Major changes are coming after the California Interscholastic Federation on Friday approved the addition of an open division state basketball championship and a change to the state’s transfer policy.
A nearly unanimous vote by the CIF’s Federated Council saw the addition of a sixth division to the boys and girls state basketball championships beginning with the 2012-13 season. The Open Division includes regional championships for the North and South with up to eight teams.
It creates potential big-time matchups in the NorCal playoffs, where teams like Archbishop Mitty and Salesian could meet. The boys basketball coaches at both schools, which in March captured the Division II and IV state titles, respectively, supported the proposal.
“I like it,” Mitty coach Tim Kennedy said. “We’re comfortable playing the best. It would be great to have all the best teams playing each other. It’s what the fans want to see.”
The new transfer policy creates a sit-out period of roughly 30 days for athletes who transfer without a valid change of residence. Previously, transfers had to sit out one full year.
The North Coast Section cast the only no votes on the Open Division proposal after its Board of Managers narrowly recommended its representatives vote against it.
“Our schools were initially against it and we were trying to overcome the tide,” NCS Commissioner Gil Lemmon said. “I think the tide was changing and the (NCS) Board of Managers
vote of 20-16 really showed that it was gaining support.”
The Open Division brackets will be determined after the section championships. Teams must meet at least one of the specified criteria:
– Win two consecutive section titles.
– Qualify for the regional championships for at least three of the past four seasons.
– Qualify for the regional championships after having reached the state or regional final the previous season.
–Be ranked in the state top 10 by Cal-Hi Sports, Calpreps or MaxPreps in early March for two straight seasons, including the current season.
Teams can request to compete in the Open Division. Strength of schedule will be used as an evaluation tool and no more than four teams can be selected from one section. Fewer than eight teams may be selected for the NorCal or SoCal bracket if the tournament committee feels there aren’t enough qualified teams.
“I think that’s a good thing and I think our schools said that’s a good thing,” incoming CIF Executive Director Roger Blake said. “We’ve got some great teams, but sometimes they’re limited by their section policies.”
The new transfer policy was approved by a 114-21 vote. For the 2012-13 school year, transferring athletes would not participate until Oct. 1 for fall sports, Dec. 31 for winter sports and April 1 for spring sports.
The NCS and Oakland Section joined the Northern Section in casting the 21 votes against the policy.
The hope is the change will lead to fewer legal challenges, which had led to increased costs for the CIF with some eligibility rulings being challenged in court.
“If our rule was the right rule and it was working the way we wanted it to for our kids, it doesn’t matter the financial cost,” Blake said. “But it wasn’t working. Kids were still showing up at one school on the first day of school. There were ways around it. So we needed to fix it.”
The CIF also unanimously voted to start NorCal boys volleyball championships with the 2012-13 season.
Staff writer Glenn Reeves contributed to this report.
