Crowley Urges More Consistency in Rules for Playoff Participation

Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley used Tuesday’s proposed hearing by University High School as an opportunity to lobby for changes within the section that will lead to more consistent rules governing playoff participation.

University administrators requested the hearing to address what it considered an unethical decision by Suburban League principals to allow top-seeded La Mirada to continue in the Division VIII football playoffs despite forfeiting 10 games because of an ineligible player. But before the hearing began, Crowley said the section determined Tuesday morning that the player in question was, indeed, eligible and the team would not forfeit its victories.

But Crowley was uneasy about 11th-hour accusations and differences in league rules determining who goes to the playoffs and who doesn’t; the day after La Mirada beat University in the first round, Suburban League principals--under the impression La Mirada would be 0-10, 0-5 in league after forfeiting its games--voted 4-0 (with two abstentions) to allow the Matadores to continue in the playoffs. There was not enough time to meet before the game.

“Part of my recommendation (to the Executive and Blue Book committees) is going to be that leagues have a mechanism whereby they verify eligibility during the season,” Crowley said. “Then, when league entries are submitted, they’re bona fide league entries with eligibility intact. And after the pairings are released, we deal only with the ineligible athlete. . . . Forfeits really penalize kids. An administrator makes a mistake and 70 kids are penalized. Is it too stringent? Is it a fair rule?”

The problem is that each league determines who represents it until the first playoff game is played, and the section can’t exercise its power until the playoffs begin. Crowley noted the Empire League’s decision to prohibit El Dorado from going to the playoffs, and the Suburban League--and last year the Golden League--allowing teams with inferior records to go to the playoffs after being in apparent violation of section rules.

“From the time we release those pairings, this office has to have the authority (to make decisions about participation); right now it doesn’t,” Crowley said. “We can’t be moving teams in and out (once the playoffs begin).”