CIF to Allow Appeals for Violence Ejections : High schools: Ruling stems from incident involving Torrey Pines’ Ryan Lynch. Board also expands playoffs.

Ryan Lynch will get an opportunity Monday to appeal his one-game suspension. Eight additional football teams will get a chance to win a championship this season. And schools that now play eight-man football will get a crack at the 11-man game next season.

Those were a few of the determinations made Tuesday by the San Diego Section Board of Managers at its quarterly meeting.

But perhaps the biggest decision, stemming from the Lynch case, was the Board’s unanimous vote to amend the Section’s controversial “Ethics in Sports” policy to include a clause for due process in incidents involving violence-based ejections.

Since the policy was written four years ago, athletes ejected from a contest for a violent offense were subject to a next-game suspension penalty without possibility of appeal. A second such ejection--which has yet to occur on the varsity level since the policy’s inception--would render that player ineligible for the entire season.

The Lynch case, with a Nov. 4 Superior Court hearing now pending, led to the changing of the policy many felt all along should have included an appeal process.

Lynch, a senior quarterback/safety/kicker from Torrey Pines High, was ejected from a Sept. 25 game for allegedly kicking a La Jolla player. Under the existing rule, Lynch would have been automatically suspended from Torrey Pines’ next game, Oct. 2, against El Camino. On Sept. 30, Lynch and his family won a temporary restraining order, allowing him to play until the issue could be settled in court. That hearing was to have been held Monday, but the Section asked for a continuance so it could discuss the matter at its meeting Tuesday.

After voting to amend the ethics policy, the Board determined Lynch--and all other athletes after him facing a similar first-offense suspension--would be allowed to present his case to Section Commissioner Kendall Webb.

Webb, saying he wasn’t concerned with who Torrey Pines’ upcoming opponents were, then received the board’s blessing to schedule a Monday appeal for Lynch. Tenth-ranked Torrey Pines (5-1, 3-0 in the Avocado League) plays No. 4 San Pasqual (6-0, 3-0) on Friday, then Carlsbad (2-4, 1-2) next Friday. A victory Friday would give Torrey Pines sole possession of first place with games remaining against Carlsbad, San Marcos (0-5-1, 0-3) and Oceanside (3-3, 2-1).

At Monday’s meeting, Lynch will presumably attempt to illustrate with game film that he was unfairly ejected from the La Jolla game.

Webb said the game film, in this instance, would be admissible, but he would overturn the suspension only if the evidence proves conclusive.

“This is obviously what we were trying to get,” Torrey Pines Coach Ed Burke said. “It’s a step in the positive direction. Everyone faced with this situation deserves the right of appeal. (The Board’s decision) benefits every athlete in the county.”

Burke has maintained that Lynch should not have been ejected and says the film will provide that proof.

With one of the Board’s other rulings Tuesday, Torrey Pines would probably still make the playoffs even it loses the remainder of its games and finishes 5-5.

The Board placed a one-year moratorium on playoff participation limits so it can review its June decision to limit team playoff divisions to 12 teams.

With the moratorium, last year’s 16-team-per-division limits are back in place for the 1992-93 school year. Basketball, which had a one-year unlimited-format exemption last year, must revert to a 16-team-per-division limit this year.

At issue, in the more selective playoff format, was an estimated loss of $29,000 in playoff revenues.

The decision--six weeks into the football season--gives teams such as USDHS (2-4), Valhalla (2-4) and even Serra (1-5) renewed playoff hopes.

Another Board decision placed Southern Conference schools into two 1-A leagues, and gave the schools the opportunity to choose whether they would play eight-man or 11-man football next season.

In the new football alignment, the Desert League will consist of Calipatria, Holtville, Imperial and Mtn. Empire. The Coastal League will be made up of Army-Navy, Bishop’s, Borrego Springs, Julian, La Jolla Country Day, Midway Baptist, Francis Parker and Santa Fe Christian. All but Borrego Springs, Midway Baptist and Julian are in favor of playing 11-man football. The Board left it up to the Southern Conference to determine format and scheduling issues, as well as mandating that Desert schools be guaranteed at least two nonleague games against Coastal members.