NCS committee makes right call

The North Coast Section’s executive committee should be commended for calling a special meeting Friday to discuss cutting the 16-team playoff brackets in half so that games canceled because of the North Bay wildfires could be rescheduled.

It should also be praised for listening to the strongest voices — those representing the firestricken North Bay — and choosing to keep the playoff format as is for this season.

No eight-team brackets. No lengthening of the regular season.

In the future — perhaps even in time for next season — the executive committee should strongly consider downsizing the section’s 16-team brackets to eight and widening the Open Division from four to eight.

Maybe it should even consider adding a bracket or two that would give qualifying teams from less competitive leagues their own division or divisions.

The neighboring Central Coast Section does just that.

It has two eight-team playoff brackets — Divisions IV and V — for schools in its lower leagues. The format gives those teams, which otherwise would be overmatched in top-tier divisions, an opportunity to win a section championship on a level playing field.

But in return, the CCS does not allow champions from those divisions to move on to regionals. No one seems to mind. Plus, if a team has success at the lower levels, it can move up.

Take Half Moon Bay, for instance. The Cougars won CCS Division V championships the past two seasons but now compete in one of the section’s premier leagues despite a small enrollment. Hey, if a team can play at a high level, why should it matter if the players have 500 classmates or 2,000?

Half Moon Bay is 7-0 after beating Menlo-Atherton 28-10 on Friday and is a strong contender to win the section’s Open Division III title and move on to the regionals.

“I think it’s awesome that we made it up here, and we’re earning our respect out here in the ‘A’ league and having fun with it,” running back Chase Hofmann told me Friday night after the Menlo-Atherton game.

On paper, it seemed like a good decision for the NCS to cut its playoffs this season and reschedule crucial games eliminated by unhealthy air from the fires, such as Freedom at Antioch.

But on the flip side, think about those kids and families really affected by the fires. Here is what Rancho Cotate assistant principal Henri Sarlatte told the Bay Area News Group’s Mike Lefkow at the meeting Friday:

“This proposal will rob student-athletes of something so important to them right now,” Sarlatte said, noting that five players on the Rancho Cotate team had homes destroyed.

The second item on the agenda, waiving a rule in which teams need to be .500 in league, within a division or overall, passed easily. That cleared the way for teams that had games canceled to reach the playoffs.

Bottom line: NCS made a smart call Friday. But it should really start thinking about next season’s format now.