HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Panel Will Vote on Playoff Format

The governing body for City Section athletics will choose between two proposals at its April 1 meeting to alter the football playoff format for the fall season, according to City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness.

The Interscholastic Athletics Committee will vote on proposals to either eliminate divisions among the section’s 49 high school football teams or to divide the number of teams more equally between two divisions. The 3-A Division now consists of 37 teams, with only 12 teams competing in the 4-A Division.

Harkness has called the current system “a fiasco and a sham,” saying the 3-A playoffs have succeeded at the expense of the 4-A teams. Critics of the system charge that the 4-A playoffs have become meaningless because so few teams participate.

Under the single-division proposal, 16 teams would advance to a four-round tournament. The selection process for the tournament has not yet been determined, Harkness said.

The two-division proposal would create groupings that are more evenly balanced numerically and would establish two 16-team postseason tournaments. The plan closely follows a suggestion by Dave Lertzman, the Monroe High football coach whose team competes at the 3-A level.

Lertzman, who devised the current conference format the City Section adopted three years ago, has said he intended the conferences to be flexible, allowing movement by conference members between leagues from sport to sport depending on ability. In addition, the six conferences of eight teams each (the Southeastern Conference has nine) were devised to contain one 4-A league and one 3-A league.

Lertzman recommended that the four teams with the best records based on last season’s conference play would constitute the 4-A league in each conference, and the conference’s other four teams would comprise the 3-A league.

Harkness said both proposals move to IAC with the approval of the Games Committee even though that committee canceled its meeting Monday. Along with the football playoff issue, the Games Committee is discussing a sports schedule for the next academic year in the wake of the L.A. Unified School District’s plan to adopt a year-round calendar in July. The Board of Education is expected to address that issue at its April 1 meeting.