Beginning this fall, De La Salle’s football games against East Bay Athletic League opponents will once again count in the standings, and it will no longer receive the league’s automatic berth to the North Coast Section playoffs.
For the past six years, De La Salle played between two and seven EBAL opponents, but none of the contests counted in the league standings. The Spartans then received the EBAL’s automatic playoff berth.
That changes now. In the unlikely event that De La Salle has a subpar season this fall, the team that finishes ahead of the Spartans automatically goes to the playoffs.
Prior to 2012, the Spartans, who entered the EBAL in 2008, played a full league schedule. De La Salle was 28-0 against EBAL opposition in those four seasons.
The EBAL expanded to 10 teams in 2016 when Dougherty Valley and Dublin joined.
With three teams having been added since 2008, football is being split into divisions. The Mountain will consist of the Spartans, California, Foothill, Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley. The Valley has Amador Valley, Dougherty Valley, Dublin, Granada and Livermore.
EBAL commissioner Don Nelson said the divisions are based on competitive equity, although Amador Valley and Granada could be two of the league’s best teams this fall.
“It’s a two-year plan, but we will start re-evaluating after the first year,” said Nelson, who insisted that splitting into divisions wasn’t done to accommodate any one school. “There was a lot of discussion, then the (athletic directors) and principals voted. To play a full league schedule, nine games, is detrimental to some teams.”
Only the four games against divisional foes will count in the league standings. Each school is assigned two games against teams in the other division, but they will be treated as non-league contests. League members have the option of not playing those games in order to schedule different opponents.
De La Salle will play Amador Valley in a divisional crossover, but has an agreement with Livermore not to play their scheduled game on Sept. 28. That will allow the Spartans to play five non-EBAL schools, as was the case in 2016-17.
Non-league opponents for the Spartans this fall include visits to Bishop O’Dowd and West Catholic Athletic League power St. Francis, and a home date with Bishop Gorman-Las Vegas. DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said the other two non-league games have not been set.
One is expected to be an out-of-state opponent, with ESPN involved in those discussions.
EBAL football coaches appear to be lukewarm to the new arrangement, which was voted upon by the principals and athletic directors.
“The positive is we play more teams out of our league than we did before,” said San Ramon Valley coach Aaron Becker, whose non-league games this fall will include Heritage and Riordan-San Francisco. “But I don’t care for it.”
Becker said public schools can’t count on being as consistently strong as a private school such as DLS.
California coach Eric Billeci said he prefers to play every team in the league, though that would mean only one non-league opponent.
He added that California’s true rival should be Dougherty Valley. Both schools are in San Ramon — the only two high schools in that city. San Ramon Valley and Monte Vista are in Danville.
With California and Dougherty Valley in opposite divisions, they won’t play for at least the next two seasons, though it’s assumed they can schedule a game on their own. Cal already has non-league games set up with Antioch, Freedom and Heritage.
Nelson said a blind draw was conducted to determine the crossovers, though an exception was made for Pleasanton rivals Amador Valley and Foothill to play Oct. 26.
There are four natural rivalries in the EBAL: San Ramon Valley-Monte Vista (Danville), California-Dougherty Valley (San Ramon), Amador Valley-Foothill (Pleasanton) and Granada-Livermore (Livermore). Only Cal and Dougherty Valley aren’t scheduled to play this season.
De La Salle and Dublin are the only EBAL schools without geographic rivals.
