Folsom Football

Not only did Folsom and Oak Ridge lose in the playoffs this weekend, but their losses may have had longer-term impact. Making the playoffs in 2009 just got harder for our local teams.

In the last realignment, the San Joaquin Section created playoff brackets that contained 3 leagues for both the Division 1 north and Division 2 groupings. Each year, 2 of the leagues send 3 teams and one league sends 2 teams to the playoffs. For the first three years of the realignment, the leagues rotated in a pre-determined structure.

This structure has lead to a lot of criticism. For example, this year a 7-3 (5-1) Ponderosa team did not advance in the Sierra Valley Conference, while a 6-5 (4-2) Rosemont gained a playoff berth based on a third automatic spot for the Metro. Worse, a 3-7 (2-3) Monterey Trail team gained the third Delta River playoff spot, while Franklin 4-6 (3-2) did not get a chance. (While the records are similar, Franklin played a brutal pre-season schedule and has a much higher ranking.)

For the fourth year of realignment, the leagues with the best playoff results from the first three years would gain the third playoff spots. In Division 1, the DRL is 3-7, the DVC is 6-6 and the MEL is 9-4 after the first round of the playoffs. Even if Pleasant Grove goes on to win out, and the DVC loses both of their remeaining games, the DRL cannot match the winning percentages or the total wins of the DVC. Therefore, the leagues with three playoff spots will be the MEL and DVC in 2009.

In Division 2, the SVC is currently 3-8, the SFL is 9-5, and the Metro is 6-5. There is no scenario which would allow the SVC to overtake the Metro with both Oak Ridge and Christian Brothers being eliminated this weekend. So, the leauges with 3 playoff berths in 2009 will be the SFL and Metro.

There is hope that the section may replace the current structure with a power ranking. The way it would work is both of the #1 and #2 seeds from each league would gain playoff spots automatically, The last two playoff spots would then be determined by power ranking of the each of the leauges third place teams. Maybe.