CIF-SS supports change to transfer rule

LONG BEACH - The CIF-Southern Section wants to change transfer rules, so that a transfer that could appear to be "athletically motivated" will not hinder the transferred student-athlete's athletic eligibility at the athlete's new school.

The CIF-SS Council, the section's rules-making body that is made up of representatives of the section's leagues, voted Thursday to have its representative at Monday's state-level CIF State Federated Council meeting support a proposal created by the Trinity League that would eliminate all references to "athletically motivated" from transfer rules.

The Southern Section is one of 10 sections that comprise the CIF State organization.

A proposal that would change the seeding for section boys and girls water polo playoffs was defeated when the Council vote ended in a tie. The proposal would have water polo's 16-team playoff brackets seeded 1-16.

Currently, a league's No. 1 playoff representative in the first round plays another league's No. 3 representative. The water polo proposal could have it that one league's No. 2 or 3 teams could be seeded higher than another league's No. 1, which would have created the possibility of two No. 1 teams from different leagues playing each other in the first round.

Also Thursday, the CIF-SS Council voted in favor of supporting a state-level proposal that would change the CIF State Football Bowl Championships format. The proposal would eliminate the regional round that for the first time this year comes between the section championship games and the state bowl games. It also would create a format where all 10 state sections would be represented in the bowl games, with three representatives per section – a small school team, a medium-sized school team and a large-school team.