RANCHO ALAMITOS will be in a new football league this fall, along with Santa Ana Valley, Estancia, Los Amigos, Calvary Chapel and Ocean View (Tribune photo).

The old days are done forever. Is that good or bad?

Perhaps echoing – unintentionally – the sea changes in college football’s arrangements and alignments, we shall see another bit of earthquaking in the high school football leagues for the 2024 and 2025.

As enumerated in Steve Fryer’s column in The Orange County Register, the OC’s football programs will be sorted into 12 as-yet unnamed leagues, identified for now by number.

 This is the result of the “competitive equity” approach taken to reduce blowouts and to group programs of relative strength together.  How the team did in 2023 counts for 65 percent, and 35 percent for 2022.

Statistics have shown that one-sided games have been reduced, and it’s opened up playoff access to teams that never would have been able to have a “post-season.”

On the one hand, the idea of “neighborhood” leagues is pretty much extinct and traditional rivalries smashed. Garden Grove vs. Rancho Alamitos and Western vs. Anaheim, were once “big games” in which the winner got the possession of a trophy. On the other hand, maybe it’s time to retire -– for a while, anyway – the painful clash between Edison and Fountain Valley, which the Barons haven’t won in a long time.

   Anyway, here’s the way the coin flip falls, as it effects our West Orange County teams.

  • League 1: Mission Viejo, Los Alamitos, San Clemente, Edison.

  • League 3: Western, Trabuco Hills, Cypress, El Modena, Capistrano Valley, Tustin.

  • League 4: Huntington Beach, El Dorado, Foothill, La Habra, Laguna Hills, Crean Lutheran.

  • League 5: Laguna Beach, Orange, Aliso Niguel, Fountain Valley, Northwood, Dana Hills.

• League 7: St. Margaret’s, Westminster, Esperanza, Brea Olinda, Segerstrom, Garden Grove.

  • League 8: Beckman, Marina, Kennedy, Sunny Hills, Fullerton, Valencia.

  • League 9:  Pacifica, Portola, Buena Park, Woodbridge, University, Katella

  • League 10:  Santa Ana Valley, Estancia, Los Amigos, Calvary Chapel, Rancho Alamitos, Ocean View.

  • League 11: Santiago, Bolsa Grande, Anaheim, La Quinta Costa Mesa, Loara.

  • League 12: Godinez, Savanna, Magnolia, Saddleback, Century.

https://www.ocregister.com/2023/11/30/fryer-now-we-know-what-the-football-leagues-will-look-like-in-2024/ .