Those are words uttered by two different high school soccer coaches describing the Southern Section playoff pairings produced using a computer algorithm under the competitive equity system. The Southern Section's new way of putting together pairings continues to receive mixed reviews. How do you explain Newbury Park's girls' soccer team with a 10-5-2 record and wins over No. Competitive equity does work to produce closer playoff results, but lots of tweaking still needs to take place, including education. The problem for schools is once they approved the Southern Section's use of competitive equity playoffs, there's no way of going back.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 10, 2026 18:20 UTC