of Parker’s enrollment going over 500 is that the Lancers’ currently unbeaten 10-0 football team will not be eligible for consideration to play in the CIF Division IV South regional bowl game if they were to win the CIF San Diego Division III championship. Instead, Parker would have to go on the board in the much more difficult Division III South group of teams (currently led by Corona del Mar of Newport Beach).
Nocetti also spoke with Parker officials on Tuesday, making sure the school is clear about the situation. We had checked enrollment totals before the season and had Parker below 500, which is why the team was placed in the D4 South bowl game rankings.
Parker’s team, should it win the Division III section title over a field that also includes Christian of El Cajon (which will now move to No. 1 in the D4 South bowl game rankings), could still be chosen for the D4 South bowl game if not enough schools with enrollments of below 500 are eligible. Ironically, one of those that the Lancers could knock out of contention is Christian of El Cajon.
We see a possible nightmare scenario for the CIF in Division IV if the only two schools that qualify for D4 from the south as section champions are View Park of Los Angeles and the CIFSS Southeast Division champion (example Rio Hondo Prep or Mission Prep). Those two would then play in the D4 South bowl game while in the North it’s Central Catholic of Modesto (which won 66-7 in last year’s D4 state bowl game) rolling to another Sac-Joaquin Section title. If that were to happen and the CIF does not move up Central Catholic from D4 to D3, another 66-7 D4 bowl game not only would be likely but possibly even worse. That’s no knock on Rio Hondo, Mission Prep or View Park, but Central Catholic is just on a much, much higher level.
One Comment
Wow big shake-up. Might not matter because Parker might get upset this week or next. I still think Christian has the best chance of winning SD Div 3. Best scenario for the south would be a Christian/Bishop Diego Regional. Those 2 teams match up best against CC (sorry Mack no way you beat CC in a rematch).