Playoff Setup May Change

A push for greater competitive equity could create excitement and problems in the postseason over the next two years.

Proposed changes in Southern Section playoff groupings for football and basketball could create the potential for dream matchups at the highest levels of divisional competition but also keep some teams accustomed to reaching state playoffs from ever getting that far.

“It could get interesting,” Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton said. “I guess when you get down to it, people want to see the better teams compete against each other.”

Some schools, such as Westlake Village Oaks Christian in football, will make a little jump. Others, such as North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake in basketball, must take a quantum leap in the competition they face in section playoffs if a plan based primarily on strength of leagues is approved by a vote of the 83-member Southern Section Council on April 25.

Schools may appeal the new alignments at a meeting scheduled for April 6. The changes would go into effect for a two-year cycle that will be reviewed after the 2007-08 school year.

The changes for football are based on a combination of competitive equity, strength of leagues and geographical proximity. Basketball changes focus on strength of leagues rather than the current enrollment-based format, lumping the strongest leagues together to form what is intended to be one super division in the Southern Section playoffs.

Montebello Athletic Director Tim Murphy, the Almont League coordinator, suggested the format out of fairness for a majority of the schools. The same plan is expected to be applied to Southern Section girls’ volleyball playoff groupings.

“From our perspective, there was no sense of fairness,” Murphy said. “Why should 95% of the schools, who don’t participate in state playoffs, take a back seat to the ones that do? It was just a matter of fairness.”

Plans call for the 10 division champions to earn automatic berths in the state playoffs, but runners-up will not be guaranteed a berth as they have been.

Problems could arise in the placement of state-playoff participants in their respective divisions, especially if more than four section champions reside in the same state playoff division.

A 10-person advisory committee for boys’ basketball and a nine-person committee for girls’ basketball headed by Paul Castillo, an assistant commissioner, will select playoff participants in each of the state’s five divisions.