CIF State Football championship games moving to three Southern California sites

Saddleback College, El Camino College and Pasadena City College will each feature five state-championship football games

As voted on in April, the California Interscholastic Federation will play their 15 state championship football games at three different sites on Dec. 8-9.  

What was announced officially Tuesday was somewhat of a surprise — all will be played at three Southern California sites, all in the Southern Section. 

Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, El Camino College in Torrance and Pasadena City College will be the sites for the 15 games. Specific divisions at what places have not been officially determined, but Saddleback will almost assuredly stay the same, with the top five divisions. 

According to the CIF, they are leaving the Divisions open for travel purposes. 

For more than a decade, there has been one main venue for the top five divisions, then either Southern California schools or Northern California schools hosted the remaining 10 games.  

The last two seasons, Saddleback has hosted the top five divisions and 10 Northern California regional champions hosted Southern California teams regional champs in lower-level state-title games.

Now all Northern California schools from Divisions 3 and down, will travel to either El Camino or Pasadena City College. 

All will be announced on Dec. 3 after regional championships. 

(Lead photo by Todd Shurtleff between Granite Hills and San Ramon Valley at Saddleback College in the 2022 CIF Division 2-AA title game) 

CIF sites announced

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Published
Mitch Stephens, SBLive Sports
MITCH STEPHENS, SBLIVE SPORTS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.