Here's a job for all the savants on this site:
Rank the top NorCal prep football leagues from one to ten.
Rank the top NorCal prep football leagues from one to ten.
A NorCal ranking dive
- Thread starter colhenrylives
- Start date
In terms of Leagues here is my take.
SFL
WCAL
EBAL (I may have messed that up but DLS, SRV, MV league)
And the newly formed NBL league with Marin Catholic, Windsor, Newman, San Marin, Vintage, and Rancho is damn tough for that D2-D3 level. Might be one of the best in state.
SFL
WCAL
EBAL (I may have messed that up but DLS, SRV, MV league)
And the newly formed NBL league with Marin Catholic, Windsor, Newman, San Marin, Vintage, and Rancho is damn tough for that D2-D3 level. Might be one of the best in state.
This is a good top 20 published by Doug. But I think colhenrylives wants discussion on league rankings.
Top leagues in NorCal
I don't think the league rankings will be too much different than from last year. Here's Calpreps that seems pretty good for this year too.
1. Sierra Foothill - SJS
2. East Bay - Mountain - NCS
3. West Catholic - CCS
Gap and close grouping below
4. Pacific Coast - Gabilan - CCS
5. Peninsula - Bay - CCS
6. Valley Oak - SJS
7. Bay Valley - NCS
8. Tri-City - SJS
9. Diablo - Foothill - NCS
Significant gap
10 Monticello Empire - SJS
I don't think the league rankings will be too much different than from last year. Here's Calpreps that seems pretty good for this year too.
1. Sierra Foothill - SJS
2. East Bay - Mountain - NCS
3. West Catholic - CCS
Gap and close grouping below
4. Pacific Coast - Gabilan - CCS
5. Peninsula - Bay - CCS
6. Valley Oak - SJS
7. Bay Valley - NCS
8. Tri-City - SJS
9. Diablo - Foothill - NCS
Significant gap
10 Monticello Empire - SJS
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The thing about the EBAL Mountain Division is there are no weak teams. The poorer EBAL teams are relegated to the EBAL Valley Division, and don’t play with the big boys. It is really 2 different leagues, an A & a B league.
By the way, this season Clayton Valley moves back over to the Diablo Foothill league with Campo & Acalanes.
Tri-City would move up this year with the realignment in the SJS.
Here is my Top 10. As mentioned by @FBAddict, there is the top 3 and then a big gap
1. SFL
2. WCAL
3. EBAL - Mountain
4. PCAL-Gabilan
5. Redwood Empire-Adobe
6. Valley Oak League
7. Diablo-Foothill
8. BVAL
9. PAL-Bay
10. Tri-City
1. SFL
2. WCAL
3. EBAL - Mountain
4. PCAL-Gabilan
5. Redwood Empire-Adobe
6. Valley Oak League
7. Diablo-Foothill
8. BVAL
9. PAL-Bay
10. Tri-City
Marin Catholic plays 2 Tri-City opponents and 1 VOL. it will be interesting to see how those games turn out.
That's how superleagues are designed. A super league of two or more leagues join together and each year the super league officials adjust the team membership of each sub league so there is good equity in each sub league. There is a bit of this going on in the SJS section teams only they don't identify their leagues as a part of a larger group.
Any single league, including WCAL, don't have the opportunity to change their membership to have equitable competition within their league.
Something weird has happened to Calpreps' preseason ratings. McClymonds at -0.2? 45 teams rated at 0.0?
Then there's the annual question as to whether DLS should be included in the EBAL-M.
MC and Newman in league will be a great battle. Newman will be better than last year's 11-win team but I don't know if good enough to beat MC. The QB position is the spot to watch in terms of how that shakes out. Been a weakness the last few years. Defensively they are solid.
Well, they are in there whether they should be or not. They certainly need to be included in the strength of the league discussions. SRV almost knocked them off last season.
They don't play a full league schedule and they can't win the league title. They have an association with the league, but they're not in the league.
Serra did beat DLS, that didn't make them NCS champs.
The DAL is crazy now with addition of CVC there will now be 3, 4 Team divisions…..
1. CVC, Campo, Acalanes, Las Lomas….
2. College Park, Miramonte, Benicia, Alhambra….
3. Mt. Diablo, Concord, Behern Christian and Ygnacio Valley….
Then for the 2 “lower” divisions the final league game will be #1 vs #1, 2 vs 2 and so on to establish the “League Champion” for the 2 lower divisions….
Really odd set up…. 🤣
That has changed several times since they were placed into the EBAL 15 years ago. They did win the EBAL last season. The first 5 or 6 years they were league champs, then they weren’t league champs and didn’t get a banner, but just got a spot in the NCS playoffs and most of the all league spots for the next 5 or 6 years. It recently changed back and they are again eligible for the league title once again.
Serra isn’t in the NCS as you know, so they would never be considered for NCS hardware.
Back in the 1950's and most of the 1960's, Riordan, Serra, Bellarmine, and St Francis were members of the North Coast Section, along with all the other Central Coast Section teams. Central Coast Section was formed in 1966-67.
Check NCS Cross Country Meets, Track Meets, and Swim Meets in those seasons before the C.C.S. was formed. At the time there were not section playoffs for Football or Basketball.
Basketball teams played in Tournaments not run run by the Sections; Gridley Basketball Invitational, Peninsula Tournament of Champions, and the Tournament of Champions played in Oakland. There were 2 or 3 other tournaments teams played in. The Tournaments were set up by Leagues or Schools.
Check NCS Cross Country Meets, Track Meets, and Swim Meets in those seasons before the C.C.S. was formed. At the time there were not section playoffs for Football or Basketball.
Basketball teams played in Tournaments not run run by the Sections; Gridley Basketball Invitational, Peninsula Tournament of Champions, and the Tournament of Champions played in Oakland. There were 2 or 3 other tournaments teams played in. The Tournaments were set up by Leagues or Schools.
I noticed that as well. Seems other teams I track have initial ratings scores have been significantly decreased. Seems they may be relying less on initial ratings but I also can't understand such large variances from final year end or historical dynasty rating scores. You would think they would tie closer to their dynasty scores over time and adjust initial up or down a reasonable amount. In McClymonds case its 5 year dynasty rating is 37 and 20 year dynasty rating is 27.5. You would think it would start somewhere in the 20-30s- and if a very talented squad closer to the 37. At least that's how I would look at it. I also looked at Salinas for example and starting at 8.5 looks low when their dynasty ratings are in the 20 range and seems like it should be in the average range to start I think. I think they could be better than that.
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What about the TVL Trans Valley League? They are most likely the toughest small school league in the entire state. With the addition of Sonora, Ripon Christian and Orestimba, a combined 30-8 record, to go along with at one time state champs Escalon, Ripon, Hughson and Hilmar is pretty solid. Only weak link is Modesto Christian, which at one time won a state championship.
They may be at around #10 now...could see them over Montecello Empire (Vacaville and Vanden andrest of league weak), but Not Diablo Foothill in NCS or TriCity in SJC where they are level below.
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