Basketball Playoff Field to Be Cut : High school: Southern Section general council votes to limit number of teams representing boys’ and girls’ leagues in postseason play.

Members of the Southern Section’s general council voted Thursday to limit the number of boys’ and girls’ teams representing a league in the basketball playoffs beginning in three weeks.

The council, composed of principals representing the section’s 70 leagues, voted, 42-12, in favor of allowing only 50% of the teams from each league to compete in the playoffs.

The council had voted to allow all teams to compete in one of the section’s 10 divisions during the 1989-90 season, but there were growing concerns by school administrators regarding the financial costs of sending mediocre teams into postseason play.

“There were too many bad teams entering the playoffs,” said Dean Crowley, Southern Section associate commissioner. “This isn’t Indiana.”

Crowley had previously surveyed superintendents, principals and coaches in the section and received nearly 1,200 responses. Nearly 68% of those responding said they were not pleased with the current basketball playoff format.

General council members were given three proposals to consider Thursday: 1) Maintain the status quo in which all teams are allowed to participate; 2) Return to qualifying only the top three teams from each league; 3) Use a weighted scale in which 50% of league members qualify.

The council also voted to allow “at-large” teams with a minimum of 10 victories to petition the section to gain entry in divisions if 32- or 16-team brackets are not filled. The section would consider a school’s strength of schedule and equity of competition within its league before determining its entry into the playoffs.

“We have some divisions such as the III-AA and III-A where we’re going to have problems filling a 16-team bracket,” Crowley said. “If that’s the case, we’ll accept as many at-large entries that qualify to fill the bracket.

“On the other hand, if we have more than 32 teams for a division, we’ll play qualifying-round games. The bottom line is that you won’t see teams with one, two or three victories entering the playoffs any longer.”

The section will continue to place schools into the divisions based on enrollment, with Division I (1,500 students or more) being the largest and Division V (300 or fewer) the smallest.

The council also voted to continue to support a postseason bowl game between the Southern Section’s Division I champion and the City Section 4-A division champion in December.

Last year’s game, pitting La Puente Bishop Amat of the Southern Section and Sylmar of the City Section, drew fewer than 9,000 fans to Anaheim Stadium but had a 6.7 Nielsen rating with nearly 1 million viewers of the KCOP, Channel 13, broadcast.

A final decision on the fate of the game is expected Feb. 5 when the State Federated Council meets.