Montview and Valle Vista leagues lose their appeals …

The CIF-Southern Section playoff grouping committee has spoken and it’s not good news for the Montview and Valle Vista leagues.

The committee denied their appeals to keep the Almont League from joining the Mid-Valley Division on Wednesday.

Both leagues appealed on Tuesday before the committee and argued that the Almont League joining the division was unfair on two levels. The first being that the Almont’s schools are too big for the division. The Almont League has six of the seven largest schools in the division. The second argument was that adding the Almont while subtracting no other league hurts the chances of schools from both leagues being able to make the postseason.

Under the proposal, the Mid-Valley Division would see the top-two teams from each league earn automatic bids while the remaining four spots would be at-large berths chosen by the Southern Section. That’s tough to swallow because the Montview, at eight teams, and the Valle Vista, at seven teams, are the two largest leagues in the division.