Yup I agree. The fact that LVW was allowed to play at Newport this seasons is the biggest example of what is wrong with high school sports today. A coach letting his younger kids play more in a close game so the score is closer than it should be to a lesser opponent is not that big of a deal. Throwing a game would be hard to prove as upsets do happen.
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This is what good coaches should do. No reason to win a game by 10 with your starters if you can win by 5 and develop your players. This seems pretty obvious but apparently, not all coaches have learned it.
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Who are we talking about? Newport, CDM and JSerra all seem to be receiving plenty of transfer talent.
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Just a general question that is kind of adjacent to the whole tanking for better seeding in divisions: why not have more divisions?
I vaguely remember a time when water polo had four divisions and then grew to six, and then seven, and then rebranded as Divisions 1-6 with an Open Division.
If football can have 14 divisions (granted much larger numbers) to help with parity, why canât water polo grow to 9-10 divisions with 16 teams in each? Keep open Division at 8 teams, expanding to 12 if needed like football does, and then break divisions 3, 4, and 5 as they are now into divisions of 16? Does it water down the sport? Are we catering to the âeveryone gets an awardâ audience? Does it fix the âtankingâ problem?
Open
DI
DII
DIII
DIV (formally bottom half of DIII)
DV (formally top half of DIV)
DVI (formally bottom half of DIV)
DVI (formally top half of DV)
DVII (formally bottom half of DV)
DVIII (formally DVI)
Genuinely curious.
Because being the best of 16 schools isnât really being a champion, itâs everyone gets a trophy. I think 4 divisions + Open is too many.
I donât know how many schools are tanking to move down. Iâd be disappointed if anyone is.
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Itâs too many divisions for who? Is CIF complaining? Or the less blessed schools who get to give the playoff experience to their entire student body?
Should high school playoffs just be for the elite few who had the privilege of starting polo younger or on better clubs?
Sports isnât just about the top 10 schools playing each other repeatedly and only giving themselves exposure. By having a larger playoff system, the sport will grow and more kids will benefit from being an athlete. More kids will have played and some will have won CIF. Maybe they become coaches? Put their future kids in polo? Join the CIA coz they realized they perform well under pressure. Maybe become a teacher/coach? Or work for CIf! Who knows! What a blessing for these kids to feel the excitement of playoffs! The impact on their lives of winning a big game in a big moment for them is priceless.
Should we get rid of lower divisions in college too? Just let the elite few experience being a college athlete?
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San Marcos beat Buena 11-3 in yesterdayâs Channel League tournament final.
Anybody see that game and/or tournament. I love the idea of conference tournaments at the end of the year. .
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Los Alamitos beat Huntington Beach by four to take third in the Sunset League. I heard HB beat Edison by one for 4th.
Iâm sure weâve all heard whispers or rumors of schools doing things to impact their rankings. I mean even under the old system there were schools that would lose one year because their group of sophomores/juniors could dominate dropping from D2 to D3, D3 to D4, D4 to D5, as Juniors/Seniors the following year. But I do agree that that the number of schools purposefully doing this is well with in the minority, but they do exist.
Breaking it into more divisions makes the parity better, which CIF was shouting as loud as they could about the first round match-ups in football over the years after this systemâs implementation.
Also, with these divisions, you could have Rd 1 take place on T/W and quarters on TH/F, making sure we have a good pool of quality officials.
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Looking again at the press release about Open Division, the calendar dates do not correspond to the written language. So not sure what the end result will be:
Calendar in the release:
Opening Round (Pool Play): 10/29
Round 2 (Pool Play): 11/1
Quarterfinal: 11/5 (THIS IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH THE WRITTEN BELOW)
Semifinal: 11/9
Final: 11/16
Written words:
âTeams will play through their group with the first place team in each group advancing to the semifinal game.â
If 12 teams, the written words suggest 4 groups of 3 and we would have no quarterfinal round. Winners of each pool play would go to the semifinal round.
I hope these arenât the rankings the Southern Section will use to seed the teams. With all due respect to Buena, they just lost to San Marcos by 8 goals in the Channel League finals.
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@tryfit
Is that a screenshot?
Or do you have a screen with the next 50 teams?
Um, please explain slot 6. How in the world is that âsolidâ?
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Iâm sure there are lots of cases like this, but Los Alamitos has 2 losses outside of the top 16 teams, beat Crean, beat HB 2 of 3 times and finished higher in league, and beat Sage Hill the team 1place ahead by 16-5 head to head.
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I really hope Buena and San Marcos are not placed in Open Division this year. They were Division 2 playoff teams last year. Jumping them two levels is too much I think. Assign them to Division 1 this year and let these solid and fast improving programs continue to develop. Assuming they have success in Division 1, they would be contenders for Open Division in 2025.
Computer malfunction? I would slide them to 10 but I am not a computer.
Itâs unfortunate, but they beat Long Beach Wilson, so theyâve got to be better.