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. 11
The Jackrabbits are down one spot after their loss to Bishop Gorman. If the CIF-SS opted for a four, six, eight or 10 team D1 this year Poly’s current position would have them in Division 2. The Jackrabbits face CIFSS No. 7 Mission Viejo this Friday at Vets in a game with huge divisional placement implications.
Millikan: No. 29
The Rams are up 11 spots after their big win over Cathedral, and are the highest they’ve ever been under the current rankings system. With a 10-team Division 1, the Rams would currently be No. 3 in Division 3, a high placement (Poly was in Division 4 just two years ago, for reference).
Jordan: No. 85
Jordan’s blowout win over North and narrow win over Peninsula have them as the only undefeated team in the Moore League, and they’re up seven spots as a result, now the league’s No. 3 team in the CalPreps rankings. The Panthers would be in Division 6 with this ranking, a big jump from where they’ve been.
Lakewood: No. 87
The Lancers are down a spot after a 1-1 start and are now in Division 6, a couple spots behind Jordan in the current rankings.
St. Anthony: No. 167/222
St. Anthony’s 2-0 start has them up 60 spots to No. 167, which would be Division 11.
Wilson: No. 218
The Bruins moved down a spot after their season-opening loss and would be in Division 14.
Compton: No. 220
Compton got a big win over Compton Centennial but dropped three spots because their strength of schedule went down. Compton would be in Division 14.
Cabrillo: No. 317
A loss to a lower-ranked opponent dropped the Jags 20 spots; they’d be in Division 14 if they qualified for the playoffs.
