Today, 10 teams, from all Divisions across the state of California will be selected to play in the state CIF championship bowl games. By virtue of the abundant amount of teams in the giant state of California, teams must make big statements during the regular season and playoffs in order to get selected.

Many factors are considered in determining whether a team is worth of playing at the Home Depot center in Carson including strength of schedule, record, points scored, points allowed, and many more. One mandatory prerequisite for earning a birth to a game is to a team to win its section.

Looking at the bowl rankings, which has been compiled by sportswriters from around the state, 3 San Diego teams will legitimately be considered to represent southern California in the games. These teams include: Oceanside, Cathedral Catholic, and Francis Parker.

Even though La Costa Canyon won the Division I San Diego section title, they lost to South Section team Mission Viejo and Santa Margarita. Mission Viejo lost to Tesoro, who lost to Long Beach Poly in the South Section title game. Had this been La Costa Canyon's only loss, they might of had a shot at an at large bowl game bid (there are 5 total bowls), but their loss to Santa Margarita, who finished the season 3-7, really killed their chances.

Here are the final Southern California bowl rankings, mainly created 3 writers, Mark Tennis, Steve Brand, and Ronnie Flores of CalHiSports.com.

Division I South

1. (1) Poly (Long Beach) 14-0
2. (2) Centennial (Corona) 14-0
3. (3) Tesoro (Las Flores) 13-1*
4. (4) Chaparral (Temecula) 12-2*
5. (5) Rancho Cucamonga 13-0-1
6. (6) Narbonne (Harbor City) 12-1-1
7. (7) San Pedro 12-1-1
8. (8) Lakewood 10-3*
9. (9) Mission Viejo 10-2*
10. (10) Clovis West (Fresno) 10-3
11. (11) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 11-2
12. (13) Esperanza (Anaheim) 8-4*
13. (nr) Los Alamitos 8-3*
14. (14) Edison (Huntington Beach) 7-3*
15. (15) Saugus 9-4*

Division II South

1. (1) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 13-0
2. (2) Oceanside 12-0-1
3. (3) Lutheran (Orange) 10-3*
4. (4) Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 11-1*
5. (6) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 8-4*
6. (7) Servite (Anaheim) 7-4*
7. (8) Tulare Union 13-0
8. (9) Citrus Hill (Perris) 14-0
9. (11) Charter Oak (Covina) 13-0-1
10. (10) Helix (La Mesa) 10-2-1*
11. (5) Moorpark 12-2*
12. (12) Bishop Amat (La Puente) 8-3*
13. (nr) La Habra 12-2
14. (nr) Crespi (Encino) 6-4*
15. (nr) Laguna Hills 13-0

Division III South

1. (1) St. Bonaventure (Ventura) 13-1
2. (2) Oaks Christian (Westlake Village) 14-0
3. (4) Bakersfield Christian 12-1
4. (3) Serra (Gardena) 13-1*
5. (6) Chowchilla 12-1
6. (5) Corcoran 12-1*
7. (7) Paraclete (Lancaster) 11-3
8. (8) Twentynine Palms 10-4*
9. (9) St. Joseph (Santa Maria) 10-2*
10. (10) Exeter 9-2*

Small Schools South

1. (1) St. Margaret's (SJ Capistrano) 14-0
2. (2) Parker (San Diego) 12-1
3. (4) Central Valley Christian (Visalia) 9-3*
4. (nr) Santa Clara (Oxnard) 9-2*
5. (5) Christian (El Cajon) 10-2*

While the championship bowl game series is a step in the right direction in determining the best football teams in the state of California, it is far from perfect for a variety of reasons.

First, the bids are determined by a vote, not a true playoff system. While teams from around the state compete in their section's playoff, there are no games between the section championship games and the bowl games, to further narrow the field with head to head battles. With 10 sections in the state, and multiple divisions within each section, many teams might go undefeated and win their section for their specific division, but not be invited to a championship bowl games because a group of sportswriters determined they were not as powerful as another team. The only way to accurately determine the better team is play them head to head and see who wins.

Long Beach Poly player Melvin Richardson, and Warren G (Background), from CalHiSports.com

Second, big name schools get the advantage. No matter what the bowl game commissioners might say, there is definitely biases in selecting the teams who play in the bowl games. Big name school's like De La Salle and Long Beach Poly will always get the advantage because they have a history of success in the national polls. This is not taking anything away from these great programs, who have fielded excellent teams in the past 20 years, but wouldn't it be nice to have a system that is bias-proof? Lesser known school's that are not prominently positioned in the national spotlight might get left out.

The official bowl bids will be released late Sunday night.