Santa Barbara, CA — 🏈 Groupings are based on 2021-22 Calprep.com state rankings to achieve competitive equity; Bishop Diego will remain in the area’s top league The breakdown of the high school football leagues for area teams starting in 2024. In a continued effort to create competitive equity in football, administrators from high schools in southern Santa Barbara County and Ventura County agreed on a proposal for the re-leaguing cycle of 2024-2025 that will divide 29 schools into five competitive-balanced leagues. The groupings are based on each schools’ state ranking average over the last two seasons from CalPreps.com. The realignment of leagues will break up the three high schools of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, leave Bishop Diego in the area’s toughest league, and move Carpinteria into a five-team circuit that includes a new school and the return of Grace Brethren to 11-man football. Santa Barbara High, which won a share of the Channel League title last season and has gone to the CIF-SS playoffs three of the last four years, was placed in a six-team league with Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Rio Mesa, Calabasas and Westlake for 2024-26. Rio Mesa also is from the Channel League. Fellow Channel League members San Marcos and Dos Pueblos, which haven’t been to the playoffs in several years (San Marcos in 2004 and DP in 2018), are going into a league with Agoura, Fillmore, Hueneme and Santa Paula. Bishop Diego, which reached the Division 3 semifinals last season and played in the Division 2 playoffs in 2021, will join perennial powers St. Bonaventure, Oaks Christian, Camarillo, Pacifica and Simi Valley in a league. The Cardinals last season finished third in a strong Marmonte League that included St. Bonaventure, Oaks Christian, Simi Valley, Westlake and Calabasas. Carpinteria, which last went to the playoffs in 2017, will join Channel Islands, Nordhoff, Grace Brethren and a new Oxnard public high school, Del Sol, in a new five-team league for football. Del Sol is slated to open in 2024 and field a varsity football team in 2025. Grace Brethren will be returning to 11-man football after three years of playing eight-man football. The other new league in the Northern Area will include Oak Park, Buena, Moorpark, Ventura, Oxnard and Royal. The names of the leagues have yet to be determined. Dan Feldhaus, the athletic director at Dos Pueblos, felt the league groupings “seemed fairly accurate,” according to the Calprep rankings. “I think there’s definitely some very tough leagues,” he said. “I’m looking at Santa Barbara, and it looks like a pretty tough football league. And the same thing with the top league with Bishop.” Feldhaus said the Northern Area administrators used the Calpreps state rankings to achieve competitive equity in the leagues. He noted Calpreps gave more weight to the 2022 rankings. “This goes along with what the CIF is already doing,” he said. “I think (the league groupings) really helps the schools play with teams at their ability level.” Despite Santa Barbara being in a different league, Feldhaus said San Marcos and Dos Pueblos will continue to play the rivalry games against the Dons. The six-team leagues make it possible to schedule four non-league opponents. In the current nine-team Channel League, each school has only two dates for non-league opponents. “We will always play Santa Barbara and we will probably play one of the Ventura schools because that’s what we always do. Then we’ll get creative with some of our other scheduling,” Feldhaus said. The Northern Area goes through a football re-leaguing cycle every two years. Principals and athletic administrators submit proposals and they are voted on. Once a final plan is agreed upon, it is submitted to the CIF-Southern Section for approval. Feldhaus said there were 19 or 20 proposals, and the one approved was submitted by Buena.