CIF denies Mission Valley League’s appeal of new playoff grouping proposal …

A CIF-Southern Section playoff grouping proposal appeals committee denied the Mission Valley League’s bid to be removed from the new-look Mid-Valley Division on Wednesday.

Arroyo High School football coach Jim Singiser was the league’s lone representative at the Southern Section office on Wednesday and argued that based on competitive equity the Mission Valley League would be a better fit in the new-look Northwest Division as opposed to the new-look Mid-Valley.

“I had to address only our league and what we wanted,” Singiser said. “You can’t say ‘Take us, put us in.’ You can say ‘Take us out’, but then they have to find a place to put you.

“Our argument today was to be moved out the Mid-Valley Division. And I did mention our goal would be to move to the Northwest.”

Under the playoff grouping proposal set forth by assistant commissioner Glenn Martinez, beginning next year the Mid-Valley Division would become a five-team league consisting of the Alpha League, Almont League, Valle Vista League, Rio Hondo League and the Mission Valley League.

The Alpha League would be the new face while the Montview and Olympic leagues, which played in the division last year, would be sent to the Northwest Division.

The Montview League appealed this proposal last week and was denied. The Mission Valley League had its say on Wednesday, and although its argument was different, was also denied. Singiser said the league would not appeal the decision at the Southern Section Council meeting later this month.

“He believes the Mission Valley League is very competitive in the Mid-Valley Division as it is structured (under the proposal), and we disagree,” Singiser said referring to Martinez. “Some of the examples he gave was that Mountain View and that Mountain View was stronger than Temple City, Keppel, Bell Gardens and Wilson. He thought if our worst team is stronger than all there worst team, then it must be a good fit for us. I disagree with that logic.

“I don’t believe wins and losses in the regular season should dictate you do in CIF. That was basically the point of contention from everybody. He’s looking at the total sum of the work in terms of your 10-game regular season and my impression was we were going in there to talk about the playoffs.”

The Mission Valley League’s overall body of work in the 2011 season may have hurt its argument on Wednesday if CIF was in fact considering a team or league’s total body of work. The league had a strong showing against the rest of the division in nonleague games and that was good enough to earn South El Monte one of the division’s two available wild-card berth in the playoffs.

South El Monte lost in the first round, as did second-place El Monte. Only league champ Arroyo won a postseason game. The league has just two playoff wins in the past two seasons.

“In a 10-game season, you can schedule anybody you want,” Singiser said. “If you’re scheduling down, you’re going to end up 5-0 or whatever. That’s what they (CIF) ended up looking at — the win/loss totals for the entire league.

“If you’re 5-0 in the nonleague but you can’t get it done in the playoffs, then that’s what I though we were there to talk about.”

Playoff groupings last two years before they are reviewed again and new changes propose. With Monrovia’s dominance of the Mid-Valley Division the past two seasons, most area coaches knew some sort of changes were coming to the division.

By adding the Alpha League, which boasts Sierra Canyon (15-0 in 2011) and Paraclete (11-3 in ’11), Martinez has certainly beefed up the competition at the very top.

Aram’s take:
It was worth a shot. I was somewhat surprised by CIF’s argument and how it focused on Mountain View being the best last-place in the division last season. I’m not sure Mountain View beats any other last-place team beside Keppel. In fact, I think Wilson and Bell Gardens may have given the Vikes a good working over. Anyway, at least the Mission Valley champ will get a home game. Hate to be the second or third-place team and have to travel very far for what will likely be a butt whipping.