2022 CIF-Central Section football brackets: Despite lopsided loss, Clovis West No. 1 seed in Division I

Two weeks following 45-0 loss to Central, Golden Eagles one of four to receive first-round bye; Grizzlies is fifth seed behind Buchanan, Liberty, San Joaquin Memorial

It wasn't going to make complete sense and everyone who followed top division California Interscholastic Federation Central Section football in 2022 knew it.

To their credit, all the top programs played each other during the regular season and no one came out unscathed.

The one team that was sitting pretty after eight weeks, Clovis West at 8-0 then got pummeled by three-loss Central-Fresno, which had somewhat underachieved much of the season.

CIF-Central Section 2022 football playoff brackets
* Division 1
* Division 2
* Division 3
* Division 4
* Division 5
* Division 6
* 8-man

That set up Saturday's Central Section football seeding meeting and predictably it looks a little funny that Clovis West, which rebounded Friday with a 27-0 win over Clovis to finish 9-1, would be the top seed and Central would be the fifth seed.

Then again, Central (6-4) followed up its dominant performance Friday by getting beat by Clovis North (35-28), which the week before upset Buchanan-Clovis (28-21). The Bears finished on a high note, crushing Clovis East 69-27 to finish 8-2.

Based almost exclusively on the CalPreps.com computer rankings (the section can step in when ratings are extremely tight), Clovis West (44.9 rating) took the top seed, followed by Buchanan (42.9), Liberty-Bakersfield (40.4) and San Joaquin Memorial (39.8).

Clovis North (25.8) is the seventh seed.

All CalPreps Central Section power ratings

Those teams all received first-round byes of the 12-team top division.

Buchanan won at Liberty 35-27 on Sept. 9 though the game was stopped with 11 minutes remaining due to lightning strikes. The Bears were awarded the win even though Liberty had most of the momentum, having scored the game's last two touchdowns.

See SBLive's Central Section Fab 15 rankings from Monday

Other top seeds in other divisions are Central Valley Christian-Visalia (D2), Mission Prep-San Luis Obispo (D3), Liberty-Madera (D4), Bishop Union-Bishop (D5), Hanford West (D6) and Fresno Christian (8-man).

All first-round games are Friday, second-round games Nov. 10 with the finals slated for the weekend of Nov. 25-26.