CIF state football finals scheduled at three sites. Why Northern California won’t host any
The California Interscholastic Federation has selected venues for the high school football state championships and none will be played in Northern California.
The CIF, the state’s governing body for high school sports, announced this week from its Sacramento office that for the first time since the state championships expanded in 2015, all 15 title games will be held at three neutral sites, all in Southern California. The plan was approved last spring by the CIF Federated Council, a one-year trial run to see how it goes and what the reaction is.
In past seasons, the upper-division state finals were held at one venue in Southern California — with a stint at Sacramento State — and lower-division games were held at home venues. Though small-town programs generally were ecstatic to host games, the weather became an issue for some, including last year, particularly with muddy fields for those using grass surfaces. Fans and some coaches increasingly started to bemoan why lower-division games were not played at SoCal venues with better weather, or at least synthetic fields.
This season, all title games will be played on field turf on junior college campuses — Saddleback College in Mission Viejo of Orange County, El Camino College in Torrance of Los Angeles County and Pasadena City College, also in Los Angeles County.
Saddleback hosted the upper-division games the previous two seasons. The venues each have ample seating — Saddleback with 8,000 capacity, El Camino with 7,900 and Pasadena City with 5,400. Another concern for fans and the CIF was lower-division host venues having to turn fans away due to overcrowding. The CIF always reminds it is open to listening to venue bids.
So, no, the North will not be hosting any CIF state finals. Northern California schools hosted lower-division state finals once the upper-division games moved to Southern California in 2018, sort of a compromise to balance the state. When Sacramento State hosted the upper-division state finals from 2015-17, the SoCal teams hosted the lower-division games.
Southern California footprint
The CIF has not yet announced which games will be held at which venues. It is possible upper-division games could be sprinkled across each of the SoCal sites, Brian Seymour of the CIF state office said.
Seymour told The Bee on Thursday: “Even before last year’s state finals, we had been looking from an organizational standpoint whether we needed to provide a central location site. We went over a number of potential scenarios of who can host, and we decided to focus on the Southern California footprint, partly because CIF state basketball has been a staple in Sacramento for years. These are not long-term deals. We’re very flexible. We’ll see how it goes and make adjustments, and see how it shakes out.”
Seymour added: “It’s an evolution in CIF state football. There was a period of time we didn’t have any of this. Now, we’re at the next step, providing all of our teams the opportunity to compete in similar facilities run by the state and section offices. We can’t forget that some of the small schools that hosted state finals were some of the best stories, small communities taking such pride in hosting games.”
The modern-day state football playoffs started in 2006, initially with three divisions. The format was expanded in 2008 with the Open Division (Grant won the first such game) and more lower-division games.
For years, a panel of section commissioners debated over which section champions across the state would advance to CIF state finals. When 14-0 teams increasingly were bypassed for teams with three losses (but also much stronger schedules), changes were made. Member schools and section leaders brainstormed new ideas.
In 2015, the CIF announced all section champions would compete in newly created CIF regional finals, and those winners would face off in state championships.
Section finals at Hughes Stadium
The Sac-Joaquin Section, the second-largest of the 10 in California, will host at least four of its seven football finals on Nov. 24-25 at 21,000-seat Hughes Stadium on the campus of Sacramento City College. As many as three section title games will be played in the south, at St. Mary’s or Lincoln of Stockton, as in seasons past.
“Our plan is pretty much status quo,” said assistant section commissioner Will DeBoard. “We really like working with Hughes Stadium and the atmosphere it provides. That’s a great place to have championship games. I don’t see us leaving Hughes anytime soon. There aren’t too many places with a wow factor like Hughes.”
Though it has been discussed and debated, the idea of hosting seven section title games — largest enrollment down to smallest — at Hughes Stadium is not as easy as it sounds. But DeBoard said “it is possible” that six title games over that Friday and Saturday could be played at Hughes. Nothing will be settled until the section semifinals are complete. The idea of having two teams located in the San Joaquin Valley playing for a section final at Hughes Stadium would be a reach beyond the long travel. It would make more sense to host a game like that in Stockton, like in recent seasons.
The Sac-Joaquin Section will be the only one in the state that will have a girls flag football playoff tournament. Teams will compete in two divisions with the finals scheduled for Nov. 4 at Cosumnes River College.
This story was originally published October 6, 2023 at 5:00 AM.