Divisional State Ranking Placements

Check this post to see which Cal-Hi Sports state football ranking division is the one assigned for your school, based on each section playoff division, section league alignments and section playoff structure.

(First of all, remember we have five divisions for our rankings while some sections have more so the numbers in many cases are not going to match)

CIF NORTHERN SECTION
•A handful of schools with the largest enrollments, such as Pleasant Valley of Chico, will be D2 for our state rankings. The rest of the schools in the section that are in the D2 section playoffs are considered D3 for our state rankings.
•Schools that are D3 for the Northern Section are considered D4 for our state rankings.
•Schools that are D4 or lower for the Northern Section are considered D5 for our state rankings.

CIF NORTH COAST SECTION
•One of the easiest sections to translate into the Cal-Hi Sports five divisions, the NCS divisions are simply the same. Example, D1 is D1, D2 is D2, etc.

CIF SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION
•After going over more details of a new rule in the section this year that states all league champions must play in the division of which their league is assigned, we’re going to match for the Cal-Hi Sports divisions and will place schools into divisions based on league affiliation. However, in the SJS, there are seven football playoff divisions compared to five for the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings. Therefore, some leagues in the SJS are going to be placed in our state rankings with other leagues that are either higher or lower.
•For our D1 state rankings, it will be for schools from the Central California Conference, Delta League, Modesto Metro Conference, Sierra Foothill League and Tri-City Athletic League.
•For our D2 state rankings, it will be for schools from the Monticello Empire League (D1 section), San Joaquin Athletic Association (D1 section) plus the three D2 section leagues – Capital Valley Conference, Metro Conference and Solano County Athletic Conference.
•For our D3 state rankings, it will be for schools that are in D3 leagues for the section – Capital Athletic, Tri-County and Valley Oak – plus those from the following D4 section leagues: Sierra Valley & Western Athletic.
•For our D4 state rankings, it will be for schools that are in D5 leagues for the section – Golden Empire, Mother Lode and Trans-Valley – plus those from the D4 section Pioneer Valley League.
•For our D5 state rankings, it will be for schools in the section that are in D6 or D7 leagues – Central Valley California League, Sierra Delta League, Southern League, Sacramento Metropolitan Athetic League and Central California Athletic Alliance.

CIF CENTRAL COAST SECTION
•The CCS may have an Open Division, but it’s a 24-team group that then will be broken up into three separate brackets based on enrollment. There also likely will be two divisional champions this season that will not be advanced to CIF regional bowl games. Those divisions also will be determined by enrollment.
•Since enrollments will continue to be a basis for the CCS playoff brackets, we have decided to use the section’s list of CBED enrollments to place teams into our divisional state rankings.
•Going through the list, D1 schools for us will be those that are at Oak Grove of San Jose’s enrollment total and above. D2 schools for us will be those that are at Valley Christian of San Jose’s enrollment total and above. D3 schools for us will be those that are at Half Moon Bay’s enrollment total and above (1,000 and above). D4 schools for us will be the rest of the schools in the section other than Palma of Salinas and St. Francis CCC of Watsonville. Based on historical competitive factors, Palma will be D3 for our rankings. St. Francis CCC is the smallest football-playing member of the section and will be the section’s only school eligible for our D5 state rankings.

CIF CENTRAL SECTION
•This one is also easy to explain. For the Central Section, its D1 grouping is going to be considered the same for our rankings. D2 is D2 and D3 is D3, etc., but there is a D6 in the section as well. Therefore, for our rankings, both the D5 and D6 teams should be considered D5.

CIF OAKLAND/SAN FRANCISCO SECTIONS
•Based on historical competitive factors, the Oakland teams this year will be placed in D3 for our state rankings while San Francisco teams will be considered D4.

CIF L.A. CITY SECTION
•All of the teams listed as D1 by the section also will be considered as D1 for our rankings. It’s the same for D2, but for the section’s D3 schools some of the smaller schools (going by enrollment) could be ranked in our Division IV or Division V state rankings.

CIF SOUTHERN SECTION
•Obviously, all teams and leagues that are in the section’s Pac-5 Division are D1 for the state rankings. The West Valley League teams and leagues also are considered D1 as well.
•All of the Inland Division is going to be D2 for these rankings along with all of the Southwest Division and the Eastern Division. Some of the Southeast Division leagues and schools will be D2 as well.
•All of the Northern Division plus all of the Southern and Western divisions are going to be D3 for these rankings. Some of the Central Division, some of the Mid-Valley and some of the Northwest also will be D3.
•CIFSS schools that will be D4 for these rankings will come from the Central, Mid-Valley and Northwest divisions. One of those teams is Paraclete from the Mid-Valley, which also includes defending champion Pomona (D3 for our rankings).
•All of the East Valley Division and some schools from the Northwest Division are going to be D5 for these rankings.

CIF SAN DIEGO SECTION
•We are going to use the section’s own football divisions as the primary guide for placing teams into our divisions. There are some exceptions, however, based on enrollment and historically where many schools have been used to being before.
•For the section’s Division 1 teams, both Cathedral Catholic and St. Augustine will be considered D2 for our rankings along with El Capitan of Lakeside.
•For the section’s Division 2 teams, Christian of El Cajon is going to be considered D3 for us.
•For the section’s Division 3 teams, Francis Parker and Santa Fe Christian are going to be considered D4 for us.
•For the section’s Division 4 teams, several are just too big enrollment-wise to be D4 for us – such as Monte Vista, Santana, Castle Park and Orange Glen. Those instead will be D3. Helping to take their place would be Crawford and Clairemont, which the section has as D5 but both are too big to be D5 in our rankings.