Turning on the AC: Competitive equity too often fails tiny schools
Over the last couple of years, there is no denying that the CIF Southern Section’s fairness project, otherwise known as competitive equity, has been a boon to the area.
We’ve seen historic runs from the Burbank High football, baseball and boys’ basketball teams, Glendale girls’ basketball and girls’ tennis squads, Crescenta Valley girls’ tennis unit, the La Cañada boys’ water polo and baseball squads and so on.
Those advances have come at the cost of Burroughs girls’ basketball and softball, La Cañada boys’ and girls’ basketball and other area schools participating in the Division I playoffs, a level that few in the area are capable of competing at.
The CIF office implemented the Competitive Equity Playoff Model in the fall of 2016 in an attempt to give more teams an opportunity to make it to and thrive in the postseason – or level the playing field.
Formulas that utilize higher-division victories and losses, postseason wins and strength of schedule, to name a few factors, split up teams from the same leagues into different postseason divisions.
As teams have risen and dropped, there is a glaring flaw the CIF should address.
There needs to be a bottom or basement for how far teams, no matter how poorly they’ve preformed, should drop.
While there have been plenty of highlights with competitive equity, one group, however, that hasn’t reaped the benefits are tiny schools. We have a few in Bellarmine-Jefferson High, Glendale Adventist Academy, Holy Family, International School of Los Angeles and St. Monica Academy.
Now, I classify tiny schools as those with 200 kids or fewer, which each has according to the latest figures from the CIF Southern Section office.
These are schools that rarely, if ever, have year-round programs or robust rosters. Often times athletes who have never participated in a specific sport, or sports in general, compete on these squads, while all of the above schools lack for facilities.
Now, if you’ve read our sports pages then you may know that some of the above teams have enjoyed great success over the last two years.
That’s been, however, in spite of a system that too often gives larger schools a chance to thrive at the expense of the little guy.
All you have to do is go back to Friday, Feb. 23 and the Division V-A boys’ basketball semifinals.
The tiny St. Monica Academy boys’ basketball team, a school that’s student body numbers 109, was enjoying its best season in history and was hoping to advance to the program’s first championship.
Standing in the Crusaders’ way was Duarte, a school that before competitive equity in 2015-16 was in Division IV-A, or three divisions higher than the current lowest division, which is Division V-A.
Should Duarte be in Division IV-A? Obviously the CIF doesn’t believe so.
Yet, there’s no way 852-student Duarte should be in the lowest division and knocking off schools like St. Monica Academy, 132-student California School of the Deaf and 165-student Dunn to reach the finals.
How is that competitive equity?
There are a few other examples of this kind of disparity.
En route to winning a CIF Southern Section Division IX title last fall, 139-student Glendale Adventist defeated 610-student Carpinteria in the second round of the playoffs. No other squad the Cougars faced in the Southern Section playoffs boasted more than 250 students.
If you need more convincing, just take a look at this winter’s postseason.
The Division VII girls’ soccer final, the lowest division, features 1,230-Azusa taking on 1,071-student Fillmore. How is it fair to ask Glendale Academy or similarly-sized schools to compete with those schools? Even moderately-large Providence (456 students) had issues.
While the Duarte boys’ basketball team is huge in contrast to the teams in its league, it’s dwarfed in comparison to 1,799-student Garey High, which is somehow in the lowest division for girls’ basketball and is taking on 324-student Oakwood in the Division V-A championship.
Again, how is any of this fair?
The CIF Southern Section has bent over backwards to help make the postseason a lot more competitive and deserves to be lauded for that effort.
Yet, the competitiveness of tiny schools has been sacrificed and that’s too bad. The CIF needs to designate the lowest division or two divisions for tiny schools that belong there, not struggling medium-sized schools.
The CIF needs to get to the bottom of this.
