The562’s coverage of football in 2023-24 is sponsored in part by the MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation and Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Foundation
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 week via CalPreps’ computer formula, so consider this a snapshot after the first third of the season to see where a team’s fortunes currently lie.
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.
These projections go off a 10-team Division 1, which is how many teams made that bracket last year. 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. 5
The Jackrabbits are up a spot to No. 5 after a win over Serra, improving them to 3-1. The Jackrabbits have a rating of 60.6, almost 10 points behind No. 4 meaning they’re likely not going anywhere up–they may go down as they play the lower-ranked teams in the Moore League, though only time will tell whether they drop enough to end up in Division 2. The teams ahead of Poly are Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, Corona Centennial, and Sierra Canyon. The Jackrabbits had an undefeated nonleague last year and spent most of the season ranked No. 4, before slipping a few spots to end up on the “road” against Los Al in the opening round of the Division 1 playoffs; that slippage was caused by low-ranked Moore League teams dropping Poly’s strength of schedule.
Millikan: No. 27
The Rams are down seven spots after a loss to Upland, but the Rams are still projecting into the top of Division 3 and looking like one of the stronger Moore League teams in the last decade. In the new competitive equity era, no non-Poly Moore League team has gone into a division as high as Millikan is currently projecting into.
Jordan: No. 79
Jordan continues to climb in the CalPreps rankings and is now up to No. 79, which would put them in Division 6 if they make the playoffs. The Panthers are the last undefeated team in the city after wrapping up a 4-0 nonleague schedule.
Lakewood: No. 123
Lakewood drops down 13 spots after losing last week, and are now in Division 9, where they could certainly make a run as they did last year, earning their first CIF-SS title game appearance.
St. Anthony: No. 163
The Saints have been up and down this year and are up this week, rising 40+ spots to 163 after a win at Salesian; they now project in Division 11 if they made the playoffs.
Wilson: No. 219
The Bruins moved up 16 spots after getting their first win of the year, but are still currently projecting into Division 14.
Compton: No. 267
Compton dropped nine spots and currently project in Division 14.
Cabrillo: No. 317
The Jags moved down five spots after a nonleague win and currently project in Division 14.
