Most OC teams likely headed into conferences as part of major re-alignment for 2024-26 cycle

It appears that most Orange County high school sports teams will be headed into a conference re-alignment beginning with the 2024-25 school year.

The plan includes sports other than football, which will have a separate Orange County plan.

The Trinity League teams are not included in the proposals, which were first discussed by athletic directors in Orange County to come up with at least three proposals to submit to the principals for a final vote. Counter-proposals were also considered before a final vote was taken.

That means that the upcoming 2023-24 school year will be the last under the current league configuration if the plan holds and the CIF Council approves it in October after considering appeals.

Teams will be placed in leagues within the five conferences.

“To be quite honest with you, this is really unusual,” said Irvine Unified Athletic Director Mark Cunningham. “Normally when we do a re-leaguing proposal, they are normally with leagues and then schools can have a choice if they want to become a conference or not.

“In this proposal, there are five conferences and only two leagues, the Sunset League and the Trinity League. And the rest are all conferences.”

In the past, schools who have been in re-leaguing had a right to appeal, based on enrollment, geography and competitive equity, Cunningham said.

“When you propose a conference, there is no geography on that appeal, and there is no enrollment on the appeal, it’s only competitive equity, so you’re limited if you’re not satisfied with what’s going on to one criteria instead of three,” Cunningham said. “I have a hunch there are going to be some appeals to this because of the way it was done and nothing may change from it, it all may very well all go through.”

So far, there have been no appeals to the OC plan because schools have not been placed into leagues within their conferences, according to Thom Simmons, CIF assistant commissioner.

“OC approved their 2024-2026 Re-leaguing Plan with the majority of their schools placed into several athletic conferences,” Simmons told OC Sports Zone Thursday. “OC has yet to formulate the actual leagues that schools will be placed in within those athletic conferences. 

“Therefore, there have not been any appeals filed because there is nothing for schools to appeal. Once schools are placed into specific leagues for various sports, the appeals process becomes available to them.”

 Simmons provided a copy of the CIF re-leaguing appeal process, which reads in part:

” …. The original area proposal or any proposals resulting from an appeal by a member school shall be voted upon at the October Council meeting. The procedure for voting will be: (1) the original area proposal will be voted upon first and must secure a majority vote for passage (a tie vote would not be considered as passage); (2) If the original proposal receives the necessary majority vote, appeals may be heard from affected schools in that area (any school that plans to appeal shall submit to the Council representatives an alternate proposal two weeks before scheduled Council meeting, with copies to the CIF‐Southern Section office.

“If the original proposal fails to secure the necessary majority vote, member school(s) from that area may submit a proposal before the Council for consideration. Only proposals that receive a motion to approve, a second, and majority vote of Council will be heard. Any proposal that reaches the floor of Council must have been previously submitted to all Council representatives. The Council at large will conduct voting on alternate proposals. Any proposal receiving a majority vote of Council is final.”

Under the new proposal, the three 15-team conferences could be divided into two or three leagues, Cunningham said. The 10-team conference could be divided into two leagues.

“It could be three five’s which is most likely what it will be because in taking football out of it, if you have a five-team league, you have three automatic qualifiers for the (CIF) playoffs,” Cunningham said. “That would give you nine automatic qualifiers out of the 15.”

Some highlights:

—Laguna Beach moves out of the Sunset League and into the Pacific Coast Conference, which will include most of the Irvine teams except for Beckman, which is scheduled to move into the Coast View Conference. St. Margaret’s also moves into the conference and Rosary would also compete in girls sports.

—The new 15-team Century Conference would include Crean Lutheran, Canyon, Cypress, Foothill, Villa Park, Brea Olinda, Pacifica, El Dorado and La Habra.

—Three teams from the Santa Ana Unified School District (Santa Ana, Segerstrom and Godinez) would compete in the 15-team Golden Empire Conference along with Fullerton, Tustin, Katella and Calvary Chapel and others. Century, Saddleback, Santa Ana Valley would be in the Orange Grove Conference, which would include Western, Estancia and Loara.

OC CHANGES FOR 2024-25

Century Conference (15 schools): Brea Olinda, Canyon, Crean Lutheran, Cypress, El Dorado, El Modena, Esperanza, Foothill, La Habra, Pacifica, Sonora, Sunny Hills, Troy, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

Coastview Conference (10 schools): Aliso Niguel, Beckman, Capo Valley, Dana Hills, El Toro, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Tesoro and Trabuco Hills

Pacific Coast Conference (Nine girls teams including Rosary and eight boys teams): Irvine, Laguna Beach, Northwood, Portola, Rosary, Sage Hill, St Margaret’s, University and Woodbridge.

Golden Empire Conference (15 schools): Buena Park, Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Godinez, Katella, Kennedy, Laguna Hills, Ocean View, Santa Ana, Segerstrom, Tustin, Valencia and
Westminister.

Orange Grove Conference (15 teams): Anaheim, Bolsa Grande, Century, Estancia, La Quinta, Loara, Los Amigos, Magnolia, Orange, Rancho Alamitos, Saddleback, Santiago, Savanna, Santa Ana Valley and
Western.

Sunset League (Seven teams): Corona del Mar, Edison, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos
Marina and Newport Harbor.

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A look at how most OC high school football leagues will likely be formed in 2024

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com