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. 8
The Jackrabbits are still at No. 8, although they’re very close to dropping to No. 9. They’re at 59.4 while San Clemente is only 0.4 behind them at 59.0. There’s a good chance that even if Poly wins against Jordan on Thursday, they slip a spot below the Tritons. Why is that a big deal? Well, if the CIF-SS takes only eight Division 1 teams, Poly would be out at No. 9. If they take 10, it would mean a different opponent, and if they take 12 it would mean traveling to San Clemente instead of hosting them. We’ll see what happens after Thursday’s game.
Millikan: No. 29
The Rams are up two spots, and probably don’t want to go up any more than that. In a 10 team Division 1, they’d be highly-ranked in Division 3–in a 16 team Division 1 they’d be low-ranked in Division 2. We’ll see what happens with how many teams are put in the D1 pool to see what happens with the Rams, but a high seed in Division 3 seems likely.
Lakewood: No. 109
Lakewood fell a spot and would right now be No. 3 in Division 8.
Jordan: No. 110
The Panthers need to either beat Poly Thursday or hope for an at-large. With a 7-3 record they should have a good chance at an at-large and a high seed in Division 8.
St. Anthony: No. 120
The Saints have risen more than 30 spots in the last two weeks and would currently be a low seed in Division 8, and in an interesting turn could end up with an early game against Lakewood or Jordan.
Wilson: No. 182
Wilson moved up three spots and would be in Division 12.
Compton: No. 26
Compton dropped one spot and currently project in Division 14.
Cabrillo: No. 321
The Jags moved up four spots and currently project in Division 14.
