CCS football playoffs: Matchups are set. What are the top storylines?

Serra is No. 1 overall seed. Los Gatos will play host to another WCAL team in Round 1. Salinas, Christopher, Hillsdale draw unlucky No. 8 seeds. New format in top division.

NEW CCS FORMAT: HOW OPEN/DIVISION I WORKS

For years, the Central Coast Section had an Open Division designated for its best teams. Then it had three Open Divisions, dividing its presumed 24 best teams into three divisions based on enrollment. Then it scrapped the Open Division when the section went to a competitive-equity model. Now, the Open Division is back. Sort of. Following the model that the neighboring North Coast Section has used for the past two seasons, the CCS is calling its top division Open/Division I. The NCS went to the model to create a lane for a Division I school to advance to a regional without having to beat De La Salle, something nobody from the NCS has done since 1991. The CCS has added it to allow a second team from its top division to play beyond the section playoffs. Here is how it works: The No. 1 seed plays the No. 8 seed and the No. 2 seed plays the No. 7 seed in the first round. The winners meet for the Open title in the second week of the playoffs. The Open champion advances to a state game while the Open runner-up plays the survivor in the bottom half of the bracket (presumably the No. 3 seed) for the Division I title in the third week of the playoffs. Serra, St. Francis and St. Ignatius are the top three seeds. – Darren Sabedra

BEST PUBLIC SCHOOLS GET ROUGH DRAW

Los Gatos, Wilcox and Salinas were the best public school teams in the CCS this season. They rolled through many schools that made the playoffs in lower divisions, teams that will probably advance well beyond the opening round next weekend. But one of the flaws in the competitive equity, points-based model that the CCS uses is that the most successful teams are placed into the best bracket. That means a division that includes powerhouses such as Serra and St. Francis. When the matchups were unveiled Sunday, Salinas was seeded eighth in Open/Division I. The Cowboys will travel on Saturday to San Mateo to play Serra, a team that wiped out Salinas on that same field in the semifinals last season. Wilcox, seeded seventh, will travel on Friday to second-seeded St. Francis. Los Gatos, seeded fourth after capturing the PAL Bay championship, will be at home Friday to play fifth-seeded Archbishop Riordan. The public schools will be underdogs in all of those games, a massive underdog in the case of Salinas. “I’ve complained a thousand times,” said Wilcox coach Paul Rosa, whose team has benefited from the system on a couple of occasions, including two seasons ago when the Chargers reached a state final. “Any time you have a system where losing helps you, it’s not a good system. I’ve said that a thousand times.” – Darren Sabedra

ANOTHER WCAL TEAM HEADS TO LOS GATOS

Will the third time be the charm for Los Gatos? The Wildcats will be on their home field against a West Catholic Athletic League opponent on Friday in the first round of the CCS playoffs for the third consecutive season. On the previous two occasions, Los Gatos was so close to winning that it could practically touch the W in the win column. Bellarmine broke the Wildcats’ hearts in 2022 when Thomas Di Vittorio returned an interception 94 yards for a touchdown in the final minute to break a tie and give the Bells a 34-27 victory. Last season, Los Gatos held a seven-point lead in overtime over Archbishop Mitty when the Monarchs scored a touchdown and then won in walk-off fashion when Danny Scudero caught a pass from Wills Towers on a two-point conversion to give the visitors a 29-28 win. Now, the Wildcats will play host to Archbishop Riordan, a team that won seven games this season after adding high-profile transfers such as receiver Chris Lawson and linemen Tommy Tofi and Peter Langi. Riordan finished third in the WCAL. – Darren Sabedra

THIS YEAR’S UNLUCKY NO. 8 SEEDS

Because the CCS ranks all of its playoff teams from No. 1 to No. 40 and then divides them into five divisions, with the top eight in D-I, the next eight in D-II and on down the line, the No. 8 seeds in Divisions I through IV always draw the proverbial short end of the playoff seeding stick. Instead of being the No. 1 seed in a lower division, they’re the last seed in a stronger bracket. Christopher’s 28-24 loss to Live Oak was not enough to push the Cougars into Divison III as a high seed. Instead, the Gilroy school is the No. 8 seed in Division II after it went 9-1. Christopher will play No. 1 seed Archbishop Mitty on Friday at Foothill College. Hillsdale was almost the top seed in Division IV. Instead, it will visit No. 1 seed Menlo-Atherton in the first round of the Division III bracket. Seaside’s reward for a 7-3 season is the No. 8 seed in Division IV and a game at reigning Division V champion Palo Alto. Salinas, of course, was the most unlucky of the No. 8 seeds. — Joseph Dycus

… AND LUCKY NO. 1 SEEDS

On the flip side of landing in the No. 8 spot is being a fortunate No. 1, which means home games through the first two rounds. Archbishop Mitty, which went on a Cinderella run to the Division I title game last season, saw its chances of reaching another final rise exponentially when it fell from being the No. 8 seed in Open/Division I to the No. 1 seed in D-II after losing 35-0 to Valley Christian on Friday. The Monarchs will avoid another matchup with Open/Division I top seed Serra, which has won all but one game this season by double-digits and is an overwhelming favorite to repeat. Menlo-Atherton is the top seed in Division III, and Palo Alto will have home home-field advantage in Division IV as it seeks a second consecutive CCS title. Woodside’s powerful rushing attack will be the top seed in Division V. — Joseph Dycus

ODDS AND ENDS

— Mountain View finished sixth in the PAL Bay Division and lost to Burlingame in a league game. But because of the points that the CCS uses to seed teams, Mountain View is No. 2 in Division IV and will play host to … seventh-seeded Burlingame on Friday.

— Valley Christian, which lost a 15-14 heartbreaker at home to St. Ignatius last month, will get a rematch on Friday at SI in Open/Division I.

— Menlo School travels to Live Oak on Friday in a Division II game. Menlo coach Todd Smith is a Live Oak alum.

— North Salinas was the fifth of the five at-large teams to qualify. The King’s Academy was the last one out.

— Thirty-five of the 40 teams to make the CCS playoffs receive automatic bids out of their leagues.