NCS Playoff changes

[Ben Herrington]

Division I is now 2000+ enrollment.

American, Arroyo, Santa Rosa and Washington are all scheduled to move down to Division II. American and Washington were both in the playoffs in Division I last season.

Division II will now be 1,450 - 1,999. Dougherty Valley and Dublin are both scheduled to move up to Division II. Eureka, Petaluma, Piner and Ygnacio Valley are all scheduled to move down to Division III, and all of those except Piner were DII playoff teams last season, including the champions and the #1 seed.

Division III will now be 900 - 1,449. Arcata, El Molino, Fortuna, Healdsburg, Lower Lake, Marin Catholic and Piedmont are all scheduled to move down to Division IV. Fortuna, Healdsburg, Marin Catholic and Piedmont were all DIII playoff teams last year. Also, it will be interesting to see if Cardinal Newman ends up in here. They'd previously petitioned up from DIII to DII, but their enrollment would now put them in DIV without a petition. Do they stay DII or does their petition up move them up one division to DIII?

Division IV will now be 400 - 899. In addition to the newcomers from DIII, Upper Willits will now be a DIV school from Division V.

[hitter4life]

Since Ygnacio Valley drops down to Division III how does there fair for Casa's non-league schedule. They play them Oct. 9 at Ygnacio Valley (Saturday afternoon game).

[Ben Herrington]

Not too well, but I wouldnt expect Casa to have known this was going to happen. YV is still a tough program. Could turn out to be a one-year deal with YV dropping down.

[bella]

Don't see how it affects anything. I don't think this has any impact on casa.

[Ben Herrington]

A Div II school is expected to beat a Div III school. A win for that Div II school over a Div III program isnt that good. A loss for that Div. II school to that Div. III program is very bad.

[bella]

Agreed and see your point. However more concerning to Casa (and Windsor) with the new division set ups is they are basically in a DIII league that also has 2 DIV teams. So being the biggest teams I guess they will be expected to win league every year.

But it also looks like the NCS is looking at giving hosting to the higher seeds rather than to the league champ (which I say about time, I always thought it was a dumb rule). This could hurt Casa/Windsor when playoff seeding comes around. Since they are not exactly known as football powers and the perception will be they play in a smaller league (SCL) they will now probably need the quality pre-season wins (Ben your point), which should help them with their seeding, whihc in turn possibly means hosting. ..

[whscoachd]

The local AD's are also looking at league changes to put all the bigger schools in one league...but yes for Casa an us it can hurt...but our preseason will have to be all DII's and maybe some DI's

[Ben Herrington]

Realignment comes for the North Bay in 2012.

[4thqtrcomeback]

Ben - Willits has been in D4 since the division was formed.

[Ben Herrington]

Oops, my mistake.

[northcoastfan]

It is Upper Lake that will be moving to D IV.

[Ben Herrington]

Upper Lake is only getting better. They play in a tough league for the program that their past has dictated, but they are getting better. I dont know about next year, but at least in the near future I would expect to see them in the playoffs.