High School

Fattal: CIF's 10-team Open Division basketball playoff gives fresh feel with new teams, format

Harvard-Westlake is the No. 1 seed in the 2025 Open Division playoffs, which will have more than eight teams for the first time since 2018.

Tarek Fattal

La Mirada guard Julien Gomez drives to the rim in the Classic at Damien.
La Mirada guard Julien Gomez drives to the rim in the Classic at Damien. / Michael Young

It always feels like the same mix of teams ... from the same leagues ... for the same tournament ... every year.

The Mission, Trinity and Big VIII leagues have accounted for 23 of 32 berths to the CIF Southern Section boys' basketball Open Division playoffs the past four seasons. The Mission League alone has berthed nearly a third of those spots with 10.

Doesn't it feel like we've seen this movie before?

The 2025 version of the Open Division got a face lift. It's got 10 teams and not every team is gifted a berth to the CIF State playoffs — they have to earn it. That's the foundation of competition, after all.

POOL A: No. 1 Harvard-Westlake; No. 4 Santa Margarita; No. 5 Notre Dame; No. 8 JSerra; No. 9 La Mirada

POOL B: No. 2 Roosevelt; No. 3 St. John Bosco; No. 6 Sierra Canyon; No. 7 Redondo Union; No. 10 Heritage Christian

Sierra Canyon is the only program to earn a berth to the Open Division every postseason since the Open's creation in 2014.

Nearly half of this year's teams haven't been to the Open since 2018 or ever earned a berth, which makes the tournament feel fresh. Parity did that, and that's a good thing.

  • Santa Margarita is back in the Open Division for the first time since 2018.
  • Heritage Christian and Redondo Union are in the Open Division for the first time since the field got switched to eight teams, but did compete in the 2017 Open with 16 teams.
  • La Mirada is making its first Open Division appearance ever.

"We want to play in the Open," La Mirada coach Randy Oronoz said before the playoffs were announced Saturday.

It's a new look to the Open Division.

Some like it. Some don't. That means it could be perfect. That means for the first time in four years, it's not lukewarm. It's not vanilla. It's not Wonder bread. It's not a cheeseburger with just ketchup.

There's color on the plate. The menu has been upgraded, and the kitchen is serving something hot or cold — and dare I say: nutritious. Why? Because there's new blood. New teams. New format. New schedule. New incentive.

Despite all the 'new', the tournament could still produce a predictable result, but I digress ...

It's the first time the Open has more than eight teams since 2018. Now, with two pools of five, each team gets a guaranteed four games to accomplish two things: win the pool to advance to the final or earn one of the eight CIF State playoff bids. The last-place finisher in each pool will see its season end.

"I always thought being in the Open Division meant an automatic berth to the state playoffs," Sierra Canyon coach Andre Chevalier said. "But this is new, and we have to adjust to what CIF thinks is best."

In the previous eight-team format, all participants were guaranteed a berth to the state playoffs, even if the team went winless. In all other subsequent divisions, a team must reach the semifinals to earn at state playoff berth.

"If you are in any other division, you have to win three games to earn a state bid (reaching the semifinals). In this format, you might only have to one or two games," Heritage Christian coach Paul Tait said.

high school basketball
Heritage Christian will compete in the 10-team Open Division playoffs this 2025 postseason. / Karina Isabel

"It's an honor," Tait added. "Our guys are excited."

The Open Division games will be played on Feb. 12, 14, 18, 21 and 25. One team from each pool will get a night off while the other four teams compete in their respective pools.

The winner of each pool will advance to the Open Division final on Saturday, March 1, 6:30pm at the Toyota Arena in Ontario.

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Tarek Fattal, SBLive Sports
TAREK FATTAL

Tarek Fattal has been covering high school sports since 2015 in Southern California and primarily in Los Angeles, covering notable athletes such as Bronny James, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Alyssa Thompson. He was with the LA Daily News for eight years, which included being the beat reporter for the UCLA men's basketball team. Tarek can be seen on TV regularly on CBS/KCAL as a sports analyst with Jim Hill.

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