The562’s standings, schedule, and rankings stories are sponsored by International City Plumbers.
We’re entering the third year of the new CIF-SS playoff format, and Long Beach teams made five CIF-SS championship appearances over the last two years under the competitive equity system. Clearly it’s been a big benefit to local schools with several teams making historic first title game appearances.
The trick with the new system is that divisions are decided at the end of the year, with a team’s CalPreps ranking used to determine which division they’re in. Those rankings go up and down each year, so we’re aiming to help keep you updated on where a team’s fortunes currently lie on a week by week basis.
No team will know what playoff division they’re going to be in until that last day of the year–but following the rankings gives a good ballpark. This is not an exact science since not every team in the rankings makes the playoffs, and there’s no set number of teams in Division 1–if it’s a four team bracket versus an eight team bracket that will change how many teams are taken off the top before the 16-team brackets Division 2-14 are assembled.
We’ll go off a 10-team Division 1, which is how many teams made that bracket last year. Remember the top three Moore League teams qualify for the playoffs, while anyone else has to apply for an at-large. St. Anthony is in the Del Rey League, where they’d need to finish in the top two to get an automatic qualifier for the playoffs.
A final reminder that these are not our rankings but the rankings taken from CalPreps.com’s power rankings–these are the numbers used to assemble CIF-SS playoff Divisions at the end of the year. You can see the whole list here.
Remember, these numbers will go up and down a lot this year–wins will move them up, losses will move them down. We’ll keep you updated and break down what the weekly changes mean.
Long Beach Poly: No. 10
The Jackrabbits are currently right at the bottom of last year’s Division 1 size. If the CIF-SS opted for a four, six, or eight team D1 this year Poly’s current position would have them in Division 2. They didn’t play last week and are in the same spot as then–will be interesting to see how playing highly nationally-ranked Bishop Gorman this week affects Poly’s standing.
Millikan: No. 40
The Rams only dropped one spot after a loss to Punahou, reflective of the CalPreps ranking system’s respect for playing highly-rated opponents. They could have blown out a lower-ranked team and ended up moving down more than they did after a loss to Punahou. The Rams are currently in Division 3.
Lakewood: No. 86
Another team not much punished for a loss last week is Lakewood, who lost to No. 41 Orange Vista but only dropped four spots as a result. The Lancers would be in Division 6 in this spot.
Jordan: No. 92
Jordan’s blowout of North had them as the big movers this week, up more than a full division to No. 92 and giving the Moore League four teams in the top 100 for the first time under the new playoff format. The Panthers would be Division 7 at this number.
Wilson: No. 203
The Bruins didn’t play last week and moved up one spot while inactive.
Compton: No. 217
Compton dropped 40 spots after a season-opening loss and would be in Division 14.
St. Anthony: No. 222
St. Anthony got a big win but fell three spots due to a lowered strength of schedule from playing Jefferson.
Cabrillo: No. 295
The Jags got a big win but actually fell three spots due to a lowered strength of schedule from playing Hawkins.
