The Tri-Valley League is appealing the playoff divisions it has been placed in for football, boys volleyball and swimming by the CIF Southern Section.
A playoff groupings appeals committee will hear the TVL’s appeal on Wednesday.
The playoff groupings were released last Tuesday. Leagues dissatisfied with their placement for the 2014-16 playoff cycle had to file an appeal with CIF by Friday.
In football, the TVL, which includes Bishop Diego and Carpinteria, was elevated from the Northwest to the Northern Division. In that division, the Cardinals and Warriors would be playing teams from the Los Padres League, Pac 5, Golden and new Camino League in the postseason — a big jump in competition.
The Pac 5 for football consists of Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Paso Robles, Righetti and San Luis Obispo. The Los Padres League has Cabrillo, Lompoc, Pioneer Valley, St. Joseph and Santa Ynez. The Golden League is comprised of Lancaster, Palmdale, Antelope Valley, Highland, Quatz Hill and Little Rock. The Camino League has Oak Park, Moorpark, Agoura, Calabasas, and Newbury Park.
The other teams in the TVL are Nordhoff, Fillmore and Santa Paula.
Bishop Diego football coach Tom Crawford said he wasn’t surprised by the move to elevate the TVL. Bishop has been a Northwest Division semifinalist two straight years and Nordhoff has won back-to-back division titles.
“Given the playoff success of the TVL teams the past few years, I was not surprised to see the league moved into a new playoff division and we welcomed that challenge,” Crawford said.
However, he was surprised by how much of a bump the CIF gave the TVL. The CIF essentially elevated the league from Division 10 to Division 3.
“In many ways, the fact we’d be bumped so high is a compliment to the kids and coaches in our league who work so hard to compete no matter the size of the opponent,” Crawford said. “That being said, when you have the enrollments, roster sizes and two levels of football (varsity and JV) typical of TVL schools compared to the average schools in the proposed Northern Division, it’s hard to understand the placement proposed, or how the criteria cited by CIF in making the proposal were applied.”
The CIF used a competitive equity formula, adding the total number of league playoff wins during the previous playoff groupings cycle and awarding one point for each playoff win (excluding wild card wins and byes). It also calculated the total number of students in each league divided by the number of schools.
Carpinteria Athletic Director Pat Cooney said the TVL playoff placements, in general, are too high. Boys volleyball and swimming are both in Division 3.
“It does not appear that the exit of Oaks Christian and Oak Park has been factored into the divisional placement by CIF,” he said.
The Channel League remains in the Western Division for football with the Bay, Canyon, Ocean Pacific, View and Pioneer leagues.
In other playoff placement changes for local leagues, the Channel League will move from Division 2 to Division 1 for boys volleyball and the Tri-Valley League elevates from D5 to D2 for girls tennis.
Here are the other playoff groupings by sport:
Baseball: Channel League (Division 2), TVL (D4), Frontier (D6), Condor (D7)
Softball: Channel (D4), TVL (D2), Frontier (D7)
Boys Soccer: Channel (D1), TVL (D4), Frontier (D7), Condor (D7)
Girls Soccer: Channel (D3), TVL (D4), Frontier (D7), Condor (D7)
Boys Tennis: Channel (D1), TVL (D3), Frontier (D5)
Girls Tennis: Channel (D1), TVL (D2), Frontier (D5)
Girls Volleyball: Channel (1A), Frontier (4A), TVL (4AA), Condor (4AA)
Boys Volleyball: Channel (D1), TVL (D3), Condor (D5)
Boys Water Polo: Channel (D2), TVL (D6)
Girls Water Polo: Channel (D1), TVL (D7)
Basketball, cross country, swimming, track and field and wrestling use other formulas and different time periods to configure playoff groupings.
