HS Divisions, leagues, etc for Dummies

I grew up outside of California. The high school leagues back east were a bit more rigid and made sense (at least to me). I've been trying to figure out how things work in So Cal and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to follow it.

When I grew up (with a horse and buggy and walking uphill in the snow - both ways), we were organized like this:
  • Private Schools had their own league and own playoffs. They never played against public schools.
  • Public schools were grouped by size of school and geography.
    1. Size
      • A = Biggest Schools (1,500+ students)
      • B = 1,000-1,500
      • C = 500-1,00-
    2. Geography
      • ~10 of the A schools within a 30 mile radius would form a league -Call it the "Spring Lakes League". And other neighboring league made up of the same size schools would be the "Spring Valley League" There would be maybe 10 leagues within a county. Not sure how many across the state. Quite a few.
    3. Playoffs - There would be 2 or 3 teams per "League" that would make the playoffs. Finish in 1st or 2nd place in your 10 team league and you are in. A few wild cards were selected.
      • "A" sized schools would only play against other A sized schools. There would be 4 State Champs - Private School, A, B, C
  • These leagues were in place across all sports. You didn't move up or down if you were good/bad.
  • Everyone once in a while (like every 10 years or so) there would be a reshuffling of leagues. But mostly based on population shifts or to accommodate for a school opening or closing.
Is there an easy place to look up the leagues that all teams play in and see their standings (once the season starts).
I looked on the CIF website, but it wasn't obvious to me.
 
I grew up outside of California. The high school leagues back east were a bit more rigid and made sense (at least to me). I've been trying to figure out how things work in So Cal and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to follow it.

When I grew up (with a horse and buggy and walking uphill in the snow - both ways), we were organized like this:
  • Private Schools had their own league and own playoffs. They never played against public schools.
  • Public schools were grouped by size of school and geography.
    1. Size
      • A = Biggest Schools (1,500+ students)
      • B = 1,000-1,500
      • C = 500-1,00-
    2. Geography
      • ~10 of the A schools within a 30 mile radius would form a league -Call it the "Spring Lakes League". And other neighboring league made up of the same size schools would be the "Spring Valley League" There would be maybe 10 leagues within a county. Not sure how many across the state. Quite a few.
    3. Playoffs - There would be 2 or 3 teams per "League" that would make the playoffs. Finish in 1st or 2nd place in your 10 team league and you are in. A few wild cards were selected.
      • "A" sized schools would only play against other A sized schools. There would be 4 State Champs - Private School, A, B, C
  • These leagues were in place across all sports. You didn't move up or down if you were good/bad.
  • Everyone once in a while (like every 10 years or so) there would be a reshuffling of leagues. But mostly based on population shifts or to accommodate for a school opening or closing.
Is there an easy place to look up the leagues that all teams play in and see their standings (once the season starts).
I looked on the CIF website, but it wasn't obvious to me.

In San Diego CIF Section (which also includes Imperial County) the Divisions in most sports are set by a formula that supposedly puts the better schools together. However, on top of that structure, the leagues are set up geographically, so you often see some big mismatches in league play. That was changed 10 years ago or so - the previous Divisions were almost entirely based on enrollment, and the big schools tended to play in the same leagues together, and the small schools had their leagues.

This year's Divisions for boys -- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...LQV2ApbmDpn_xtVYb1lDqvs-w/edit#gid=1661741473
and for girls -- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...iTDAU_tDvb9jkXv1Ap2tTeQ4A/edit#gid=1356083036

Division 1 is 20 teams; the top 8 in the Power Rankings (a formula that averages points given for each game depending on the result, the opponent's Division, and the opponent's WLT record) are assigned to the Open playoffs; the remaining 12 to Division 1 playoffs. In the other divisions, the top 12 teams are seeded into their respective division playoffs. Teams are assigned a Division every year depending on the Rank in the Power Ratings over the last 4 or 5 years, weighted more heavily toward the most recent year, with a restriction that no school can move up or down more than one Division each year.
 
At least that’s not complicated.....

Growing up it was cool to always play the same teams every year. Crosstown rivalries went back decades. Revenge games from a prior year were always great.
 
At least that’s not complicated.....

Growing up it was cool to always play the same teams every year. Crosstown rivalries went back decades. Revenge games from a prior year were always great.

Well, I left some stuff out. The Section is divided up into geographic "conferences" who decide which schools are in which league and what their league and cross-league schedules will be. In addition to that, most teams participate in early-season tournaments, which may mean as many as 6 games to the two finalists but only charged as 2 against their game limit, plus, if they have room left in the schedule, a few non-league, non-conference games (such as Imperial County teams willing to endure the long bus trips to get some Power Rankings points against Division 1 teams). Between early tournaments, league play, and CIF Section playoffs, two teams might play each other 6 or 7 times in a year.

Here is the North County Conference league assignments and schedules for this season - https://www.northcountyconference.com/page/show/4433927-boys-soccer-league-schedule-2018-

As for rivalries, there are some like Poway and RB who have always been in Palomar League as long as I can remember. I have pointed out that the two schools are close enough so that when the cross-country teams go out for a training run they might meet each other. The rock band Blink-182 founded by Poway High students got their name from a euphemism for F--- RB, with R and B designated by their position in the alphabet.

And there have been incidents - painting over a rival's field logo with your team colors the night before the rivalry game, rocks and bottles breaking out the windows on the team bus, being locked behind the field gates and the lights turned off before the team can get out, a player arrested for assault the next day after getting a red card in a night game. It's all good. Or at least memorable.
 
Well, I left some stuff out. The Section is divided up into geographic "conferences" who decide which schools are in which league and what their league and cross-league schedules will be. In addition to that, most teams participate in early-season tournaments, which may mean as many as 6 games to the two finalists but only charged as 2 against their game limit, plus, if they have room left in the schedule, a few non-league, non-conference games (such as Imperial County teams willing to endure the long bus trips to get some Power Rankings points against Division 1 teams). Between early tournaments, league play, and CIF Section playoffs, two teams might play each other 6 or 7 times in a year.
Up through the 2017-18 season teams in both the Southern Section and San Diego Section were limited to 1 scrimmage and 20 games with a tournament counting as only 2 games regardless of how many games were actually played. Last year both sections changed the rules to allow two scrimmages and 30 contests with every tournament game counting against the limit. This year two scrimmages are allowed but the total number of games was reduced to 28 with every tournament game being counted against the limit.

In the Southern Section the league membership is found on pages 12-13 of the CIF Southern Section Blue Book found at https://cifss.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-2020-blue-book-final-10-24-19.pdf

Both sections now use Power Rankings to determine playoff divisions but the methodology to compute the rankings differ between the sections.
 
I grew up outside of California. The high school leagues back east were a bit more rigid and made sense (at least to me). I've been trying to figure out how things work in So Cal and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to follow it.

When I grew up (with a horse and buggy and walking uphill in the snow - both ways), we were organized like this:
  • Private Schools had their own league and own playoffs. They never played against public schools.
  • Public schools were grouped by size of school and geography.
    1. Size
      • A = Biggest Schools (1,500+ students)
      • B = 1,000-1,500
      • C = 500-1,00-
    2. Geography
      • ~10 of the A schools within a 30 mile radius would form a league -Call it the "Spring Lakes League". And other neighboring league made up of the same size schools would be the "Spring Valley League" There would be maybe 10 leagues within a county. Not sure how many across the state. Quite a few.
    3. Playoffs - There would be 2 or 3 teams per "League" that would make the playoffs. Finish in 1st or 2nd place in your 10 team league and you are in. A few wild cards were selected.
      • "A" sized schools would only play against other A sized schools. There would be 4 State Champs - Private School, A, B, C
  • These leagues were in place across all sports. You didn't move up or down if you were good/bad.
  • Everyone once in a while (like every 10 years or so) there would be a reshuffling of leagues. But mostly based on population shifts or to accommodate for a school opening or closing.
Is there an easy place to look up the leagues that all teams play in and see their standings (once the season starts).
I looked on the CIF website, but it wasn't obvious to me.

Check here for Divisions, leagues, standings, etc:

 
Check here for Divisions, leagues, standings, etc:

Another source for leagues and divisions. I spotted at least one error in the division placement on the Maxpreps link.

https://cifss.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Girls-Soccer-Power-Rankings-2019-2020.pdf (scroll to page 5)
https://cifss.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/19-20-soc-preview.pdf (scroll to page 20)
 
I grew up outside of California. The high school leagues back east were a bit more rigid and made sense (at least to me). I've been trying to figure out how things work in So Cal and there doesn't seem to be an easy way to follow it.

When I grew up (with a horse and buggy and walking uphill in the snow - both ways), we were organized like this:
  • Private Schools had their own league and own playoffs. They never played against public schools.
  • Public schools were grouped by size of school and geography.
    1. Size
      • A = Biggest Schools (1,500+ students)
      • B = 1,000-1,500
      • C = 500-1,00-
    2. Geography
      • ~10 of the A schools within a 30 mile radius would form a league -Call it the "Spring Lakes League". And other neighboring league made up of the same size schools would be the "Spring Valley League" There would be maybe 10 leagues within a county. Not sure how many across the state. Quite a few.
    3. Playoffs - There would be 2 or 3 teams per "League" that would make the playoffs. Finish in 1st or 2nd place in your 10 team league and you are in. A few wild cards were selected.
      • "A" sized schools would only play against other A sized schools. There would be 4 State Champs - Private School, A, B, C
  • These leagues were in place across all sports. You didn't move up or down if you were good/bad.
  • Everyone once in a while (like every 10 years or so) there would be a reshuffling of leagues. But mostly based on population shifts or to accommodate for a school opening or closing.
Is there an easy place to look up the leagues that all teams play in and see their standings (once the season starts).
I looked on the CIF website, but it wasn't obvious to me.






Just wait till you try and figure out HS Laws of the Game and HS referee standards.
 
Well, I left some stuff out. The Section is divided up into geographic "conferences" who decide which schools are in which league and what their league and cross-league schedules will be. In addition to that, most teams participate in early-season tournaments, which may mean as many as 6 games to the two finalists but only charged as 2 against their game limit, plus, if they have room left in the schedule, a few non-league, non-conference games (such as Imperial County teams willing to endure the long bus trips to get some Power Rankings points against Division 1 teams). Between early tournaments, league play, and CIF Section playoffs, two teams might play each other 6 or 7 times in a year.

Here is the North County Conference league assignments and schedules for this season - https://www.northcountyconference.com/page/show/4433927-boys-soccer-league-schedule-2018-

As for rivalries, there are some like Poway and RB who have always been in Palomar League as long as I can remember. I have pointed out that the two schools are close enough so that when the cross-country teams go out for a training run they might meet each other. The rock band Blink-182 founded by Poway High students got their name from a euphemism for F--- RB, with R and B designated by their position in the alphabet.

And there have been incidents - painting over a rival's field logo with your team colors the night before the rivalry game, rocks and bottles breaking out the windows on the team bus, being locked behind the field gates and the lights turned off before the team can get out, a player arrested for assault the next day after getting a red card in a night game. It's all good. Or at least memorable.

Amazing to read this stuff and think of how it varies by Section - in NorCal, NCS and CCS are structured somewhat differently, Oakland is its own Section and then there is Sac San Joaquin and then in the middle of the state, sometimes the teams head your way for regional comp and sometimes our way. We are just too big . . .
 
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