The562’s standings, schedule, and rankings stories are sponsored by International City Plumbers.
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
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. 6
One of the things some people don’t like about the CalPreps model–which is actually integral to the model–is the way scores of games factor into rankings. That’s how Poly wins an overtime against Millikan and ends up moving down a spot. The Jackrabbits were projected to win by a much bigger margin in CalPreps’ model. The question as Poly continues to play Moore League opponents–and none of their remaining league opponents made the playoffs last year–is how much their lowered strength of schedule drops them in the rankings. Right now they’re likely still in Division 1, but are only up on the 7 and 8-ranked teams by a few points. In a 10-team D1 Poly would be at No. 5 Santa Margarita in round one. In a 12-team D1 they’d host No. 11 San Clemente in the first round.
Millikan: No. 33
Millikan dropped six spots after their overtime loss to Poly, a surprise since games against higher-ranked opponents rarely penalize teams. The Rams are still the highest-ranked non-Poly team in the current playoff format era. They’d be No. 7 in Division 3 at their current number.
Jordan: No. 102
The Panthers dropped 15 spots and would now be in Division 7 following their loss to Lakewood.
Lakewood: No. 103
As another quirk of the CalPreps system, Lakewood just beat Jordan convincingly, and rose 22 spots in the rankings as well–however, they’re still one spot behind the Panthers in the rankings. No human pollster would put a team below a squad they just beat, of course, but that’s the ups and downs of computer algorithms. The Lancers are up two divisions into Division 7 at this number.
St. Anthony: No. 144
The Saints have been big movers lately and are once again up big, rising 27 spots to 144, where they’d be a middle-of-the-road Moore League team (a big accomplishment given where the program was last year) and where they’re now ranked No. 6 in Division 10.
The Saints got a big win over Desert but because that team is low-ranked St. Anthony actually dropped eight spots; they now project in Division 12 if they made the playoffs.
Wilson: No. 188
The Bruins moved up 23 spots after getting a win over Cabrillo and are now the highest-ranked they’ve been in a while, currently at No. 2 in Division 13.
Compton: No. 273
Compton rose three spots and currently project in Division 14.
Cabrillo: No. 29
The Jags moved down one spot and currently project in Division 14.
