CIF Central Section Basketball Teams Know Base Divisions Ahead of Season Start This Year

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Unlike last season, area high school basketball teams will have an idea of where they stand for the playoffs before the season begins.

The CIF Central Section is instituting grassroots divisions for nearly every sport this school year.

Last season, the base splits were enforced midway through the basketball season after it emerged that many smaller schools would be in the higher, tougher splits while some larger, more historically successful schools were sinking to the lower divisions thanks to a new playoff system.

Basketball’s last season was the first with the playoff system using MaxPreps power ratings, formulated by a computer program, with few other safeguards in place.

This year, teams know their base divisions before the start of the season.

The Nipomo girls’ basketball team, for example, is part of the base division group of Division 2. Teams can move up or down a single division from their base division. So, Nipomo knows he will either be in Division 1, 2 or 3 once the playoffs start.

Nipomo was in the Open Division last year and had to face Clovis West, the all-time best program in the Central Section, in the playoffs and lost hands down.

This basic division system should give programs that have historically successful regular seasons a better chance of winning in the playoffs.

There will be no open division in men’s or women’s basketball this year. For more recent seasons, there were four-team open divisions.

The boys from St. Joseph’s won the Open Division title in 2021 and lost in the finals in 2022. The girls from St. Joseph’s and Nipomo were both in the Open Division last season.

The new format means that the top 12 teams in the MaxPreps IT Rankings at the end of the year will be in Division 1, unless moving a team to Division 1 violates their base division rule.

The Lompoc girls, for example, are in basic Division 3. If they were ranked in the top 12 at the end of the season, they would likely be one of the top seeds in Division 2 instead of being pushed into Division 1, a scenario that happened during the season of football which had no basic divisions.

The CIF Central Section Boys and Girls Basketball Championships are scheduled to be held at Selland Arena in Fresno next year.

Girls basketball

The Mountain League will include Arroyo Grande, Morro Bay, Righetti, Nipomo, St. Joseph, Cabrillo, Orcutt Academy and Mission Prep while the Ocean League will include Templeton, San Luis Obispo, Pioneer Valley, Santa Maria, Paso Robles, Atascadero, Santa Ynez and Lompoc.

Arroyo Grande and Righetti are the only regional teams in the Division 1 core group this year. Clovis West, with a long streak of Midsection championships in his wake, is also in Division 1 of course.

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The Premier Division will have 12 teams by the time of the playoffs while the other divisions will have 16 teams, a pretty big gap from previous seasons.

Nipomo, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and St. Joseph are in the Division 2 core group. Caruthers, a defending CIF champion, is also in Division 2 and could likely find himself in the Premier Division this year after defeated Orcutt Academy for the Division 3 title a year ago.

Cabrillo moves into the Central Section and joins sister school Lompoc in Division 3. Mission Prep, Orcutt Academy, and Pioneer Valley are in Division 3. Again, these groups mean they can only go up or down a division at the time of the playoffs.

Atascadero, Morro Bay and Templeton are regional teams in the Division 4 group.

Both Santa Maria and Santa Ynez are probably happy to be in Division 5. No team in the region is in Division 6, although they could theoretically find themselves there once the playoffs begin. Santa Maria lost to Orcutt Academy in the first round of the Division 3 playoffs last season.

boys basketball

The Mountain League will include St. Joseph, Mission Prep, Arroyo Grande, Righetti, Atascadero, Pioneer Valley, Lompoc and Cabrillo once the season begins later this year.

The Ocean League will include Orcutt Academy, Santa Maria, Santa Ynez, San Luis Obispo, Nipomo, Templeton, Paso Robles and Morro Bay.

The St. Joseph boys have made the Open Division playoffs three straight years, winning the championship in 2021. St. Joseph made the finals last year, falling to Clovis West.

The Knights, of course, are in Division 1. The playoffs will have a different feel, as the Open Division previously only had four teams, meaning the teams started in the semi-finals. Previously, Open teams had all secured playoff berths.

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St. Joseph is the only regional team in Division 1. Bakersfield, Bakersfield Christian, Clovis Buchanan, Fresno Bullard, Fresno Central, Clovis East, Clovis North, Clovis West, Fresno Edison, Bakersfield Liberty, Fresno San Joaquin Memorial and St. Joseph .

Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Mission Prep, Paso Robles, Righetti, San Luis Obispo and Santa Ynez are all in Division 2 to start the season.

Cabrillo, Lompoc, Nipomo and Pioneer Valley are in Division 3. Morro Bay, Santa Maria and Templeton are in Division 4.

The Orcutt Academy is the only zonal team in Division 5. No zonal team is in Division 6.

Valley Christian Academy continues to be the only remaining local school in the southern section of CIF.

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