City Section Adopts New Playoff Format

The City Section on Monday officially adopted a new football playoff format for next fall that establishes two more evenly balanced divisions and places conference teams in leagues based on last season’s conference records.

The City adopted the new format after rejecting a last-minute proposal presented by Kennedy High School Coach Bob Francola that would have grouped teams in 4-A and 3-A division brackets at the end of the 1991 regular season.

The new plan, which will be reviewed after one season, establishes a 24-team 4-A Division and a 25-team 3-A Division with each division consisting of six leagues. Last year, the 4-A had only 12 teams in three leagues.

Next fall, each of the City’s six conferences will consist of one 4-A league and one 3-A league. In each conference, the four teams with the best conference records last year will make up the 4-A league. The 3-A league will consist of the other four teams from each conference. The Southeastern Conference has nine teams.

In the Northwest Valley Conference, the 4-A league will consist of Granada Hills (7-0 in conference play last year), William Howard Taft (5-2), El Camino Real (5-2) and San Fernando (4-3). The conference’s 3-A league will consist of Kennedy (3-4), Reseda (3-4), Chatsworth (1-6) and Grover Cleveland (0-7).

In the Valley Pac-8 Conference, Sylmar (7-0), Birmingham (6-1), Polytechnic (5-2) and North Hollywood (4-3) will be 4-A teams; James Monroe (2-5), Van Nuys (2-5), Canoga Park (1-6) and Grant (1-6) will compose the 3-A league.

Francola had endorsed a plan devised by Fairfax High Coach Ron Price that would have established two 16-team playoff brackets, but not until the end of the regular season and based on 1991 records. In effect, teams in each conference would start the season with no division designation and then play themselves into a bracket. Under the proposal, only conference champions would be named.

The City rejected the proposal because it would have eliminated league champions and because it raised the possibility that teams might lose deliberately to avoid the 4-A bracket.