Why Clayton Valley, Campolindo are together again in football
In North Coast Section’s new football playoff model, former Diablo Athletic League rivals land in Division II
Administrators spent months trying to remove Clayton Valley Charter’s football program from the Diablo Athletic League because of its dominance.
“Competitive anomaly,” they called the Ugly Eagles.
The administrators succeeded.
Clayton Valley’s football team will play the upcoming season in the East Bay Athletic League, which includes De La Salle, San Ramon Valley, Monte Vista and California, among others.
But in a stroke of good fortune or misfortune, depending on the vantage point, Clayton Valley will be in Division II if it qualifies for the 2019 playoffs, right alongside its old pal from the DAL, Campolindo.
“That caused me a second look also,” NCS commissioner Gil Lemmon said in an email.
How did this happen?
How did a Clayton Valley program that qualified for all three NCS Open Division playoffs end up among the 16 schools in the Division II pool, and not the 13 in the Division I pool, as the section moves to its new format of seven eight-team playoff divisions?
Let’s start with the NCS’s complex competitive-equity points system and Clayton Valley’s three-year (2016, 2017, 2018) average of seven points.
In 2016, CVC was elevated from Division II to Division I because of its 10.3 competitive points average over three seasons.
That year, CVC was seeded fourth in the section’s four-team Open Division but finished fifth in MaxPreps’ season-ending NCS computer rankings — behind De La Salle, Freedom, Pittsburg and Monte Vista, all Division I schools.
That gave CVC three competitive points for that season, and a theoretical Division I quarterfinal loss if the section had seven eight-team divisions that year.
In 2017, Clayton Valley was seeded fourth in the Open but again finished fifth in MaxPreps’ season-ending NCS rankings — behind De La Salle, Pittsburg, San Ramon Valley and Liberty, all Division I schools.
So, as in 2016, CVC would have finished with three competitive points and a theoretical Division I quarterfinal playoff loss
After the 2017 season, CVC’s three-year competitive points average would have dipped to 5.3, moving the Ugly Eagles back to Division II, their enrollment division.
In 2018, CVC made the four-team Open again — this time as a No. 3 seed.
The Ugly Eagles lost to Liberty in the semifinals and finished fifth in MaxPreps’ season-ending section rankings. But they would have been first among Division II schools. So, in theory, CVC would have won Division II and collected 15 competitive points.
That would have left the Ugly Eagles with 21 points over three seasons, a 7.0 average.
CVC needed an average of 8.0 to be bumped to Division I.
“I believe CVC should be in D1, but the adopted competitive division model allows them to return to D2,” Lemmon wrote Monday. “I tried to get NCS member schools to change the competitive division guidelines in April of 2018.
“I believe the threshold to move up, set at 8, is fine, but when a team moves to a higher division I do not believe we should basically guarantee the school makes the championships the next year or two, and if they don’t, they should be able to move down based on the same point average that was used to move up. I believe the threshold to move back should be a lower number. If adopted CVC would have remained in D1. It lost by one vote.”
Campolindo coach Kevin Macy isn’t a fan of the system.
“The current high school football foundation is unstable and too influx to lock schools into placements based on the past,” said Macy, noting that his program might explore sitting out the playoffs this fall.
“It’s a discussion we will have with parents.” he added.
Clayton Valley coach Tim Murphy said dropping down to Division II makes sense, given his team’s three consecutive losses in the Open, to De La Salle (twice) and Liberty.
“The only reason we’re D1 in the first place was because of the prior three years — we had all those points,” Murphy added. “These past three years we haven’t earned those points.”
The NCS division placement for the 2019 football season was announced Saturday, one day after the section’s Board of Managers approved the seven eight-team division format over a proposal that included five eight-team divisions, a four-team Open Division and a four-team Division I, with all Open losers dropping back into Division I.
Clayton Valley was assigned to play in the Diablo Athletic League for four seasons but was removed after three because administrators were concerned about gross mismatches and safety.
In three games against Campolindo, Clayton Valley won by an average of 46.3 to 14.3.
“They will never get it right,” Macy said. “They might as well let us play by school size. It looks like they’re rolling out the red carpet for some schools and using a sledgehammer on others.”
NCS 2019 football divisions:
Division I (13): Amador Valley, Antioch, Berkeley, California, De La Salle, Dougherty Valley, Freedom, Heritage, James Logan, Liberty, Monte Vista, Pittsburg, San Ramon Valley.
Division II (16): American, Campolindo, Castro Valley, Clayton Valley Charter, College Park, Deer Valley, Dublin, Foothill, Granada, Irvington, Livermore, Mt. Eden, Napa, Redwood, San Leandro, Vintage.
Division III (17): Alameda, American Canyon, Arroyo, Benicia, Casa Grande, El Cerrito, Hayward, Jesse Bethel, Las Lomas, Montgomery, Northgate, Novato, Rancho Cotate, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Washington, Windsor.
Division IV (15): Acalanes, Bishop O’Dowd, Cardinal Newman, Concord, Kennedy-Fremont, Maria Carrillo, Marin Catholic, Mt. Diablo, Newark Memorial, Petaluma, Piner, Richmond, Tamalpais, Tennyson, Vallejo.
Division V (18): Albany, Alhambra, Analy, De Anza, Del Norte, Encinal, Eureka, Fortuna, Hercules, Miramonte, Piedmont, San Lorenzo, San Marin, San Rafae, Sir Francis Drake, Sonoma Valley, St. Bernard’s Academy, Terra Linda.
Division VI (13): Arcata, Elsie Allen, Fort Bragg, Justin-Siena, Kelseyville, Kennedy-Richmond, Lower Lake, Middletown, Moreau Catholic, Pinole Valley, St. Mary’s-Berkeley, St. Patrick-St. Vincent, Ygnacio Valley.
Division VII (16): Berean Christian, California School for the Deaf, Clear Lake, Cloverdale, El Molino, Ferndale, Healdsburg, Hoopa Valley, John Swett, McKinleyville, Oakland Military Institute, Salesian, St. Helena, St. Vincent, Stellar Prep, Willits.
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