By Tim Peterson
Bowl 5-AA – Hughson 9 Muir 6: Muir turned the ball over five times in a rain-soaked game in Northern California and fell to Hughson 9-6 Saturday night in the Division 5-AA State Bowl. The Mustangs who won the CIF Division 10 Championship, finished the season 9-7 overall.
Bowl 6-A – Atascadero 41 San Gabriel 0: It was tough night in the rain for the Matadors in a 41-0 loss to Atascadero on the road Saturday night in the Division 6-A State Bowl. San Gabriel, the CIF Division 13 CIF Champs, finished the season 11-4 overall.
Agree 100%, especially with the manufactured titles in lower divisions
@ Analysis: CIF actually had 15 divisions this year for its state playoff and title games. (Those were the Open Division, Divisions 1A-7A, and Divisions 1AA-7AA.) But having said that, I get your joke.
I have an even better idea: Let’s get rid of these superfluous state-level games altogether.
The 13 or 14 games that are necessary for a high school football team to win a divisional championship in the Southern Section should be enough. With 15 state playoff divisions, CIF was asking most of the 58 participating teams (including the two in the Open Division) to play a season schedule of at least 15 games.
I thought we were trying to minimize our players’ risk of sustaining concussions and other serious injuries, so I believe that having the state playoffs contradicts that goal. And, what about the impact the extended football season might be having on academics and other sports programs—especially wrestling and basketball?
These are issues that ought to be seriously considered.
@ Detached Observer: San Gabriel should be congratulated on its 12-4 season, but yeah, the current playoff system in the CIF Southern Section is badly flawed.
Waiting until the end of the regular season before organizing playoff divisions and allowing multiple at-large teams in some of them are practices that lend themselves to a lot of subjectivity and even favoritism. In addition, why are league champions and teams which come from the same league being made to play each other in the first round?
One more thing: Not all of the teams in Division 1 should automatically qualify for the playoffs. If I remember correctly, a team that was 1-9 (St. Paul?) was given a playoff berth during a recent season simply because it was lucky enough to be in this uppermost division.
The whole setup is nonsensical.
SG participation trophy. Should never been allowed. CIF needs to cut some divisions. Showed true colors. What a a joke letting weak team play in big games.
CIF State needs to go into the double-digits in divisions. That’s where our locals can shine.
San Gabriel finally played a decent team
This would have happened in first round of CIF under old format . The best team they played all year (per CalPreps) was Bell Gardens prior to this drubbing . BG first round loser D11.
Congratulations on great run, thanks to CIF equity format