MaxPreps California high school football championship game matchups

Video: Rivalry Series - St. Ignatius (CA) vs. Sacred Heart Cathedral (CA)

The most significant change in the CIF Football Championship Game matchups this week was Elk Grove's move from the North 1-A Division contest to the North 1-AA Division matchup with Folsom.

The likelihood of Folsom and Elk Grove battling in a regional contest is slim, however, as section commissioners will likely try to pair schools from different sections for the regional matchups. MaxPreps does not make that change when applying the rankings to the matchups.

Another development occurred in the South Open Division (Under 1,250). St. Margaret's (San Juan Capistrano) had been the representative from the East Valley Division in the Southern Section, but a loss to Justin-Siena dropped St. Margaret's from contention. Grace Brethren (Simi Valley) replaced St. Margaret's in the rankings and Chowchilla of the Central Section replaced St. Margaret's in the Open Division contest.

Following are the unofficial regional matchups for the 13 CIF Football Championship Games. Teams are listed by their section enrollment division along with their record and their rating based on the MaxPreps Computer Rankings presented by the Army National Guard.

For a breakdown of how the new system works, click here to see the intro article. New teams are noted with an *.

Open Division

North
NCS D1 – De La Salle (Concord), 5-1, 68.8

South
SS Pac-5 – Centennial (Corona), 6-0, 78.9

1-AA Division

North
SJS D1 – Folsom, 7-0, 60.6
SJS D2 – Elk Grove, 6-0, 61.5

South
SS West Valley – Mission Viejo, 7-0, 63.1
SDS Open – Helix (La Mesa), 4-1, 57.1

1-A Division

North
NCS D2 – Clayton Valley Charter (Concord), 5-1, 53.7
CCS D1 – Bellarmine College Prep (San Jose), 4-1, 51.0

South
SS Southwest – La Habra, 5-1, 56.4
SS Northern – Camarillo, 6-0, 60.4

2-AA Division

North
CCS D2 – Saint Francis (Mountain View), 5-0, 49.7
CCS D3 – Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco), 4-0, 46.4*

South
SS Inland – Redlands East Valley (Redlands), 5-1, 53.6
LAS D1 – Narbonne (Harbor City), 4-2, 51.7

2-A Division

North
SJS D3 – Oakdale, 6-0, 45.7
CS D1 – Bullard (Fresno), 5-1, 45.0

South
SS Western – Calabasas, 6-0, 42.1
CS D2 – Ridgeview (Bakersfield), 6-0, 47.7

3-AA Division

North
CCS D2 runner up – Archbishop Mitty (San Jose), 4-1, 44.4
NS D2 – Pleasant Valley (Chico), 6-0, 40.4

South
SS Eastern – Palm Springs, 6-0, 39.8
SS Central – Charter Oak (Covina), 5-1, 41.4

Open Division (under 1,250)

North
CCS D3 runner up – Valley Christian (San Jose), 4-1, 44.0
NCS D4 – Marin Catholic (Kentfield), 5-1, 33.2

South
SS Mid-Valley – Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth), 6-0, 40.5
CS D4 – Chowchilla, 5-1, 24.0*

3-A Division

North
NCS D3 – Campolindo (Moraga), 6-1, 31.7
CS D3 – Hanford, 7-0, 35.1

South
SS Southeast – La Mirada, 4-3, 37.5
SDS D2 – Westview (San Diego), 6-0, 38.8*

4-AA Division

North
CS D5 – Immanuel (Reedley), 6-0, 25.0
OS – McClymonds (Oakland), 6-0, 30.4

South
SDS D3 – Bonita Vista (Chula Vista), 4-2, 31.2
SDS D1 – Madison (San Diego), 4-2, 33.4*

4-A Division

North
SJS D4 – Los Banos, 5-1, 19.9
SJS D6 – Capital Christian (Sacramento), 6-0, 21.9

South
LAS D2 – Los Angeles, 6-0, 27.1*
SS Southern – Canyon (Anaheim), 3-3, 27.7

5-AA Division

North
SJS D5 - Bear River (Grass Valley), 6-0, 18.8
NS D3 – Orland, 5-1, 22.1

South
SDS D4 – Mater Dei Catholic (Chula Vista), 6-0, 25.7
SS Northwest – Linfield Christian (Temecula), 6-0, 23.6

5-A Division

North
NCS D5 – Berean Christian (Walnut Creek), 5-1, 13.3*
NS D4 – Durham, 6-0, 8.3

South
SS East Valley – Grace Brethren (Simi Valley), 6-0, 20.6
CS D6 – Kennedy (Delano), 6-1, 4.2

6-AA Division

North
NS D5 – Fall River (McArthur), 6-0, 4.4

North Play-in Game
SFS – Mission (San Francisco), 2-3, -11.5
SJS D7 - Stone Ridge Christian (Merced), 5-1, -6.8

South
SDS D5 – La Jolla Country Day, 5-1, 0.0
LAS D3 – Belmont (Los Angeles), 7-0, 3.8

Key: NCS = North Coast Section, NS = Northern Section, SJS = Sac-Joaquin Section, LAS = Los Angeles City Section, CS = Central Section, CCS = Central Coast Section, SDS = San Diego Section, OS = Oakland Section, SF = San Francisco Section, SS = Southern Section.

Notes: Teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I-VI are divided into six groups. The 32 largest are Division I, the second 32 largest are Division II and the third 32 largest are Division III. The next 16 largest are Division IV and so on. This might not necessarily be how the teams qualify for the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, but for the purposes of these rankings the SJS teams are placed in these artificial groupings.

For the Central Coast Section team rankings, teams in the Central Coast Section A Leagues are divided by MaxPreps into three equal groups for the three Open Division section championship games. This is not necessarily how the CCS will select teams for their Open Division playoff format. The runner-up teams are considered to be the No. 2 ranked team in each Open Division group.

The top eight ranked teams in the San Diego Section are considered for the Open Division and the No. 9 ranked team is considered the top team in Division I for the purposes of these rankings.