Shocking events today from The Grand in Long Beach, where a late proposal to lump Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure into the Marmonte League for football was passed by the CIF-Southern Section council.

Here's David Lassen on the events:

LONG BEACH - Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure will end up in the same football league after all - but it will be a 10-team Marmonte League,  not a proposed four-team private-school football league.

Endorsing appeals by Ventura and Calabasas high schools, the CIF-Southern Section council voted Thursday to move the area's private-school powers into the Marmonte League for football only, while leaving all other schools intact.

In doing so by a 41-21 vote with nine abstentions, the council - a body representing one vote for each Southern Section league - overrode a vote by the nine leagues in the Northern Area that would have had Oaks Christian and Calabasas change places, with Oaks Christian joining the Marmonte League for all sports, while moving Calabasas into the Tri-County Athletic Association.

Coming at the end of a long and contentious releaguing process, the decision is final and will take affect for four seasons, beginning with the 2010-2011 school year.

"As football in Ventura County goes, I believe it's a good thing," said St. Bonaventure principal Marc Groff. "Since it's football only. ... I'm certainly very interested to see what these other configurations are. I need to digest it a little bit."

The 10-team league will be split into two five-team units, details of which are uncertain.

"From a football interest standpoint, I think people in Ventura County should be excited that the best teams are all going to play each other."

The plan to put Oaks and St. Bonaventure in the same league was floated early in the releaguing process but did not gain traction within the Northern Area's releaguing procedure. So its reemergence, as a proposal introduced at Thursday's meeting, created a wide range of reaction.

Lassen's live Twitter updates are available here. More to come at VCStar.com later in the day.

Thousand Oaks and Besant Hill were seeded No. 1 in Division II-AA and VI-A, respectively, for the CIF-Southern Section boys' basketball playoffs, which begin Wednesday.

The CIF State Track and Field Championships will be held at Buchanan High School in Clovis for the next three years.

Rio Mesa High athletic director Brian FitzGerald spent the last two days in Oakland at the CIF Executive Committee Board meeting and said a three-year contract was completed.

Beginning with the 2009 meet, the state championships will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Buchanan High.

It's first time since 1973 that the state championships will be held at a high school campus. The two-day meet has alternated between Cerritos College in Norwalk and Sacramento City College.

"For us, it's a closer trip and we won't have to fly when we travel up that way," FitzGerald said. "It will save us a little money. Plus, I like the idea of having it at a high school facility."

FitzGerald's trip to Oakland came during the Raiders coaching circus, which resulted in owner Al Davis firing head coach Lane Kiffin. FitzGerald could see the Raiders complex across the street from his meetings, but he didn't drop by the press conference.

"I don't even know who they got to replace him," FitzGerald said.

It's Tom Cable.