Section revises ’26 playoff format

By Ramon Scott
Updated: July 10, 2026

2026 EAST COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL

Division I will shrink to eight teams, Division V will expand to 16, and a new two-year playoff-pool system will restrict how far programs can move down

By Ramon Scott

EastCountySports.com

The CIF San Diego Section will introduce significant changes to its football playoff structure for the 2026 season, including revised bracket sizes and a new competitive-placement system intended to prevent established programs from dropping too far after one difficult year.

MaxPreps will continue to serve as the Section’s official ranking system for determining playoff qualification, divisional placement and seeding at the conclusion of the regular season.

The 11-man football playoffs will be conducted across seven divisions. The Open Division will remain a four-team bracket, while Division I will be reduced from 12 teams to eight.

Divisions II, III and IV will remain 12-team brackets, with the top four seeds in each division receiving first-round byes. Division V will expand from 12 teams to 16, eliminating first-round byes in that bracket.

The Section will also conduct an eight-team Division 5-AA playoff, while the size of the Division VI eight-player football bracket remains to be determined.

Under the revised format, the postseason divisions will generally be filled according to the following final MaxPreps ranking ranges:

Teams 1-4: Open Division
Teams 5-12: Division I
Teams 13-24: Division II
Teams 25-36: Division III
Teams 37-48: Division IV
Teams 49-64: Division V

The structure means the top 16 teams in the Section will receive first-round byes. The four Open Division qualifiers advance directly to the semifinals, while the top four seeds in Divisions II, III and IV will also sit out the opening round.

Division I, despite containing eight of the Section’s highest-ranked teams, will not include byes because it will begin with a standard eight-team quarterfinal bracket.

Annual rankings will still determine playoff placement

Schools will continue to be evaluated according to their current regular-season results, with final rankings and divisional placements released at the conclusion of the season.

The brackets will generally be seeded according to those rankings, regardless of league affiliation or league finish.

Each league will retain one automatic qualifier, awarded to its league champion. If teams share a league title, the conference’s established tiebreaking procedure will determine which school receives the automatic berth.

A league championship guarantees admission into the postseason but does not guarantee a home playoff game.

New pools should establish competitive floor

The most substantial procedural addition is the creation of preseason playoff pools.

Every San Diego Section football program will be assigned to a pool using a two-year competitive calculation that weighs the most recent season at 70 percent, the previous season at 30 percent and includes an enrollment factor.

That pool assignment will not directly seed the 2026 playoffs. Final regular-season MaxPreps rankings will continue to perform that function.

The pool designation instead limits downward movement.

A team will not be permitted to fall more than one playoff pool beneath its assigned level. If its final MaxPreps ranking would place it farther down, the program will be inserted as the final seed in the lowest bracket it is permitted to enter.

The displaced team would then become the top seed in the next division.

There is no comparable restriction on upward movement. A team may rise multiple divisions if its current-season results and final ranking warrant it.

The policy is designed to prevent a traditionally strong or recently successful program from dropping several competitive levels because of one rebuilding season.

Four situations can alter the rankings

The Section identified four circumstances in which final bracket placement may deviate from the numerical rankings.

The first involves teams that have opted into Division 5-AA. If a 5-AA participant finishes among the top 64, it will be removed from the standard Division I-V field, with each team behind it moving up one position.

The second involves automatic qualifiers. If a league champion is not otherwise ranked high enough to qualify, it will replace the lowest-ranked non-league champion in the bracket.

The third involves head-to-head results between adjacent teams. If the lower-ranked team defeated the school immediately ahead of it, the teams may exchange positions. No team may move more than one place under that provision.

The fourth is the new playoff-pool restriction. A team whose final ranking places it more than one pool below its assigned level will be moved into the lowest division in which it is eligible to participate.

Section-wide Hudl access planned

The Section also announced plans to provide all member football programs with access to game video from schools throughout the San Diego Section through Hudl.

The expanded video exchange is intended to give coaching staffs a more consistent system for scouting and film preparation.

Cross-league scheduling under consideration

A section-wide crossover scheduling model is also being studied for the 2027 season.

The proposal would create annual interconference matchups, potentially during Week 3 or Week 4, between schools from different leagues and conferences.

The system remains under development, but it could eventually produce more balanced nonleague schedules and improve comparisons between teams competing in different parts of the Section.