CIF addresses softball, baseball seedings as playoffs open today
The California Interscholastic Federation's Northern California regional softball and baseball playoffs begin on Tuesday afternoon with some surprising matchups.
Most notably in softball, where San Ramon Valley, which won the North Coast Section Division I championship 17-1 over College Park on Friday, was seeded fifth in NorCal Division I.
The Wolves will travel to No. 4 St. Francis for their quarterfinal game.
It’s an eye-opening result for a team that was dominant in the championship game of its section's highest division. And St. Francis, though it has had a typically stellar season, lost to Willow Glen last week in the Central Coast Section Open Division semifinals.
CIF director Cici Robinson, who administers the softball championships, told the Bay Area News Group that a variety of factors were considered before making that and other seeding decisions Sunday, including strength of schedule, strength of league and RPI.
"There’s unfortunately no clear way to just look at one piece of data, because they all have kind of different metrics," Robinson said. "So we try to take a variety of things to be able to place them as closely as we can."
In SRV's case, the CIF determined that No. 1 Destiny Christian Academy-Sacramento, No. 2 Clovis East, No. 3 Archbishop Mitty and No. 4 St. Francis had better overall resumes.
"It all goes into the teams that are above them when we’re looking at comparing them all together, all those metrics that we talked about, putting them in the best order that we
can," Robinson said.
"You can’t just be a section champion and be guaranteed a hosting spot. There’s not enough spots available."
Another eyebrow-raiser was CCS Open runner-up Willow Glen dropping to Division II.
In that case, Robinson said the CIF abided by the order of teams given to them by the CCS, which had Open section champion Mitty first, followed by St. Francis and Willow Glen.
Alameda, the top seed in the NCS Division I playoffs, dropped to the No. 1 seed in the NorCal Division II bracket after losing to College Park in the sectional semifinals. College Park is the eighth seed in Division I.
Robinson also noted that the CIF gives some weight to history when finding slots for teams.
"When you’re looking at that overall body of work, there’s historical precedent to not have one game always be the determining factor," Robinson said. "In other sports as well."
Robinson added that all the pieces contribute to CIF's decisions.
"Historical success plays a little piece of that as well," she said. "When you’re looking at teams, a team that has been there many times – even if their record may not be as strong – sometimes can be surprising. Because they’ve been there before, so it’s not as big of a shock to them. That probably happens a little bit more in, say, basketball or volleyball, but it can in other sports as well."
On the baseball side, it was surprising to see St. Francis, which has been the South Bay's top team for much of this season, slide to No. 8. The Lancers will travel to De La Salle on Tuesday in the Division I opening round.
CIF director of corporate sponsorships Chris Fahey, who administers baseball, said the CCS slotted St. Francis behind No. 4 Valley Christian (CCS D-I champ) and No. 6 Soquel (CCS D-I runner-up) in their intrasection rankings.
The Lancers lost 1-0 to Soquel in the D-I semifinals.
"There’s an argument that can always be made, which is what’s more important?" Fahey told this news organization. "I’ll call it the body of work versus what just happened. So you have that in both cases.
"The one in the D-I bracket, because of how they finished, the CCS had their teams in that ranked order. It does happen from time to time, where you got beat in the section final, but we still kept you above the other team. We have conversations throughout the week with the commissioners, ‘Tell us why, what went into it.' It happens."
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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 7:41 AM.