Sophomore RB Elijah Bow (left) and teammates at Pittsburg will look to clinch a NorCal bowl berth with a win against De La Salle. At right, players from new CIFSS D4 frontrunner Calabasas come out of tunnel at recent game. Photos: Mark Tennis & @CalabasasFtball / Twitter.com.
Really the only scenario in which Serra of San Mateo possibly could have been passed up for the NorCal Open Division slot has ended so the Padres will simply have to win out in the CCS to get another shot at probably either Mater Dei or St. John Bosco. This week’s board also has six new teams from the CIF Southern Section plus we go over why we think the CIF should look at a potential matchup of unbeatens from the CIF North Coast Section in a NorCal bowl game.
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Notes: For these bowl projections, we are using the team that is either seeded first or ranked highest in our own state rankings as the placeholder for that section’s playoff champion. After the first two divisions, the CIF and ourselves usually go by the team on the board with the highest CalPreps.com computer ranking. Travel is a consideration as well. Sending a team from San Diego, for example, to the CIF Central Section might be a bit much.
There are not any big changes in any of the CIF section playoffs this year. The CIF Central Section did use base divisions this year instead of 100 percent competitive equity seeding to determine divisions (which is what the CIF Southern Section does). That helped some smaller schools not having to be mixed together as much with large schools in higher divisions.
Speaking the of CIF Central Section, the CIF also has the option of using teams from there in the north or south. It has been three going to each region, but it can be two and four. We’ve used two and four for this first run through.
