New Conferences Equal New Challenges For The Cougar Football Team In 2008

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. – On Nov. 19, 2007 the Southern California Football Association (SCFA) approved a realignment of the Southern California football conferences – the National and American Divisions with three regional conferences in the National Division and two regional conferences in the American Division – in an effort to create a more competitive balance among the SoCal football teams.

College of the Canyons will be a part of the National Division, Northern Conference, which includes Allan Hancock, Bakersfield, Glendale, Moorpark, Pasadena and Ventura.

"This is a great change," head football coach Garett Tujague said. "When you put teams together on the same level, you get better football. This will also help college recruiters. Our athletes will be playing against some of the best players in the state and universities will see the true talent of our players."

For the next two seasons, the SCFA has implemented the two divisions. The teams were split based upon the competitive strength of each football program by using the recent win-loss record (2006-07) and additional factors, such as size of the college, recruiting area, number of full-time coaches and competitive tradition.

The National Division is also split into three conferences – Northern, Central and Southern – with seven teams each from geographical areas. The American Division will consist of the Mountain Conference and the Pacific Conference with eight teams in each conference.

The SCFA chose to change the format of the conferences to create and maintain competitive balance between the teams and will be reviewed every two years.

"I've told my team of the changes to the conferences and they are excited," Tujague said. "It will be a challenge for us every Saturday and the level of play has been stepped up a notch."

The playoffs will remain the same with eight teams from Southern California. The first three playoff seeds will go the to National Division conference champions and the two conference champions from the American Division will receive a bid, if and only if, they hold a winning record. If the American Division conference champions do not have a winning record, the rest of the playoffs bids will be given to the remaining teams with the highest ranking in the California Community College Regional Poll.