With the new playoff format last year, the number question we got at every practice we went to was about playoff divisions. With that in mind we’re going to track where teams stand each week in the CalPreps rankings, which are used to determine the CIF Southern Section’s playoff divisions at the end of the year.
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 (which it was in 2021) that will change how many teams are taken off the top before the 16-team brackets Division 2-14 are assembled.
We are doing these projections based on an eight-team Division 1–remember 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. 14; this would put the Jackrabbits as No. 6 in Division 2, a big jump from the Division 4 bracket they competed in last year. The wild card with Poly is that because they’re the top team in the Moore League, those games lower Poly’s ranking even if they win.
Millikan: No. 41; the Rams are actually right where Poly ended the regular season last year and if the playoff brackets were pulled from the preseason rankings they’d be No. 1 in Division 4.
Jordan: No. 112; the Panthers would be No. 8 in Division 7
St. Anthony: No. 126; the Saints would be No. 6 in Division 8
Compton: No. 146; Compton would be No. 10 in Division 9
Lakewood: No. 160; Lakewood would be No. 8 in Division 10
Wilson: No. 248; The Bruins would be in Division 14
Cabrillo: No. 331; the Jaguars would be in Division 14
