There will be a new look to the local high school athletics scene as the 2026-27 season begins this week with girls volleyball and flag football.
In the era of leveling the playing field for education-based sports in the CIF-Southern Section, the eight-team Channel League that we’re used to following is morphing into a 10-school Channel/Pacific View Association for all sports with the exception of football, which was reshaped two years ago.
The grouping combines the long-established Channel League and a revived Pacific View, which started in 1998 and consisted of the five schools of the Oxnard Unified School District at the time. The league was eliminated in 2022, with the schools being reassigned to other leagues in the CIF-SS Northern Area releaguing process.
The Channel-Pacific View Association will include Santa Barbara, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Buena, Ventura, Oxnard, Rio Mesa, Pacifica, Channel Islands and Del Sol, which enters its third year of existence.
The individual teams from each school will be placed in either the Channel or Pacific View League based on their final CIF-SS ranking just before the playoffs last school year.
“The idea behind the association was an effort to follow what CIF has been instituting with the playoff system, essentially, the idea of competitive equity,” said Todd Heil, the athletic director at Santa Barbara High. “Having two leagues allows us to create two leagues based on competitive equity.”
In each sport, the five teams with the best ranking in the 2025-26 season were placed in the Channel League and the next five in the Pacific View. There will be instances where schools may have teams in each league.
For girls volleyball this fall, the Channel League teams are San Marcos, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard and Buena; the PVL will include Dos Pueblos, Pacifica, Rio Mesa, Del Sol and Channel Islands.
Heil said the process of placing teams in each sport was by the ranking system used by the CIF for playoff division placement. Sports like cross country, wrestling, swimming & diving and track & field were placed in leagues based on geography.
The leagues will change every year based on performance; the first- and second-place teams from the Pacific View League will move into the Channel while the fourth- and fifth-place teams from the Channel will play in the PVL the following year.
In league scheduling, teams will play each other home and away in most sports. If crosstown rivals happen to be in separate leagues, they can still play each other in a non-league contest.
“We’ve already seen our fall sports scheduling non-league contests with crosstown rivals,” Heil noted.
As a 10-team structure, the CPVA is guaranteed three playoff spots from each league for a total of six.
“The top three schools in most sports in each league will automatically qualify for the playoffs. Previously, in our eight-team structure, we only received four guaranteed playoff spots,” said Heil.
Another advantage of the two-league association is that it will allow teams to schedule more non-league contests.
“Last year our league consisted of eight schools, which meant 14 league contests for most sports,” Heil said. “Now with five-team leagues, most sports have only eight league contests, which allows them more time and flexibility for non-league contests and tournaments.
“Where last year saw quite a few of our sports starting league play 1-2 weeks into the season, this year teams will have 3-4 weeks of allowable non-league contests before league play starts. This should allow coaches more time to build their schedules and prep for league play.”
The Channel-Pacific View Association is the second high school sports league alliance in the area. The other is the Tri-County Athletic Association (TCAA). It is comprised primarily of private schools from Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
The Santa Barbara area schools are Bishop Diego, Laguna Blanca, Cate, Providence and Dunn in Los Olivos. Formed in 2006, the TCAA is a combination of the Tri-Valley and Frontier Leagues.
DP Flag Football in State Top 10
The Dos Pueblos flag football team is ranked 7th in the state by USA Today.
The Chargers, who went 24-3 and reached the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals last season, return star players Brooklyn Hedricks and Ruby Streatfeild.
JSerra, the team that beat DP in the final four, is No. 1 in the USA Today rankings. The other teams are No. 2 Huntington Beach; 3, Orange Lutheran; 4 Newport Harbor; 5, Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa); 6, Sierra Canyon; 8, Santa Margarita; 9, Camarillo; 10, Menlo School (Atherton).
San Marcos Hosts Flag Football Tourney
The Royals will host a four-team competition on Saturday at Warkentin Stadium. Pacifica, West Ranch and Chaminade are the other participants.
San Marcos opens against Pacifica at 9 a.m., and West Ranch plays Chaminade at 10:30. The first-round losers will play at 12 p.m., and the winners clash at 1:30 p.m. There are two more games at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Cardinal Classic Volleyball
You can get a look at most of the local girls volleyball teams in one place: Bishop Diego’s Cardinal Classic at the UC Santa Barbara Thunderdome.
The 28-team event, set for Saturday, Aug. 22, will include Bishop Diego, Santa Barbara High, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, and Laguna Blanca. The North County will be represented by Lompoc, St. Joseph, Santa Ynez, Pioneer Valley and Righetti.
Rounding out the field is Trinity Classical, Louisville, Nipomo, Downey, Holy Martyrs, Canyon, Mission Prep, Capistrano Valley Christian, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Arroyo Grande, Wiseburn DaVinci, Coastal Christian, Viewpoint, Heritage Christian, South Pasadena, Rio Mesa and Archer.
