Orange County high school sports moved closer to going through a major redesign Monday as principals approved two proposals for new league configurations for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.
Football-specific leagues could be in place throughout the county, and many schools could end up in leagues with schools they have never shared league membership with previously.
County principals approved the proposals Monday at a meeting. The proposals must now be approved by the CIF Southern Section Council in October to become reality.
Football leagues would be created using a system that ranks each team based upon its performance the previous two seasons. The rankings would be weighted, with 65 percent of the profile coming from the most-recent season and the other 35 percent from the previous season.
The Trinity League football group would remain as is and would not be part of the new football leagues.
The football leagues concept would have the top four teams in one league and the next six teams in the second league. Nine more six-team leagues would follow until the last five teams in the rankings form a five-team league.
If the system was in place for the upcoming 2023 season, the top group would have Mission Viejo and Los Alamitos together in a football league for the first time.
Among the changes in leagues not related to football, Laguna Beach and Rosary, an all-girls school, will become part of a nine-school Pacific Coast Conference that would include Irvine, Northwood, Portola, Sage Hill, St. Margaret’s, University and Woodbridge.
A 15-school Orange Grove Conference would be made up of schools that currently are in the Orange, Orange Coast and Garden Grove Leagues.
The Empire and Freeway leagues would be dissolved. Current Empire League members Cypress and Pacifica would be in the Century Conference that would expand to 15 schools from its current eight. Freeway League members La Habra, Sonora, Sunny Hills and Troy would also go to the Century Conference.
A 15-schools Golden Empire Conference would take in current Freeway League members Buena Park and Fullerton. The nine-schools Coast View Conference would add a member, Beckman, from the Pacific Coast League.
These conferences would be broken down into two or three leagues, with league membership varying by sport.
The Sunset Conference that now is an eight-school group would become a seven-school Sunset League with the departure of Laguna Beach.
Schools can appeal the proposals at the CIF-SS Council meeting in October.
The proposed non-football conferences:
Century Conference: Brea Olinda, Canyon, Crean Lutheran, Cypress, El Dorado, El Modena, Esperanza, Foothill, La Habra, Pacifica, Sonora, Sunny Hills, Troy, Villa Park, Yorba Linda.
Coast View Conference: Aliso Niguel, Beckman, Capistrano Valley, Dana Hills, El Toro, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, San Juan Hills, Tesoro, Trabuco Hills.
Golden Empire Conference: Buena Park, Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Godinez, Katella, Kennedy, Laguna Hills, Ocean View, Santa Ana, Segerstrom, Tustin, Valencia, Westminster.
Orange Grove Conference: Anaheim, Bolsa Grande, Century, Estancia, La Quinta, Loara, Los Amigos, Magnolia, Orange, Rancho Alamitos, Saddleback, Santiago, Savanna, Santa Ana Valley, Western.
Pacific Coast Conference: Irvine, Laguna Beach, Northwood, Portola, Rosary, Sage Hill, St. Margaret’s, University, Woodbridge.