Sondheimer: There’s no competitive equity in Open Division football bowl game

There are 15 CIF state championship football bowl games set for Dec. 13-14 in Southern California, and 14 of the matchups should be fine. The only problem involves the Open Division game, which is supposed to be the marquee game by bringing together the best team in Southern California against the best team in Northern California.

Some people are asking, “Is it still a viable game?”

“No,” said San Mateo Serra coach Patrick Walsh.

His team came down from Northern California in 2021, 2022 and 2023, faced Mater Dei twice and played St. John Bosco once, and was outscored in those three games 124-7.

“The Open Division, if anything, should not be considered a North and South thing,” Walsh said. “It should be the best two teams in the state. If that’s Mater Dei and St. John Bosco, so be it. We are all playing high school football, but the business plans are different among the high school football community.”

Mater Dei (12-0), the Southern Section Division 1 champion, was chosen on Sunday to play Concord De La Salle (12-0), a winner of 33 consecutive North Coast Section championships, in the Open Division final on Dec. 14 at Saddleback College. Forget that De La Salle is unbeaten. The only question is whether De La Salle will be able to score after Serra was shut out the last two seasons in the final.

That’s not a putdown of De La Salle, the school that once had a 12-year, 151-game winning streak and used to pummel Southern California schools.

Times have changed. Right now, the disparity in talent couldn’t be more profound. It has reached a point of an annual debate about what to do. So far, the CIF is declining to make any changes.

“It has been a pretty dominant run by Open Division schools in the South,” CIF associate executive director Brian Seymour said. “But everything kind of ebbs and flows. I don’t see a problem. I can’t look at it for one game. There’s 15 championships we’re putting on.”

De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh knows what he’s facing. He came to Veterans Stadium on Friday night to watch Mater Dei-St. John Bosco. It was his first time at Veterans Stadium since 2001 when De La Salle defeated Long Beach Poly in the “game of the century.” Mater Dei coach Raul Lara was in his first season at Poly.

“Man, that’s real good football,” Alumbaugh said of the Southern Section Division 1 final. “The level of physicality and the level of athletes is impressive.”

But he’ll be taking the bus with his players in two weeks confident his team will more than put up a fight. They have a lineman committed to Oregon and a quarterback who’s one of the fastest in the state. And he’ll have legendary former De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur on the sideline offering support.

“Our team is capable of beating anybody,” he said. “We’re going to have to play well but we’re excited. Why would you not want to play in that game?”

The issue front and center is competitive equity. Most of the state has switched to competitive equity playoffs and at the highest level in football the game hasn’t been competitive. How long can this continue? Mater Dei and St. John Bosco have separated themselves so much that they’ve met in seven of the last eight Southern Section Division 1 finals and no Northern California team has won the Open Division bowl game since De La Salle in 2015. That’s not a fluke — it’s a trend with no signs of changing.

Yes, Northern California teams are starting to improve their nonleague schedules by playing tougher opponents in preparation for a possible meeting against Mater Dei or St. John Bosco, but when one team has dozens of Division I college prospects and the other doesn’t, it requires a monumental upset to end the domination. So that’s the only drama left for the state’s biggest game.

Just don’t expect much drama in two weeks. Mater Dei hasn’t come close to losing and has two wins over St. John Bosco, two wins over Corona Centennial, plus a win over Las Vegas Bishop Gorman. Lara has smartly ignored who his team plays each week and instead challenges his team to get better daily. So the Monarchs figure to be focused and ready to dominate against De La Salle.

That leaves plenty of opportunity for the other 14 games to provide drama and excitement. The regional playoff pairings released on Sunday will have teams beginning action Friday and Saturday seeking a spot in state championship games.

The Newbury Park-San Diego Lincoln game in Division 1-AA on Friday night at Southwestern College should be most fun, with the Panthers putting their 14-0 record on the line against a team with tremendous speed. The winner will face either Folsom or Pittsburg, so there’s a possibility of the two best junior quarterbacks in the state, Brady Smigiel and Ryder Lyons, meeting on Dec. 13 if Newbury Park and Folsom prevail.

City Section Open Division champion Narbonne drew a road game against Oxnard Pacifica on Friday night in 2-AA.