Kudos to the CIF for starting the state bowl games last year, but after this year is through it needs to take a look at how the classification system is run.

The way it is set up right now gives Southern California teams an advantage from the start.

What they tried to do is break up NorCal and SoCal into three divisions each so there could be a small, medium and large school championship, but the way they did it makes no sense. Basically they took the top third of the SoCal schools and made them D-I, then the same for NorCal. For D-II they took the middle third (based on school size) and for D-III it was the bottom third. Ok that may seem fair on first glance, but then we look to see where to cutoffs are made.

Division I
SoCal: 2,401 and up
NorCal: 1,751 and up
Division II
SoCal: 1,100 - 2,400
NorCal: 1,001 - 1,750
Division III
SoCal: 1 - 1,099
NorCal 1 - 1,000

The way this is setup means that some schools in D-I NorCal would be D-II in SoCal and vice versa.

San Ramon Valley is a perfect example oh how this could affect the state bowl picture. The Wolves are not even from the biggest size in NCS, but they are D-I for state bowl purposes. If the same team played 300 miles to the south it would be considered D-II.

Here is a list of good NorCal teams considered D-I that would be D-II in SoCal:
De La Salle
San Ramon Valley
Los Gatos
Serra
Vacaville
Foothill-Pleasanton
Newark Memorial
Grant-Sacramento

What would Foothill-Palo Cedro go against those teams? 2-6?

Now here are some SoCal schools in D-II that would be in D-I in NorCal:
Edison-Fresno
Oceanside-San Diego (good shot at playing in Carson)
Crenshaw
Centennial-Bakersfiled
Mater Dei-Santa Ana
St. John Bosco
Dorsey-LA

Next year there should be 5 Divisions — like basketball — and the way they divide the teams should be state-wide not one way in NorCal and another way in SoCal.

-Kyle Bonagura