Analysis: Mater Dei-CIF battle just beginning

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Since no one from Santa Ana Mater Dei, including President Patrick Murphy, wants to discuss why it instructed the Diocese of Orange to file suit against the CIF Southern Section, alleging bias, I get to make my own assumptions.

And as I wrote in an earlier column, what this suit is really about is trying to intimidate, influence and perhaps preempt the Southern Section from a crackdown on athletes transferring for sports reasons.

Potentially in the crosshairs is basketball transfer Xavier Johnson, who checked into Mater Dei from Temecula Chaparral. That’s the player Mater Dei is most concerned about, but right now, as long as Chaparral hasn’t challenged the transfer, nothing is going to happen. But if Chaparral does protest, that’s when the sirens will go off and why this suit is sending a preemptive message.

This confrontation was expected. It’s part of the simmering private vs. public schools debate, with some private schools insisting they can accept students from anywhere for any reasons. Fine. Let’s have the debate. Public schools are ready to counter. They have more schools and plenty of strengths. But the playing field isn’t equal, and Mater Dei doesn’t want to lose any of its advantages.

If this rekindles the issue of whether there should be separate playoff divisions for private and public schools, that’s fine too. Bring out all the concerns into the open. The Southern Section is not blameless. I’ve attempted to get people in that office to explain more precisely why someone is declared ineligible for an athletically related transfer while another is not. Privacy reasons prevent specifics, but they need to do a better job of communicating.

The bottom line is the diocese once again is using its money to go to court pulling its private-school card with the message ‘We can do what we want.’ Sorry, if you’re part of the Southern Section that includes hundreds of public schools, you have to follow the rules, or change them.

-- Eric Sondheimer