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CIFSS Divisions

by Fastpitch4Life » Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:59 pm

After spending too much time trying to find an answer on the CIFSS.org website, although I am impressed by how many staff they have doing all kinds of stuff with HS sports, I gave up my search and come back, as usual, to the horses mouths that are the bucketeers. I heard a SB mom ask another SB mom what Division of CIF her kid's HS team was in. I can't remember what Division it was, but I do remember the indignant reply of the first SB mom that her kid's school was in Division 1, and therefore the "best" Division. I think the second SB Mom lost interest in the conversation about this time and left. So I got to thinking that I really had no idea how CIF forms its Division, especially in softball. As I look at the standings of Divisions 1, 2 and 3, I see at the top very good, highly ranked teams (by MaxPreps.com) in all 3 Divisions. For example, Grand Terrace, a Division 3 school is ranked No. 7 in the nation in the Softball Writers poll.

So how are the Divisions chosen anyway? Just in case SB Mom #1 asks me what Division my DD's HS team is in. ;)
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by PDad » Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:16 pm

Edited: CIF-SS recently approved overhauling their methodology for playoff divisions beginning next year (see article in next post by jtat). Here is the current method that is being replaced.

Each sport determines their division structure and how schools are placed in them, Softball is one of many sports that does it by entire leagues rather than individual schools. Consequently, you have very strong teams playing below their level (e.g. Mission Viejo in Div 2 the previous 2 years) and weak teams in over their head because of the strength of their league overall. There is overlap between the divisions in CIFSS just like there is in NCAA.

The normal schedule is divisions are adjusted every 2 years and leagues are adjusted every four years based on proximity, size and athletic success across various sports. This is the 2nd year of re-leaguing cycle, so there may be some adjustments to divisions before next year.
Last edited by PDad on Fri Apr 22, 2016 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by jtat32 » Thu Apr 21, 2016 11:00 pm

I was always under the impression that the division assignment was based on school enrollment. I'm no expert on HS stuff, and we live in NorCal, so our system may be different. That said, I googled "CIFSS division school enrollment" and found this article:

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/201 ... ction-vote

If I'm reading it correctly, the southern section has also been using enrollment to determine divisions, but will be changing that next year.
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by PDad » Fri Apr 22, 2016 4:10 pm

jtat32 wrote:If I'm reading it correctly, the southern section has also been using enrollment to determine divisions, but will be changing that next year.

Under the new playoff structure, school enrollment size will no longer determine playoff divisions nor will league placement.

The use of enrollment or league placement varied by sport and are mutually exclusive. Here is the CIF-SS bylaw on enrollment based sports:

3200.1 Enrollment based divisions will be used in the sports of boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, and boys and girls track and field. By action of the Southern Section Council, once the divisions are established for the playoff, no school shall be allowed to move up to a larger enrollment division. Schools will participate based upon their CBED enrollment figures. Consideration will be given to geography after league placement has been recognized.

Other sports formed divisions by grouping entire leagues and CIF-SS doesn't control the composition of leagues. Here is a file containing the proposed playoff groupings for 2012-2014 - http://cifss.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/0Agenda-Council-April-25-Pt-7.pdf. There are substantial differences by sport (e.g. girls soccer vs softball).

The issues with going by enrollment are:
1) Arbitrary cutoffs where a difference of a few students puts schools in different divisions.
2) Parochial schools are often stronger than comparably sized public schools.
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