move ups this season

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SoCalHoops High School News

CIF News: Southern Section 'Move Ups"
This Season: Just Two--(Jan. 10, 2000)

Many people are familiar with the concept of playoff "divisions", but for those who have been living in a cave, let us explain: The Southern Section has more than 500 schools in it, making it the single largest school athletics group in the state. These schools range in size from enrollments of more than 3400 (Long Beach Poly) all the way down to 7 (yes, 7 students, and that's the high school enrollment at two schools, Praise Temple and Summit View). The majority of the schools in terms of student enrollment fall somewhere in between, and since even Indiana no longer has the single-division playoffs anymore (remember the movie "Hoosiers?" Well now that couldn't even happen in Indiana anymore, at least not since 1998). Clearly, it's not fair to make a school with an enrollment the size of LB Poly compete against Summit View, so the CIF in it's wisdom has divided schools up into like-kind enrollment groupings, on the assumption that similar size schools playing each other will make for a more competitive environment for everyone.

In California there are five major divisions (I, II, III, IV and V, which I being largest and V being the smallest). In the Southern Section, because of the sheer numbers, four of those divisions have been further subdivided into AA (largest) and A (smallest) within each division. Thus in CIF-SS there is I-AA, and I-A, II-AA, and II-A, and so on. The only exception now is that there is a single III-AA (no III-A any longer) because there just weren't enough schools at that enrollment level to make a competitive playoff bracket.

Again, for the benefit of the shut-ins, the "Division" concept is only relevant for purposes of post-season play. The Divisions are a useful way of grouping the schools for purposes of forming playoff brackets between similar-sized schools. The Divisions have nothing to do with league play, and they have no relevance with respect to who plays whom during the preseason. Leagues can be and most are in fact composed of teams from different Divisions. Some leagues have teams from D-I, II, III and IV all in the same league.

But a team doesn't have to play in it's normal "enrollment" division for purposes of playoffs. Teams can move up (if they do move up, it must be to the higher end of the Division; in other words, a team can't move from V-AA to IV-A. . . that team has to move to IV-AA, or III-AA, or II-AA, or even I-AA if they are really gutsy, but they can't move up to the lower end of the division under any circumstances.). They cannot move down (well, they can in City Section, but only to D-II, and that's because some of the City Section schools would really be D-II schools if things there were determined strictly by enrollment. . . but that's not what this article is concerned with, so we'll leave that one alone for now).

If a team is going to "move up" it has to make the election to do so by December 15. After that, a team must play in its normal "enrollment" division. We've already published the preliminary list of enrollment divisions for Division I, Division II, Division III, Division IV and Division V. If you want to know who is in each one, check these links, and you'll also see the enrollment figure criteria for each division.

Historically, or at least in recent history, several teams have "moved up": Artesia has, for the last few years, moved to Division I-AA; Serra has also moved up, and there have been others as well. But this season there have only been two teams that elected to move up into different divisions. Just two:

Serra has moved up from Division V-AA to Division IV-AA
Verbum Dei has moved up from Division IV-A to Division III-AA

With Serra, we understand the motivation, but Verbum Dei seems to be a bit of a puzzle, at least from a timing point of view. Had David Greenwood made the move two years ago, or even last year, we'd understand that, but to make the move this year, when all of the seniors and the core of the team that won back-to-back State titles in D-IV has graduated, is truly puzzling. Oh well.

And here's the big news: Artesia has elected to stay in D-IIA and not move up to D-IAA this year. As a result, many will say that that Division I-AA is Long Beach Poly's to lose without Artesia there. . . well, ok, there's also Ayala, Canyon Springs, Srescenta Valley, Eisenhower, Fontana, Glendora, Jordan, Los Alamitos, AB Miller, Oxnard, Redlands, San Clemente, Santa Monica, Upland, and a few more. . . still no cakewalk.