CIF approves double-elimination playoffs for softball

The CIF San Diego Section’s board of managers approved a double-elimination playoff format for softball.

The January 27 voice vote with no opposition creates the double-elimination playoff structure effective with the spring 2009 season.

“Due to Title IX considerations, my feeling is it’s something I think we need to do,” said CIF commissioner Dennis Ackerman.

Title IX was implemented to provide equal opportunities for men’s and women’s college sports and for boys’ and girls’ high school sports. In 2002, the CIF San Diego Section began a double-elimination playoff for baseball.

“If we’re doing it for baseball, we need to be doing it for softball,” Ackerman said.

The baseball format provides a first-round bye for the top four-seeded teams in each division. The other teams have a single-elimination “play-in,” and the winners of that play-in advance to the double-elimination phase.

This year’s softball playoffs will have 16 Division IV teams, so all teams will participate in the single-elimination play-in, while the Division I, Division II, and Division III playoffs will have 12 teams apiece and a first-round bye for the top four seeds with the other eight teams participating in the single-elimination play-in.

The play-ins are scheduled for Friday, May 22. The first two rounds will be played on May 23 and May 26 with third-round games being played May 27 and fourth-round contests taking place May 28.

The CIF finals for all divisions will be held May 30.

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