Basketball playoff system revised

The Southern Section Council voted Thursday to revise its boys’ and girls’ basketball playoffs, abandoning its current system that places teams in divisions based on league strength and switching to a criteria that will use school enrollment and previous playoff success.

At the same meeting of league representatives in Long Beach, debate began on a controversial proposal to separate private and public schools during team playoffs. The leagues were told a potential legal challenge could force schools to be taxed to pay for legal fees.

The basketball change will create 12 playoff divisions, up from 10. Teams will be put into divisions initially based on their enrollment, then moved up or down depending on a system that awards points for playoff success in a previous four-year period. The format also does away with a rule that required a minimum of 12 wins for teams to make the playoffs.

The new format, a two-year pilot program, will mean the end of the Division I-AA “super division” that brought together many of the section’s basketball powers.

Schools from the Mission League, such as North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and Encino Crespi, that struggled the last two years playing in Division I-AA against big-school powers such as Santa Ana Mater Dei and Compton Dominguez, will probably return to lower divisions.

The proposal to separate private and public schools, submitted by the Orange County-based Century League and set for a vote April 24, produced strong support from representatives of the Foothill and Channel leagues.

“There’s recruiting going on,” Saugus Principal Bill Bolde said. “They are bringing leaflets and brochures into our community.”

Bolde said the flexibility private schools have in how they spend money and their willingness to spend increasingly more for athletics have helped create an uneven playing field.

Dave Hess, athletic director at Ventura, said the Channel League continues to struggle with how to deal with Ventura St. Bonaventure, which hasn’t lost a league football game in seven years.

“It’s an unfair playing field, and something needs to be done to address the inequities between public and some private schools,” he said.

It’s clear that private schools are prepared to go to court if the proposal passes.

“There’s restrictions of opportunities for our athletes if this is pursued,” West Hills Chaminade Principal Tom Fahy said. “We want to protect the exposure of our athletes and we would fight to defend it and look at our options.”

Southern Section Commissioner Jim Staunton said legal counsel had advised against the proposal, warning, “Our attorney’s opinion is if you’re going to do this, have a rational basis.”

Staunton added that if the section adopts the proposal, it will be up to the Southern Section to pay for any legal costs if it is challenged in court.

Another vote that will take place next month will be on a proposal to do away with an association rule that bans high school coaches from coaching their own athletes outside the season of their sport.

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eric.sondheiemer@latimes.com