New SJS Bowl Games Plan Approved

By a near unanimous vote of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Board of Managers on Wednesday, the section approved an immediately effective football playoff system in which the lower seeded teams will be playing in just one additional “bowl game” and will not be in games against the top seeded teams. It’s the first such plan we’ve ever seen in California and while the strongest responses on social media have been negative, the coaches we know like it a lot.

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The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section (and its schools) have not embraced the competitive equity based football playoff formats that have become common in most CIF sections in the state. The SJS is the only large section, in fact, that doesn’t use it and remains committed to using enrollments as a key component of the criteria to place teams in various divisions.

Despite using byes for the top seeds in the early rounds, however, the lopsided scores for top-seeded teams winning in the first round of most divisions have continued. Another plan to address the dominance of many teams in the early rounds of the playoffs started to pick up steam over the summer. A proposal then came from the section’s Football Advisory Committee. It called for each playoff bracket to be reduced to eight teams and then make the next teams ranked from No. 9 to No. 16 eligible for a “bowl game.” That game would then be played during the week when the top seeded teams are idle. The winner of that “bowl game” would then be done for the season.

The bowl game proposal was voted on by the SJS Board of Managers on Wednesday. It was passed with overwhelming support, 55 votes of yes and just two for no. The new system also is going to be used immediately in just a few weeks when the 2025 regular season is over.

As explained to members of the media back in August by SJS assistant commissioner Will DeBoard, the advisory committee looked to pattern the extra bowl games similar to the way California community colleges have bowl games to conclude their season. As he talked, he said the plan would be voted on in October and that it would likely get major support from the schools. DeBoard mentioned that he thought there could be some teams that were seeded ninth in a bracket that would be getting a bowl game instead of a shot to play deeper in the playoffs that wouldn’t like it, but that most of the coaches were in favor of it.

As an example of how the plan would work, let’s look at last year’s D1 bracket. the No. 9 seed was Edison of Stockton and the No. 10 was Lincoln of Stockton. Instead of Edison losing in the first round to Downey of Modesto it would have just played a game vs Lincoln and the winning team in the “bowl game” would get a trophy of some kind and it’s season would be done. Downey lost in its next game last year, 68-28, to state powerhouse Folsom. A crosstown matchup like that one might not work so well in every bracket, but the section is going to look to avoid long road trips for any teams in any of these bowl games.

We talked to Downey head coach Jeremy Plaa recently about the plan and with him being at a school in the same division based on enrollment as Folsom he was all in favor of it.

“Look, the reality in our section is that if you’re an eight seed or even seven, you’re not going to be beating Folsom,” he said. “And there are a lot of teams like that in other divisions. It’s just more realistic that a nine or 12 seed playing each other is going to be good for the kids.”

Branding will be an important part of the plan working, DeBoard said back in August, pointing to the fact that every team in a bowl game also will be considered a playoff team. Of course, there will be a perception of the lower division teams playing in a meaningless bowl game like the many in college football each year. But if one watches those games the players from the winning teams aren’t just moping around the field. They’re happy to be playing and happy to have gotten a win over a team of similar skill and talent in the final game of the season.

Former Stagg of Stockton head coach Don Norton has been advocating for a way in which teams like he had that always had to play an opponent like Central Catholic of Modesto or even Folsom in the first round of a large bracket didn’t have to go through those ridiculous routs. This plan solves a lot of those issues.

“I think winning a bowl game like that is going to be a great reward for a good season,” he said recently. “This allows teams that maybe are in the wrong bracket or in a bracket with too many big schools to have a win. It’s going to be a great opportunity if you’re a team that’s 6-4 to maybe play another 6-4 from another league. I think it’s going to be a great thing.”

The section’s advisory committee also didn’t balk at voting on this proposal as quickly as possible for immediate implementation. And neither did almost every member of the section’s Board of Managers.

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle.