Championship venue for CIF Southern Section D1 football final announced

For just the fifth time in CIF history, college football's prestigious venue will host a high school football championship.

The CIF Southern Section announces the Division 1 high school football final will be held at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Friday, November 28, 2025. / Tarek Fattal

The CIF Southern Section will host the Division 1 championship on Friday, November 28 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

All other CIF finals from Division 2-14 will be hosted at home sites pending coin flips or if a team is due to host.

It will be the fifth time in the CIF's history the prestigious venue will host a high school football championship game. The first time was back in 1935 when there was just one division, and Santa Barbara beat Monrovia 14-12. In 1936, Long Beach Poly defeated Glendal 21-0 at the Rose Bowl.

The section returned to the Rose Bowl again in 1944 to host Keppel beating Pasadena 19-13 before an 81-year hiatus. St. John Bosco topped Mater Dei 24-22 at the Rose Bowl to lift the Division 1 crown in 2022.

The intrigue surrounding this year's final is filled with parity. For the first time in a long time, there's high expectation that the finalists will not be Mater Dei and St. John Bosco, which have made up the Division 1 championship matchup every year since 2016 with the exception of 2021 when Servite faced Mater Dei in the final after besting St. John Bosco in the semifinal.

That Servite team had Tetairoa McMillan and Mason Graham, who are both now in the NFL, however, Mater Dei won.

With roughly two weeks to go in the regular season, all signs point to No.1 St. John Bosco making a return trip to the D1 final, but there's a lot of opportunity for top teams like Sierra Canyon, Corona Centennial, Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo to reach the final due to Mater Dei's struggles this fall.

The back-to-back defending national champions are 5-2 this season and haven't suffered more than one loss in a season since 2015 when the Monarchs finished 10-3.

The CIF Southern Section football playoff pairings will be released on Sunday, November 2 at 10 a.m. which will reveal how many teams will make up the Division 1 field. It's likely to be eight teams, but a scenario where nine teams are selected and the No. 8 and 9 seed have to compete in a 'play-in' game could be in play.

There will be a LIVE bracket reveal show that Sunday via Youtube on FATTAL FACTOR, hosted by reporter Tarek Fattal.

LATEST TOP 10 RANKINGS

With two games left to play as of October 24, HSratings.com has its Top 10 computer rankings set as such:

1. St. John Bosco (8-0)
2. Sierra Canyon (8-0)
3. Corona Centennial (8-1)
4. Santa Margarita (5-3)
5. Mater Dei (5-2)
6. Mission Viejo (7-1)
7. Orange Lutheran (2-6)
8. Servite (5-3)
9. Murrieta Valley (6-2)
10. Los Alamitos (8-0)

NOTE: Orange Lutherans dropped from 4-4 to 2-6 after it was forced to forfeit its first two games of the season. (STORY)

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