Prep Sports: Division changes
13 Orange Belt teams are impacted
Every two years the CIF Central Section re-evaluates the divisions for its member schools and this year’s re-evaluations resulted in a change of divisions for 13 Orange Belt fall sports teams.
After three-straight trips to the CIF Central Section Division III championship tournament, two Valley final appearances and one Valley championship, Strathmore High School girls water polo is moving up to Div. II. They are the only team moving up a division.
In football both Lindsay and Porterville drop one division, going to Div. V and Div. IV, respectively. Former Div. IV volleyball programs, Lindsay and Granite Hills moved down to Div. VI while Porterville went from Div. III to Div. IV.
Every boys cross country team is changing divisions, except for Monache. Granite Hills, Lindsay and Strathmore are all moving to Div. V, while Porterville moves to Div. IV. In girls cross country, Granite Hills and Lindsay will also move to Div. V.
Girls tennis saw one change in Granite Hills to Div. V.
Changes are made to divisions based on a competitive equity system rather than on the size of the school.
“In the case of a large school like Edison High in Fresno, their girls tennis team — which got me thinking about this concept back in 2006 — their girls tennis team was 0-40,” said Jim Crichlow, the CIF Central Section commissioner. “They couldn’t beat anybody, but they were in Div. I because they were a big school. Well that wasn’t fair.”
With competitive equity, the Central Section uses a points system and a team’s division playoff outcome over a couple years to determine wether a team needs to move up, down or stay in their division. Division reassignment for winter sports will be voted on in October, while spring sports will be voted on in January. All changes will apply to the 2017-18 season and can be appealed the following year by the school.
Central Coast expansion
In January of this year, the Central Section approved the addition of 13 Central Coast high schools starting in the 2018-19 school year.
Leaving the CIF Southern Section for the Central Section are: Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Mission Prep, Morro Bay, Nipomo, Orcutt Academy, Paso Robles, Pioneer Valley, Righetti, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, St. Joseph and Templeton.
The Southern Section is a highly competitive, extensive section with nearly 600 schools while the Central Section is composed of a little over 100 schools.
It was the Central Coast schools’ idea to join the Central Section after racking up high bills for travel and leaving players stuck in hour-long traffic jams while trying to get to schools in Southern California.
“It helps us because they’re large schools, they compete at a high level so it will help fill our brackets in Division I and II,” said Crichlow. “Which now we have 11, 12 schools. It’ll be 16 if they elect to go. So it’s a win-win.”
Since the Central Coast schools are bigger and bring in large attendance, instead of placing the three-year customary ban on the schools from hosting, Central Coast teams will take a 10 percent deduction in revenue shares for the next three years.
Usually when a team host’s a playoff game, they keep 30 percent of what they make at the gate and send 30 percent of the profits to the visiting school while the last 40 percent goes back to the CIF. But for the next three years, Central Coast teams will only keep 20 percent of gate profits while the visiting school will receive 40 percent.
Schools are also allowed to keep all profits from parking and concessions.