MaxPreps California Bowl Game Rankings, and how the bowls work now

Video: St. John Bosco vs. De La Salle second half
See highlights from the 2013 Open Division CIF Bowl Game.

The number 13 will prove to be very lucky for California high school football teams this year, as the California Interscholastic Federation has expanded its postseason from five state bowl games to 13.

The new format allows for every section champion in the state to qualify for a chance to advance to one of 13 championship games. The Open Division final does not have a regional playoff and will pit the top team in the North against the top team in the South in the marquee game of the championship series. The other 12 brackets will each feature a regional playoff game in the south and the north with the winners advancing to a championship game.

According to Ron Nocetti, the associate executive director of the CIF, the section champions will be placed (not selected) into the one Open Division championship game and the 24 regional games. The placement will be based on competitive equity, not necessarily by enrollment, and the section commissioners will follow a list of criteria in order to place teams in a playoff bracket. There is also a chance that a play-in game will be needed depending on the number of teams that agree to play in the regional playoffs (section champions are not obligated to participate and must announce their intention to play in the regional games).

As a result, ranking teams for the bowl games and trying to figure where teams will play has become a challenge. Ranking teams in four different divisions, as MaxPreps has done in the past, is not viable since teams with smaller enrollments can potentially play schools with much larger enrollments due to competitive equity.

Thus MaxPreps will attempt to use its computer rankings to pair teams together for a regional contest, one in the north and one in the south, for each bowl game. One team from each CIF section enrollment division will be ranked (except for the Central Coast Section, which is allowing runner-ups from its larger open divisions to advance rather than the champions of the smaller section championship games).

Each week, the matchups could change, based on the rankings and competitive equity. The rankings are unofficial and final regional matchup placement will be conducted by the section commissioners on Dec. 6.

There are two Open divisions and six other numbered divisions. The large school Open Division will have just one team from the north and one from the south. The small school Open Division (enrollment under 1,250), will have two teams for each region. The numbered divisions include 1-AA, 1-A, 2-AA, 2-A, 3-AA, 3-A, 4-AA, 4-A, 5-AA, 5-A, and 6-AA. There may be a play-in game in the North for the 6-AA contest.

Following are the initial regional matchups for the 13 CIF Football Championship Games. Teams are listed by their section enrollment division along with their record and their rating based on the MaxPreps Computer Rankings.

Open Division

North
NCS D1 – De La Salle (Concord), 1-1, 71.1

South
SS Pac-5 – Centennial (Corona), 2-0, 80.5

1-AA Division

North
SJS D1 – Folsom, 2-0, 57.7
NCS D2 – Clayton Valley Charter (Concord), 1-1, 48.4

South
LAS D1 – Narbonne (Harbor City), 0-1, 61.5
SDS Open – Helix (La Mesa), 0-1, 62.2

1-A Division

North
CCS D1 – Bellarmine College Prep (San Jose), 1-0, 47.9
SJS D2 – Rocklin, 2-0, 47.4

South
SS Inland – Redlands East Valley, 1-0, 57.6
SS West Valley – Mission Viejo, 3-0, 57.2

2-AA Division

North
CS D1 – Clovis, 2-0, 46.4
CCS D2 – Serra (San Mateo), 0-1, 44.5 (not eligible for postseason)

South
SS Northern – Arroyo Grande, 2-0, 52.4
SS Southwest – La Habra, 2-0, 49.9

2-A Division

North
SJS D3 – Oakdale, 2-0, 43.9
NCS D3 – Campolindo (Moraga), 2-0, 40.7

South
CS D2 – Ridgeview (Bakersfield), 2-0, 49.6
SS Eastern – Palm Springs, 2-0, 43.7

3-AA Division

North
CS D3 – Hanford, 2-0, 39.8
CCS D1 runner up – San Benito (Hollister), 1-0, 37.7

South
SS Southeast – La Serna (Whittier), 2-0, 41.0
SS Western – Calabasas, 2-0, 39.6

Open Division (under 1,250)

North
CCS D3 – Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton), 1-0, 39.9
OS – McClymonds (Oakland), 1-0, 35.8

South
SDS D2 – Christian (El Cajon), 2-0, 38.7
SS Mid-Valley – Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth), 2-0, 33.9

3-A Division

North
CCS D2 runner up – Saint Francis (Mountain View), 1-0, 38.0
NS D2 – Pleasant Valley (Chico), 2-0, 38.1

South
SDS D1 – El Camino (Oceanside), 2-0, 33.9
SS Central – Colony (Ontario), 1-1, 35.2

4-AA Division

North
NS D3 – Sutter, 1-1, 20.9
NCS D4 – Piedmont (Piedmont), 2-0, 27.1

South
SDS D4 – Bishop's (La Jolla), 2-0, 31.0
SDS D3 – Bonita Vista (Chula Vista), 2-0, 32.4

4-A Division

North
NCS D5 – Salesian College Preparatory (Richmond), 2-0, 23.0
SJS D5 - Bear River (Grass Valley), 2-0, 27.1

South
SS East Valley – St. Margaret's (San Juan Capistrano), 1-0, 27.8
SS Northwest – Nipomo, 1-1, 23.2

5-AA Division

North
SJS D4 – Los Banos, 1-1, 14.5
SJS D6 – Capital Christian (Sacramento), 2-0, 15.8

South
SS Southern – Canyon (Anaheim), 1-1, 19.8
CS D4 – Central Valley Christian (Visalia), 2-0, 20.8

5-A Division

North
CS D5 – Immanuel (Reedley), 2-0, 6.3
NS D4 – Winters, 1-0, 5.5

South
LAS D2 – Hawkins (Los Angeles), 2-0, 16.1
CS D6 – Kennedy (Delano), 2-0, 10.5

6-AA Division

North
NS D5 – Fall River (McArthur), 1-0, 5.4

North Play-in Game
SFS – Mission (San Francisco), 1-0, -5.2
SJS D7 - Stone Ridge Christian (Merced), 1-1, -7.2

South
SDS D5 – La Jolla Country Day (La Jolla), 1-1, 0.7
LAS D3 – Belmont (Los Angeles), 2-0, -11.6

Key: NCS = North Coast Section, NS = Northern Section, SJS = Sac-Joaquin Section, LAS = Los Angeles City Section, CS = Central Section, CCS = Central Coast Section, SDS = San Diego Section, OS = Oakland Section, SF = San Francisco Section, SS = Southern Section.

Notes: Teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I-VI are divided into six groups. The 32 largest are Division I, the second 32 largest are Division II and the third 32 largest are Division III. The next 16 largest are Division IV and so on. This might not necessarily be how the teams qualify for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, but for the purposes of these rankings the SJS teams are placed in these artificial groupings.

For the Central Coast Section team rankings, teams in the Central Coast Section A Leagues are divided by MaxPreps into three equal groups for the three Open Division section championship games. This is not necessarily how the CCS will select teams for their Open Division playoff format. The runner-up teams are considered to be the No. 2 ranked team in each Open Division group.

The top eight ranked teams in the San Diego Section are considered for the Open Division and the No. 9 ranked team is considered the top team in Division I for the purposes of these rankings.