Salesian of Los Angeles players (left) celebrate during CIFSS D10 quarterfinal victory. At right are some of the 1st & 2nd team all-league players from Grant of Sacramento. Photos: @SalesianFB & @grant_union / Twitter.com.
This is a big week for these projections since it’s the next to last one before late Saturday night when we’ll do one more run through after all results from section championship games are in. As usual, some of the toughest decisions for the CIF will be to perhaps match title teams from the same sections. We talked to Associate Executive Director Brian Seymour this week who hinted “you may see more of those same section matchups than in previous years.” The biggest mover on our NorCal board this week was Grant of Sacramento after what the Pacers did in their win against Patterson in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section. In the south, new teams listed include University City of San Diego and Salesian of Los Angeles. Fall River also has already opted out of the NorCal lineup.
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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.
CIF associate commissioner Brian Seymour confirmed this week that this year’s selection process is the same as last year. He added that the section commissioners will be on a call on Sunday morning to finalize the various matchups that the CIF state office will put together beforehand and already has been pondering (just like we do). The games may be announced on Sunday as early as 2 p.m.
“As you are well aware of, when conducting seeding plans, it never goes exactly as you envisioned it,” Seymour said. “There are multiple plans in place to counter upsets. That’s the fun part.”
