Based on a few surprising results on the final weekend of the season, there were a few significant changes to the final CCS playoff
projections. Notably, Silver Creek knocked Overfelt out of the playoff picture with an overtime victory that ultimately ended up
costing the BVAL-Mount Hamilton a berth in the field because the Raiders, though eligible, did not have enough CCS points to qualify.
Before we get into the projected list of Central Coast Section playoff teams, here is a look at the relatively new
playoff format, which is highly dependent on rankings supplied by CalPreps. We won't go into great detail here, but the bylaws
are available
here (PDF).
Instead what we will do is give a brief refresher of the new system. As has been the case the past several years, there will be
40 CCS playoff teams. It is how those teams are selected - and seeded - that has undergone a massive change.
Of the 40, 33 teams will receive automatic bids based on their finish in their respective league standings. The five "A"
leagues will produce four automatic bids each, with the remaining 13 berths coming from the various "B" and "C" leagues throughout
the section. In general, "B" leagues will get two bids and "C" leagues one bid.
For the most part, the CCS point calculation is the same as it has been for the past few years with one addition: teams get
additional credit for playing teams in the CalPreps Top 150 California ranking: 2 points for a team ranked in the top 100 and
1 point for a team ranked 101-150.
The 10 best at-large point totals are put into a pool and then their CalPreps rankings are taken into account to choose the
top 7. Once the entire field of 40 is selected, a weighted score of the teams' CalPreps ranking and their CCS point total is
produced and then the top 8 teams go to Division 1, the next 8 to Division 2 and so on down to
Division 5.
In the early part of the season - with league races just getting underway - we predict the results of all games that have not
been played yet and combine them with the results of games that have taken place. While we are not yet projecting league champions
in out-of-section areas, we are applying their CalPreps ranking as of this point of the season.
Here are the final CCS league champs:
BVAL-Mount Hamilton: Leland
BVAL-Santa Teresa: Pioneer
BVAL-West Valley: Andrew Hill
PAL-Bay: Menlo-Atherton
PAL-Ocean: Menlo
PAL-Lake: San Mateo
PCAL-Gabilan: Salinas
PCAL-Mission: Santa Cruz
PCAL-Cypress: Scotts Valley
PCAL-Santa Lucia: St. Francis SCP
SCVAL-De Anza: Los Gatos
SCVAL-El Camino: Cupertino/Gunn/Los Altos
WCAL: Saint Francis
NOTE: Adjusted CCS points are in parentheses and the projected home team is listed in CAPS.
DIVISION 1
Based on our projections, Saint Francis will of course easily be the No. 1 seed, but the Lancers win over Serra on the final
Saturday of the season knocks the Padres down to the No. 3 seed. We have St. Francis hosting San Benito with Serra hosting Los
Gatos.
Menlo-Atherton's final victory over The King's Academy actually dropped the Bears to the No. 5 seed and we now project them
visiting Bellarmine in the first round instead of the other way around. Salinas moves into the No. 2 spot on the strength of its
shutout win over Palma and is projected to host No. 7 Valley Christian.
DIVISION 4
We are projecting the same eight teams in Division 4 with some slight changes in the seedings. Homestead takes over as the No. 1
seed in our latest projections, hosting PAL-Lake champ San Mateo. Hillsdale, the PAL-Ocean runner-up, would face a difficult challenge
against PAL-Bay representative Terra Nova, which we have projected as the No. 7 seed. Only 2.5 points separate the top six seeds,
so if CCS points are any indicator, this could be a wide-open, competitive bracket.
DIVISION 5
According to our projections, Milpitas is the team that takes advantage of Overfelt's misfortune and sneaks in as the final team
in the field. We project the Trojans to earn the No. 2 seed in Division 5, hosting No. 7 Pacific Grove. They join Lincoln as "A"
league teams in Division 5, with the Lions anticipating the No. 1 seed and a home game against BVAL-West Valley champ Andrew Hill.
In a strange twist of fate, we have Cupertino meeting fellow SCVAL-El Camino tri-champ Gunn in the first round in the 4-5 game.
We have Los Altos, the third tri-champ, on the wrong side of the playoff bubble.
Here's a brief look at the at-large teams that made it based on our CCS point calculations and the first five that would be
left out based on our projection process. This only includes teams that meet the top six in league requirement (actual CCS points
in parentheses - not combined with CalPreps rankings points). Note: the point totals are not in necessarily in order because
the at-large teams are selected by a combination of CCS points and weighted ranks based on CalPreps.
