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Playoff divisions are like family reunions.

Somebody is going to be unhappy.

So, of course, not everybody was pleased with the playoff divisions the CIF-Southern Section put together for most team sports. On Tuesday, the CIF-SS released its recommend playoff divisions for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years.

There is an opportunity Wednesday for leagues to appeal the divisions in which they’ve been placed. There could even be an unprecedented fourth CIF-SS Council meeting to address any lingering issues about these playoff divisions.

But we can expect that what we got Tuesday is what we will have come September.

Football playoff divisions get the most attention because football gets the most attention. Football is the top moneymaker in just about every athletic department. Football can set the tone for school spirit for the rest of the school year.

The big moves in football playoff divisions from an Orange County perspective are the South Coast League going from the elite Pac-5 Division to the West Valley Division; the Sunset League’s move to the West Valley from the Southwest Division; and the Pacific Coast League’s switch from the Southern Division to the Southwest.

The Pac-5 Division will have the Big VIII, Moore, Marmonte, Parochial A (which will probably will have a different name in the fall) and Trinity leagues.

The Big VIII is a six-team league that has Centennial of Corona and other Inland Empire schools. The Moore is the seven-team Long Beach league that has Long Beach Poly. The Marmonte has Westlake and four other public schools from that area, and the Parochial A is a four-team league of Alemany of Mission Hills, Chaminade of West Hills, Crespi of Encino and Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks.

Mission Viejo was the only South Coast League football team that could consistently hang in the Pac-5.

It’s a good move to get the South Coast League into a playoff division that only has other public schools in it. The hope here is that some day soon it will become viable to have private and public schools in separate playoff divisions.

Upon seeing the new divisions, Mission Viejo coach Bob Johnson talked about the growing gap between public-school programs and those at the larger private schools.

He’s right, but it still was semi-amusing to see his comments knowing that Mission Viejo football gets plenty of transfers from Pac-5 private schools, including the South Coast League’s 2013 MVP and a 2013 league offensive player of the year. Any winning and well-run program such as Mission Viejo football is going to get transfers.

In the West Valley Division, with the South Coast and Sunset leagues are the Baseline (Rancho Cucamonga and Upland are in this six-team group), Foothill (Hart of Newhall, Valencia of Valencia among the six) and Southwestern (Vista Murrieta and Chaparral of Temecula are here).

The West Valley Division is a good competitive fit for the South Coast and Sunset leagues. Travel will be a challenge for parents and fans, either going inland or coming this direction, on playoff Friday nights. That’s a good reason to have all playoff games start at 7:30 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m.

The Southwest remains an all-Orange County football division. It still has the Empire, Freeway and Sea View leagues in it, plus the Pacific Coast League and the Crestview League.

The Crestview League is part of the two-league Century Conference. The Century Conference has eight schools in it: Brea Olinda; Canyon; El Dorado; El Modena; Esperanza; Foothill; Villa Park and Yorba Linda.

Teams from the Century Conference’s eight schools are placed into either the Crestview League or the North Hills League. The stronger schools in a sport go to the Crestview League, with the weaker four sent to the North Hills League. For football, the Crestview is Esperanza, Foothill, Villa Park and Yorba Linda; football’s North Hills League is Brea Olinda, Canyon, El Dorado and El Modena.

The North Hills League takes the Pacific Coast League’s place in the Southern Division. The Garden Grove, Golden West, Orange and Orange Coast leagues remain in that one.

Basketball and cross country divisions will continue to be based on enrollment and the playoffs-performance system that moves successful teams to higher divisions.

The new baseball playoff divisions had two notable changes. The Empire League moves from Division 2 to Division 1. The Pacific Coast League goes from Division 2 to Division 3.

Division 3 is where Pacific Coast League baseball belongs. The Empire League is not a Division 1 baseball league. It has two very good programs, Cypress and Pacifica which were Division 2 champions in 2013 and ’12, respectively. But the overall composition of the Empire League makes it a Division 2 or 3 league.

The Garden Grove League should have been moved down to Division 4 for baseball, with the Freeway League taking its place in Division 3.

Elsewhere …

• Softball divisions remain mostly unchanged, with one small move: the Sea View goes from Division 2 to Division 3. The Crestview League of the Century Conference will be in Division 1, with the conference’s lower North Hills League in Division 2.

• In boys soccer, the Sea View League moves from Division 1 to Division 2. The Orange League, with Century in it, goes from Division 3 to Division 2.

• In girls soccer, the heavily talented Sea View, South Coast, Sunset and Trinity leagues remain in Division 1. The Orange Coast League was lowered from Division 4 to 5.

• A major change in boys water polo is the South Coast League, long a fixture in Division 1, will be in Division 2. The Crestview League is in Division 2. The Orange Coast League moves from Division 2 to 3.

• Girls water polo underwent some changes. The Trinity League is elevated from Division 2 to Division 1 and the Freeway League is promoted from Division 4 to Division 3, and the Empire League gets the boost from Division 7 to 6.

• In girls volleyball, the Orange Coast League slides from Division 1A to 2AA. The Crestview is a 1A league. The North Hills is a 2AA league.

• The Sea View League moves from Division 1 to Division 2 in boys volleyball.

All moves are interesting, but as always football is the big deal.

Because whenever you meet somebody and they ask what high school you attended, their reaction probably is not going to be, “What a great debate team you guys had!” It’s usually about football.

Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com