The four-team field for the CIF San Diego Section Open Division football playoffs is already set, with the top four teams locked in before Sunday afternoon pairings are announced. It means the top of the bracket is decided before the rest of the section is sorted into divisions on a 1-through-64 basis.
That is the key point in a system designed to reward the strongest teams while still giving the rest of the field a clear path into the playoffs. The Open Division is a two-round playoff, and the top four teams receive first-round byes before the section moves into its wider divisional structure.
Last week, La Costa Canyon beat Carlsbad and cracked the top four, underlining how quickly the Open Division picture can change in the closing stages of the regular season. The regular-season finale is played on Friday, with Granite Hills and Helix meeting in a Grossmont Hills League showdown before the pairings are revealed on Sunday afternoon.
How the section sorts the field
The divisional placement is based on MaxPreps rankings, which take into account record, strength of schedule and margin of victory. That ranking system is used to place teams into the appropriate playoff groups after the Open Division field has been established.
Todd Cassen, the CIF San Diego Section assistant commissioner, said the coaches recommend the playoff seeding system and that the process has transparency. He said: “No system is perfect, but this system works.”
He added: “And there is transparency. Teams can monitor where they stand, what division they fall into.”
That matters because the Open Division is only one part of a broader playoff picture. While the top four teams are already locked into that bracket, the next eight teams and the rest of the section are then distributed across the remaining divisions, from teams 13-24 through teams 49-64.
The result is a system that leaves little mystery at the top, even if the final detail is still to come. The Open Division field is set, the Friday finale will close the regular season, and the section’s Sunday afternoon announcement will finish the job.
