Football teams get just rewards

It took three years of tinkering and experimenting, but the CIF state football championship bowl games are here to stay, and they’ve helped create an exciting new era in high school football.

There’s a new realization taking hold among the stakeholders in California: You can’t claim to be the best unless you’re willing to play the best.

It means any team that aspires to play in a bowl game can’t simply rely on going unbeaten and winning a section title as evidence it deserves an invitation.

In the era of the Internet, everyone knows a year ahead which schools are going to have strong teams. There are no acceptable excuses for not setting up one or two nonleague games against top competition to help establish whether a team ranks as the best in its section.

That’s what the CIF state championship bowl games have done in motivating schools to take risks and come up with matchups that create big-time games during the regular season.

The three schools from the Southland that were rewarded Sunday with invitations for the weekend’s top games at the Home Depot Center -- Long Beach Poly (14-0), Corona Centennial (14-0) and Ventura St. Bonaventure (13-1) -- all benefited from this new thinking.

Poly defeated St. Bonaventure, 12-7, in a nonleague game in October that strengthened the credentials of both. Centennial went against Santa Ana Mater Dei and quarterback Matt Barkley on the road and won.

Each school took a risk, playing tough early games before their young players were ready to perform at a high level. But that’s what is now required in the season-long quest to become the best.

Poly got the nod over Centennial to represent the Southland in the inaugural open-division bowl game against surprising Sacramento Grant (13-0), which was chosen over Concord De La Salle. Grant is the team that won, 89-0, on Nov. 7 against Sacramento McClatchy.

Grant has a junior running back, Devontae Butler, who has rushed for 1,850 yards and scored 36 touchdowns. I can’t wait to see what he can do against Poly’s treacherous defense.

Centennial will play in the Division I bowl against De La Salle, which is a rematch of last year’s game won by the Spartans, 37-31.

Centennial should be thrilled by the matchup, because if the Huskies win and Poly loses, it’s Centennial that could finish No. 1 in the state rankings by CalHiSports.

St. Bonaventure was selected over Westlake Village Oaks Christian to play in the Division III bowl. The Seraphs will face Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman (13-0), the school that took Oaks Christian into overtime before losing, 27-20, in 2006.

San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s (14-0), which has won 42 consecutive games, was selected to play in the first small-schools bowl against Hamilton City Hamilton (10-2). Harry Welch becomes the first coach to direct two schools in bowl games. His 2006 Canyon Country Canyon team won the Division I game over De La Salle.

The Division II bowl will match San Diego Cathedral (13-0) against Stockton St. Mary’s (12-2). All five games this weekend will be televised live by Prime Ticket, with Division I and small schools Friday, and a tripleheader Saturday.

The toughest decision for the 10 section commissioners who selected the teams was picking Grant over De La Salle for the open-division game, according to Ken Gunn, the event director. Multiple votes were needed.

“We had to wait for the white smoke to come out,” he said.

The addition of two bowls this season helped prevent what could have been a public relations disaster -- choosing between Poly and Centennial.

Under last year’s format, one of them would have been left out.

Yes, the best matchup this weekend would be Poly and its dominating defense taking on Centennial and its no-huddle, wide-open spread offense.

“We’ll have to do that after the New Year’s bowl games,” Centennial Coach Matt Logan said.

The open division requires a Southern California versus Northern California matchup. Maybe it can be revised in the future.

For now, this format gets high marks and it’s better than the dysfunctional Bowl Championship Series in the college ranks.

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eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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State bowl games

at Home Depot Center

all games on Prime Ticket

FRIDAY

Small Schools :: 4:30 p.m. St. Margaret’s (14-0) vs. Hamilton City Hamilton (10-2)

Division I :: 8 p.m. Corona Centennial (14-0) vs. Concord De La Salle (12-1)

SATURDAY

Division III :: noon

St. Bonaventure (13-1) vs. Santa Rosa Cardinal Newman (13-0)

Division II :: 4 p.m.

San Diego Cathedral (13-0) vs. Stockton St. Mary’s (12-2)

Open Division :: 8 p.m.

Long Beach Poly (14-0) vs. Sacramento Grant (13-0)