`Campo sports in 2024 are going to look much different than they have for the past 10 years.

This is because a governing body of Northern California’s high school sports, the North Coast Section (NCS), has approved a proposal for the way playoffs are contested.

The proposal was approved on January 26, 2024.

Head football coach Kevin Macy called the new system a “step forward.” Macy has been one of the loudest critics of the old system, which was put in place in 2013 and was called ‘competitive equity’.

The goal of that system was to pit the top teams in the section against one another. It started with teams being put into divisions based on enrollment number, but as the years went on, teams were moved up or down in divisions based on how they performed. After a while, enrollment numbers became irrelevant and it became based on winning and losing. In the playoffs, Campo’s football team, for example, found itself playing schools that were many times its size, which Coach Macy felt was unfair.

This new system will change the way teams are put into divisions. Teams will be put into a ‘base division’ corresponding to the school’s enrollment numbers before the season starts. Then, come time for playoffs, NCS would look at MaxPreps’ rankings to determine seeding. In terms of football, the top 8 teams in those rankings would be put into the ‘Open Division’. However, any team outside of the top 8 cannot be moved more than 2 divisions up or down from the base division that they were put in.

Division 1, which was the division that Campo competed in for football this past year, will now only hold teams that have more than 2,300 students at their school. Because Campo is a relatively small school, with around 1,300 students, they will be put in Division 4 as their base division for next season. Division 4 will only be for schools with 1,243-1,489 students.

Junior quarterback Max Robeson likes the idea of competing at the Division 4 level next year, rather than being in D1. He says that “it just makes more sense.” Robeson added that this new system gives him more hope for a deeper playoff run for the Cougars next year.

There is still a possibility that Campo could compete in Division 1, however. If the Cougars find themselves ranked in the top 8 teams in NCS at the end of season, they would be in the same playoff bracket as De La Salle and Pittsburg, something they had to endure this past season. But, as long as Campo is ranked 9th or below, the highest possible division they could be moved up to for the playoffs would be Division 2.

Some coaches at Campo, like head baseball coach Julian Fiammengo, think that the new system will give their teams a “chance to compete.” Fiammengo wasn’t as opposed to the old system as Macy was. “I thought that the divisions and the brackets were broken up fairly well,” he said. “I didn’t think anything was wrong with what was going on, but I understand why they were trying to make changes.”

Campo’s teams will all be affected differently. For example, girls volleyball will move from D2 down to D3. Girls water polo, who won the Division 1 Norcal Championships last year, will move down to D2. Boys basketball, who were last year’s Division 2 NCS Champs, will move down to D3. Boys water polo and lacrosse will remain in their current divisions. Baseball will be in D3.