The CIF-Southern Section executive committee will meet Aug. 13 to vote on whether to proceed with a proposal that would base playoff divisions for high school football on teams, not leagues.

Currently, the 13 divisions of the Southern Section football playoffs are based on leagues. The new system would produce constantly evolving divisions that would change annually based on the previous two seasons’ data.

“It’s going to be a paradigm shift for the entire section, if it passes,” CIF-Southern Section information director Thom Simmons said. “What you’ll see in August won’t be a finished product but certainly good enough to base a vote on. They’ll decide whether it’s worth going forward with.”

The executive committee is made up of 23 members, which includes representatives from each area in the Southern Section. The proposal would look and feel much like the one currently being used for basketball, meaning teams from the same league would likely be playing in different divisions once the playoffs started.

If the executive committee decides to proceed with the proposal, an official vote will be taken in January and the new system would be in place in time for the 2016-17 school year.

The new system would see teams move up and down in division based on their success, or lack thereof, from the previous two seasons. It’s unclear whether divisions would go back to be being labeled by numbers instead of names, but the top division would certainly be a mix of established Southland football powers and upstarts, much like the open division is in basketball.

Conversely, teams that play in upper division leagues now, but have unrealistic chances at winning their playoff division, would see their chances of winning a section title improve greatly.

Exactly how teams would qualify for the playoffs remains a bit fuzzy and is likely to be addressed at the meeting. Currently, league champions, second-place and in most cases third-place teams are automatic qualifiers or the postseason.