I wrote this article a few years ago: Assistant Commissioner For a Day: 4 Things I Would Work On.
It’s based on the idea of being a “Commissioner for a Day” like when I married a former player, given the ability to do by the County of San Diego! So, let’s look at 5 changes I would make to the CIF-SS Football Playoffs.
HOME GAMES
League Champions get home games, period. I don’t care if they are 2-1 in league, and playing a 9-1 team, we reward winning the league. After all League Champs get a home game, we will move to the higher rated team in the bracket, like it is now. But we have to take care of our League Champs first.
MINIMUM WINS
If you want to compete in the playoffs, you are going to have to win at least 4 games. We won’t make you go .500, but you gotta win 4 games. Get your 4 wins however you need to. Do you know you will get 3 of them in league, then find at least another one in your preleague games. Learn how to schedule. It’s an art form!
FORFEITS
Are you a program that likes to cheat? Do you like giving 3 kids on your team the address of your QB who transferred in last season? Probably shouldn’t be teaching kids how to cheat. Listen, every school might get caught up in a “clerical” error and have to forfeit a game or two. (I’ve been an Athletic Director or Athletic Administrator for more than a decade, and never had a team under my watch have to forfeit for a clerical error, just saying. It REALLY ain’t that hard.)
If your program has to forfeit 3 or more games, you aren’t participating in the playoffs. Playoffs are a privilege, not a right. Are we really going to crown a 1-9 team with 9 forfeits?
TRANSPARENCY
We will host a live stream of the day that we put the divisions together so that everybody can see how it’s done. One of the most frustrating things about the playoffs is that the division assignments, where the lines are drawn, etc. are very confusing unless you’ve studied this stuff for a few years. Very, very few people know why a division has 14 Auto Qualifiers, and the next division has only 13, for instance. A live stream of when and how the brackets are made will remove the mystery.
FOOTBALL COACHES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The Advisory Committee will be an authentic steering committee whose voice matters. Every Head Coach on it will be new each year, created in January. There were 371 11 man football programs in 2025 in the Southern Section. This committee will be made up of 19 Head Coaches, which is 5% of the number of football playing schools. 10 of them will have participated in the 2025 playoffs, and 9 of them will have not participated. This way we get a great cross selection of programs represented, not the same ones over and over and over who basically know they will be in the playoffs, who just might be making decisions based on self interest. No more than 5 of them will be from the private sector, representing equally the approximate number of privates who played football. If you serve on this committee in 2026, you can’t serve again until 2028. The CIF-SS is a “self governing” body of schools. Let’s let them govern the sport in a more authentic way.
Chris Fore is a veteran Administrator, Athletic Director, and Head Football Coach from Southern California; he currently serves as a Principal. He has written four books and produced coaching manuals, available at EightLaces.org. Both schools where he served as Athletic Director set school records for championships won in a single school year, and were recognized for both sportsmanship and academic excellence. Fore holds a Master’s in Coaching and Athletic Administration and multiple education credentials. A Certified Athletic Administrator, he served as President of the California Coaches Association (2018–2021) and has held various other leadership roles in several different organizations. A sought-after speaker, Fore has contributed to national sports publications and appeared on radio and podcasts. He also serves as an expert witness in athletic lawsuits. Follow him on X!
