CIF reduces enrollment factor for football divisions

The CIF Board of Managers approved a change in the enrollment factor used to determine football divisions.

The Jan. 16 approval reduces the enrollment factor by half.

“I think it was a good compromise,” CIF commissioner Jerry Schniepp said. “Reducing that factor was the right thing.”

In January 2013, the CIF Board of Managers approved a proposal to replace enrollment-based playoff divisions with divisions based on competitive rankings for each sport. The competitive-based divisions took effect in spring 2013 for baseball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse and were applied to the other CIF team sports for the 2013-2014 seasons. A review of the competitive-based divisions after one year allowed for modifications, and in June 2014, the board of managers made two changes. One was to eliminate the open division for the regular season, place all highest-tier teams in Division I and have the season’s top teams compete in the open division playoffs and the rest in the Division I playoffs. The other was to add an enrollment factor for football. The enrollment factor was to enhance roster size equity, as the size of a school theoretically had an impact on depth which is considered more important in football than in other CIF sports.

The rankings use a weighted average based on win-loss record, strength of schedule and playoff wins. Originally the CIF used a five-year weighted average, and in June 2017 that was changed to a three-year weighted average with the previous season accounting for 50 percent, the season before that being weighed at 30 percent and the first year of the three-year period comprising 20 percent.

The enrollment factor adjustment had been 7 minus the number of students divided by 500 for schools with enrollment above 2,500, 13.11 minus the number of students divided by 225 for schools with 1,600 to 2,499 students, 18 minus the number of students divided by 133.3 for schools with 800 to 1,599 students, 24.8 minus the enrollment divided by 62.5 for schools with between 300 and 799 students and 32 minus the number of students divided by 25 for schools with no more than 299 students.

“The fewer the students, the higher the enrollment factor,” Schniepp said.

The new enrollment factor divides the previous adjustment in half. Some small private schools have significant turnout for football while cultural factors often create small rosters at some larger public schools. The initial proposal presented to the City Conference was to remove the enrollment factor. An ad hoc committee consisting of Schniepp and the athletic directors of The Bishop’s School, Christian High School, Madison High School and Morse High School agreed to reduce the enrollment factor by 50 percent.

“Many schools, especially the ones that brought this proposal forward, believe that the size of the school had too much of an impact,” Schniepp said. “The size of a roster was more important than the size of the school.”

The change allows smaller schools with strong football programs to compete in higher playoff divisions while allowing larger schools with low participation or inferior talent to be placed in a division more appropriate to the program’s competitive level.

“Small schools can move up faster. Large schools can drop faster,” Schniepp said.

Because the first reading of the enrollment factor modification took place before the end of the 2018 season, the listed changes based on the reduced enrollment factor were based on the 2018 divisions. Fallbrook, which was ranked second among the 17 Division IV teams when the 2018 divisions were posted, would have been sixth for the 2018 season. The Warriors’ 2018 record in conjunction with the enrollment factor change places Fallbrook 13th among the 17 Division IV teams for 2019 and 62nd among the 83 schools with 11-man football. Enrollment numbers are based on the previous season since the divisions are set during that academic year; the enrollment of Fallbrook High School and Oasis High School, whose students are allowed to play for the Warriors, was 2,039 at the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year.