CIF Southern Section football brackets released, 14 divisions set
The gist
The CIF Southern Section released its football playoff brackets Sunday, with first-round games across 14 divisions.
Divisions 2-14 start Friday; Division 1, led by 10-0 Santa Margarita, follows Nov. 13.
How it unfolded
- Oct 15, 2026The CIF-SS Council, the section's legislative body of league representatives, approved a proposal giving five-team football leagues three automatic playoff qualifiers starting in 2027, up from two.
- Oct 19, 2026With two weeks left in the regular season, whether the Division 1 field would be 8 or 9 teams was being examined; it was 8 in 2025, 2023, 2021 and 2019, and 10 only in 2024.
- Nov 1, 2026The CIF Southern Section released its football playoff brackets, setting first-round matchups across 14 divisions.
Key terms
- CIF Southern Section
- Governing body for high school athletics in most of Southern California, the largest section of the California Interscholastic Federation.
- brackets
- A tree-like diagram showing the series of games in a knockout tournament.
- seed
- A stage in a knockout tournament with sixteen competitors, from which winners advance to the quarter-finals.
Source: Wikipedia