The CIF Southern Section’s competitive equity model is very good at placing teams in the correct playoff divisions.
It has one major flaw, a flaw that has kept a couple of postseason-worthy Orange County teams out of their sports’ playoffs.
Beckman’s girls volleyball team is the latest of those worthy teams.
Beckman finished fourth in the five-team South Coast League. The Patriots had a 3-5 league record and were 19-13 overall. They beat several teams that not only made the playoffs but advanced to the second round, including county teams Dana Hills and Pacifica Christian.
Most CIF Southern Section team playoffs are organized via a ratings system. CIF-SS football uses HSratings.com’s rankings to place teams into the playoffs and seed them in the divisions. Massey Ratings System does that for girls volleyball and a few other team sports.
For girls volleyball, the top 12 teams were placed in Division 1. The next 32 qualifiers were sent to Division 2, the next 32 qualifiers to Division 3, and so on through Division 10.
Rosary was the 32nd and final qualifier in Division 2. Rosary’s final Massey rating was 7.192. Beckman was next in the ratings at 7.185.
So Beckman just missed being the No. 32 team in Division 2 but could not be the No. 1 team in Division 3 because according to a CIF-SS rule no division can start with an at-large team as its No. 1-seeded team.
The top three finishers in a five-team league like the South Coast League are automatic qualifiers. As the fourth-place team in the South Coast, Beckman was an at-large team. The South Coast League’s last-place team, Trabuco Hills, with its 1-7 league record and 13-13 overall record, did receive a Division 3 at-large playoff berth.
Tesoro’s football team in 2023 missed the playoffs the same way
The Titans finished third in the four-team South Coast League – only the top two finishers in a four-team league are automatic qualifiers – and was 5-5 overall with all five of its wins over teams that made the playoffs. But the way the CIF-SS rankings shook out, Tesoro was the top team in the Division 3 pool but was aced out of the playoffs because like other divisions Division 3 could not have an at-large team at the top.
Servite’s golf team this past spring just missed the cut to be in Division 1’s 20-team playoff group. Servite, a Trinity League co-champion that lost a coin flip with Santa Margarita for the league’s one and only automatic qualifier designation, then went into the Division 2 pool as the top-rated team there. As an at-large team, Servite could not be the No. 1 team in Division 2 so the Friars were not in the playoffs.
Darin McBain has coached Beckman girls volleyball for 19 years. This is the first season during his tenure that Beckman girls volleyball is not in the playoffs.
“Can’t make sense of it,” McBain texted about his team’s predicament. “And if we would have got a D3 bid, I think we would have gone very deep.”
CIF Southern Section assistant commissioner Thom Simmons, the section’s spokesman, said league results must matter when it comes to playoff qualification.
He is right. League play must retain prominence – the CIF-SS rules and by-laws call for that – and matchups that determine league championships and league playoff representation are the best contests of every school year.
“That’s what the constituency of schools want,” Simmons said. “That’s what the sports’ coaches advisory committees want.”
Matt Poston was the coach of the Tesoro football team that did not get into the 2023 football playoffs. He now is athletic director at San Clemente and is an assistant football coach there.
Poston wants the playoff-qualification system changed so that teams that deserve to be in the playoffs get into the playoffs. He recently joined the CIF-SS football coaches advisory committee. Poston, never a complainer and always an even-tempered guy after a win or a loss, said he will advocate for a change at the group’s meeting in December so that the group can consider crafting a proposal that would alter the rule.
“When the system was put in,” Poston said, “I don’t think people realized this could come about. Two years ago (at Tesoro), I told our kids they were going to the playoffs and all of a sudden they didn’t get that opportunity.”
The goal of the competitive ratings system is to get the right teams in the playoffs and get them into the right divisions. It’s going very well. An adjustment is required to make sure teams like Tesoro’s 2023 football team, Servite’s 2025 golf team and Beckman’s ‘25 girls volleyball team that deserve to be in the playoffs get to be in the playoffs.
NOTES
• Orange Lutheran’s football team this week forfeited two early-season nonleague football wins because the Lancers used an ineligible player in those games. In August it looked to the school like the transfer had made the valid change of residence that grants immediate eligibility. Orange Lutheran reexamined the paperwork, found it had been fudged, self-reported its findings to the CIF-SS office and now is 2-6 overall going into Friday’s game against Santa Margarita. …
• Orange Lutheran made the announcement Tuesday in a meeting with local media members in a school office with five Orange Lutheran leaders present: school executive director Mary Scott, head of school Dr. Jack Preus, vice principal Jon Spencer, athletic director Karen Kekipi and football head coach Rod Sherman. It was an unusually open and transparent way to admit they had messed up although, really, the school had been hoodwinked through little or no fault of its own. …
• The CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship football game will be played Nov. 28 at the Rose Bowl. The 2022 Division 1 final was played there and St. John Bosco defeated Mater Dei 24-22 in the final game of Bruce Rollinson’s coaching career at Mater Dei. Only one CIF-SS final will be played at the Rose Bowl so that the natural turf isn’t damaged by two games on a rainy day. …
• CIF-SS football brackets will be released Nov. 2 at 10 a.m. CIF-SS Division 1 last season had 10 teams in a 16-bracket with six teams getting first-round byes. …
• The Mater Dei-St. John Bosco football game Oct. 31 is the Spectrum Sports Game of the Week. …
• All four Trinity League girls volleyball teams moved on in the CIF-SS playoffs. Mater Dei had a first-round bye in Division 1 and plays at home against Harvard-Westlake on Wednesday. JSerra, Orange Lutheran and Santa Margarita won Division 2 first-round matches Tuesday to advance to Thursday’s second round. …
• Three Coast League girls volleyball teams advanced to the second round: Estancia, La Quinta and Rancho Alamitos. …
• Field hockey is alive and happening, with a Sunset League season-ending tournament underway. The semifinals Thursday had Newport Harbor at Huntington Beach and Edison at Harvard-Westlake. The tournament ends Saturday at Harvard-Westlake, with the third-place game at 2 p.m. and the championship game at 4 p.m. …
• A sport must be played by at least 20 percent of the CIF Southern Section’s 560 member schools for the section to have playoffs in a sport. …
• Beckman’s boys cross country team did not run in last week’s Orange County Championships. The Patriots, ranked No. 4 in CIF-SS Division 1, is in Saturday’s Mt. SAC Invitational at Mt. San Antonio College, which will be the site of the CIF-SS prelims Nov. 14 and 15 and the CIF-SS finals Nov. 22. …
• Also running at Mt. SAC on Saturday is the El Toro girls team that is No. 1 in CIF-SS Division 3 and the Trabuco Hills girls team that is No. 2 in CIF-SS Division 1. St. Margaret’s is sending its girls team, No. 1 in CIF-SS Division 5, and its CIF-SS No. 2 Division 5 boys team to Mt. SAC. …
• Edison lost twice to Newport Harbor in Sunset League flag football, 14-8 and 27-7. Edison beat Newport Harbor 6-0 on Wednesday in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs. You never know what can happen in high school sports.
