Players from San Diego Cathedral Catholic get a little crazy with CIF Division I-AA state championship trophy in 2016 after improbable and stunning win vs. St. Mary’s of Stockton. Photo: Paul Muyskens.
Note: This post is for Gold Club members of CalHiSports.com only. Moving forward for the rest of the season (including our final divisional state rankings) these posts will be for Gold Club members only. You won’t find breakdowns like this from any other media source in the state. We also will do several Facebook Live presentations of these boards as the section playoffs get further developed. To sign up and become a Gold Club member (beginning at just $3.99 for one month and $9.99 for three months), CLICK HERE.
Note: These are matchups based on projected winners and rankings of teams according to their various placements into CIF section playoffs. We’re going to go by our own state rankings system to project matchups, and they’ve proven over the years to be just as accurate and sometimes show more attractive matchups than the computer. Consider each team listed as a placeholder for that particular section playoff division, which also is indicated. The biggest change in the format this year is the addition of another division at the bottom of the lineup. This was done, according to Ron Nocetti of the CIF, because there is no longer going to be any play-in games in the north. And one of the main reasons for that is that the CIF didn’t want the annual San Francisco Section Turkey Day game to be impacted by the earlier schedule on the calendar. With SF keeping its tradition, it wouldn’t be able to be in any play-in games. The addition of another division at the bottom also enabled the CIF to let both of the CIF L.A. City Section lower division champions into the field. Previously, only one of the L.A. City’s D2 or D3 champions was involved. This board was completed after games of Saturday, Oct. 27 and doesn’t include any games played after that.
