city section revamps scheduling

SoCalHoops High School News

City Section Revamps It's Playoff Format--(Oct. 9, 1998)

Several people have sent us e-mails and some have left messages on the message board about the City Section playoff format and whether it has changed. When we first got the inquiries, we had no idea that anything had changed. So we answered using the rules (3A & 4A) as we believed they would be implemented this coming season.

Wrong.

We just got off the phone with Jeff Halpern, the Assistant City CIF Commissioner (or whatever his title is. . . anyway, he's the guru of scheduling and leagues for City Section) and he informed us that yes indeed, the City Section has gone to a new format for playoffs, and next year (99-2000), they'll go to an entirely different system during the season when a full re-leaguing occurs.

Here's what's happening. Teams will still play as though 3A and 4A meant something during the season. That means the leagues as they are presently structured will remain this year.

But when it comes time for playoffs, 3A and 4A won't mean a thing. Historically, those designations had been meant to divide the more competitive (4A) from the less competitive (3A). These designations were kinda, sorta, ok but they led to certain inequities, at least that's the way a majority of coaches felt. If you were good enough to play 4A, then you competed against the best. But if things changed at your school, and you became less competitive, the only way out was to wait for another school to move up to 4A so your school could take their 3A spot in the schedule. And that didn't happen very often.

Another problem was that the 3A and 4A designations really have nothing to do with CIF designations which are based on enrollment. Most LA City Schools have enrollment which would classify them as either I-AA (the largest enrollment) or I-A, (the next highest enrollment--note: V-A is the smallest enrollment division). In fact this issue came up last year because Westchester, which elected to play up in Division I of CIF State competition, actually could have played in Division II because of it's smaller enrollment.

So the City section decided to throw out the designations. This year, for the first time, 32 teams will make the playoffs. There will only be a single playoff series, but (there's always a "but," right?) the "best" 16 teams will be placed into one bracket and will compete for the "City Championship," while the "next best" (least good?) 16 teams will play for a "Division Championship." The top two teams in the "City Championship" bracket will still be eligible for State CIF competition in Division I (but CIF State is working on a way that D-I schools can play down if they meet certain criteria, but that's a different story, depending on enrollment).

How will the "best" 16 teams be determined? Evidently by a seeding committee which will meet just before the playoffs start. The committee will be composed of league representatives, two people from the IAAC (we think that translates to the "Interscholastic Athletic Association Commission", or something like that), and probably one "At-Large" community member.

Is this going to be any better? Who knows. But it's what's going to be this season.

And 3A and 4A will still have some meaning during the regular season, because it will determine which teams play each other just once during the Conference play and which play each other twice (you play teams in your own division twice, in other divisions just once).

Halpern told us "This is what the football folks have been doing in City Section for the last few years, and it seems to work. We'll try it this season. Thankfully, we'll be re-leaguing entirely next year."