Inland Division Champion Vista Murrieta was passed over for a State Bowl invitation on Sunday afternoon in favor of Pac-5 Division Champion Santa Margarita. Coming off an exciting victory over Corona Centennial in Friday night’s Championship game, Vista Murrieta finished the season with a perfect 14-0 record on the field and a reasonable expectation to be selected as Southern California’s representative in next Friday’s Division I State Bowl Game. With 5 games forfeited due to using an ineligible player that the CIF has since cleared and reinstated “Don’t BCS the Broncos!” is the cry coming from deep in the heart of the Inland Empire. Instead, like their brethren that govern college football’s highest division, CIF Commissioners used something other than what occurred on the football field to determine the bowl bid.
No disrespect to Santa Margarita or the CIF Commissioners but an undefeated Inland Division Champion was clearly the choice for Southern California over the twice-beaten Eagles. Time and again this season Inland Division teams took on their counterparts from the Pac-5 and the Inland Division repeatedly flexed its gridiron power. Corona Centennial knocked off perennial Pac-5 powerhouse Mater Dei back on September 16th, and while I’ve heard from many that this was a down season for the Monarchs, that is the same Mater Dei team that defeated Santa Margarita later in the season! Mission Viejo felt the sting of the Inland Division when they fell at Redlands East Valley on October 7th. Mission Viejo owned a victory over the other Pac-5 finalist San Clemente and gave Santa Margarita everything they could handle before falling 21-20 in the semi-finals. Redlands East Valley had a great season that came to an end against Rancho Cucamonga in the Inland Division playoffs. The Cougars themselves had a fine season with just a single loss to Upland before falling against Corona Centennial in the semi-finals. Vista Murrieta hit the road and knocked off one of the Valley’s Pac-5 teams, Crespi on September 30th before finishing the season with consecutive victories in the playoffs over JW North (11-2), Upland (12-1), and Corona Centennial (12-2).
Credit goes to CIF Commissioner Ken Gunn who disputed the idea that the Broncos losses by forfeit played much of a role in the decision-making process during the hour-long Bowl Selection show on Time Warner’s “2011 CIF State Football” show at 3:00 p.m. Gunn’s straightforward statement that the CIF Commissioners knew of the Vista Murrieta forfeits but instead focused on the strength of schedule for Santa Margarita is a hard point to argue. Despite the two-losses, the Eagles schedule looks like something out of college football’s SEC West. Santa Margarita’s schedule included non-conference matchups against City Section finalist and always-dangerous Carson as well as a Tesoro team that would eventually knock #1 ranked Servite out of the playoffs. That was before playing a treacherous Trinity league schedule and then finishing with consecutive playoff wins against Long Beach Poly, Mission Viejo and San Clemente. Congratulations to Head Coach Harry Welch and the Santa Margarita Eagles on a fantastic season and good luck to them representing the South in next weekend’s Bowl game.
Next season, there will be one more round of playoffs, had that system been in place for this season it would have in all likelihood given Vista Murrieta another chance to qualify for their first State Bowl Game. The BCS … err CIF Commissioners may have gotten it wrong this season but Vista Murrieta still finished the year undefeated and Champions of the Inland Division for the first time in school history.
Rich Sharp
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