Basketball Playoff Field to Be Limited This Year : Prep sports: Southern Section council passes rule that guarantees only half of a league’s teams automatic berths.

More than 600 high school boys’ and girls’ basketball teams qualified for the Southern Section playoffs the past two years. That number will be significantly reduced this season.

The Southern Section council on Thursday passed, by a vote of 42-12, a rule that guarantees only half of a league’s teams automatic berths in the playoffs.

For the previous two seasons, the playoffs have been open to virtually any team, regardless of league finish or record.

Although Rick Winter, boys’ coach at La Verne Damien, was able to take advantage of the all-inclusive playoffs in 1991 and ‘92, he is happy about the switch.

“I didn’t like it when everyone went,” he said, “because the playoffs meant nothing that way. It was not a reward for a job well done. Now that it will be limited, we can use that as a motivational factor for our team the rest of the season.”

When the playoffs were first opened to any school in 1991, a record 699 teams participated. That number was reduced to 621 last year after heavy criticism from section officials about the quality of some entrants.

“Our executive committee requested that we survey all of our member schools and see how they felt about the playoffs,” said Dean Crowley, Southern Section associate commissioner. “The response was that the majority didn’t like the format and wanted a change.”

The playoffs begin Feb. 16 in 10 divisions. Teams that do not finish in the top half of their league can still make the playoffs if they have at least 10 victories and their respective bracket is not filled with automatic qualifiers.

In other action, the council voted to continue its association with the CIF Reebok Bowl, which matches the Southern Section and City large-division champions.

La Puente Bishop Amat of the Southern Section defeated Sylmar, 31-10, in the inaugural bowl last December at Anaheim Stadium.

But the council was notified that the parochial Del Rey League, of which Bishop Amat is a member, has decided not to participate in future bowls. Del Rey League principals met Wednesday night to draft the rule.

The council voted against a proposal that would have given the Southern Section the ability to pair playoff brackets based more on geography than equity. The bill was an attempt to control escalating transportation costs.