12/05/2011

Palma football

If strength of schedule has any barring on a state invitation, then Palma could have an advantage over Marin Catholic or Campolindo -- despite both being currently undefeated.
 Palma is currently ranked behind Marin Catholic and ahead of Campolindo. Those two powers will face off for the North Coast Section Division III title on Friday.
 Campolindo could jump ahead of Palma if it upsets Marin Catholic. Campolindo used a big second half last week to knock off previously unbeaten Cardinal Newman, who played Palma to a 10-10 tie.
 Don't you wish the Northern California regional game was this year?

2 comments:

Carmelkyd said...

While strength of schedule is important, unfortunately for the Chieftains, it is still an uphill struggle to make the state bowl game.

If strength of schedule were the most important test, then Palma's SOS (per calpreps) of 13.5 is virtually the same as Marin Catholic's 13.4. And Saint Ignatius, with an SOS of 33.3 would have to be favored to go even with a 5 - 6 record.

Of course, St. Ig is not (and should not) be in the conversation, if for no other reason than their record.

Mark Tennis may be the "king of the subjective ranking" but the calpreps computer sees it differently.

Marin Catholic is ranked as the 27th best team in the state with a calpreps rating of 49.7.

Campolindo is ranked 67th in the state with a 40.9 rating. Campo has an 11.9 SOS.

Palma is 90th in the state with a 37.3 rating.

And Hilmar is 117th in the state with a rating of 34.5 and SOS of 10.0.

I still think (and hope) that Palma has a shot at the invite. After all, it would be great for CCS and area football. And nobody other than Palma deserves to be the first team from our area to be invited to a state game.

As for next year, don't forget that the invitation to the two teams playing in the play-in game will be made to teams in any one of the six sections that make up the Northern part of CIF. (CCS - Northern - Northern Coast - Sac Joaquin - San Francisco - Oakland) Although the "best" teams seem to come out of only three of the sections. So the odds of a CCS team being invited to the play-in game will still be open to widespread debate.

NorCalSportsFan said...

If it goes like past years, they will look at the key wins, common opponents. The Calpreps SOS is negligible. Both Marin Catholic and Campolindo would be clear favorites. Marin catholic will have defeated the SJ D2 champion Vacaville and CCS D3 champion SI (arguably a tougher playoff than D4). Campo would win by virtue of defeating an undefeated and highly ranked Marin Catholic and decisively defeating cardinal Newman. Marin Catholic if they win will have also defeated a team that decively defeated a team Palma tied. The winner of this game would also be undefeated. Palma's wins against Saint Francis (an Open playoff team with not a very good record, and St Joes ( a good team but hammered in a tough league and too many losses) don't help much. Palma's best win was against Saint Francis.