In this article we investigate the energy dependence of the steric effect for the title reactions with X = F, Cl, and Er and CaX in the excited states A(2) Pi, B-2 Sigma(+), and A’(2) Delta. We use a semiclassical method (Meijer, A. J. H. M.; Groenenboom, G. C.; van der Avoird, A. J. Chem. Phys. 1996, 105, 2247). The rotation of the CH(3)X molecule and the asymptotically degenerate electronic states of the interacting atom and molecule are treated quantum mechanically, To describe the reaction we use a model which correlates the projection of the electronic angular momentum on the intermolecular axis with the projection of the electronic orbital angular momentum on the diatomic axis (Menzinger, M. Polon. Phys. Acta 1988, A73, 85). We conclude that with this model it becomes possible to reproduce and explain the observed negative steric effect for the Ca(D-1) + CH3Cl (jkm = 111) --> CaCl (B-2 Sigma(+)) + CH3. Furthermore, we conclude that the differences between the measured steric effects for the three reactions studied can be attributed to differences in the "cone of acceptance" for the three molecules studied. We find that the "cone of acceptance" increases when going from CH3F to CH3Cl or CH3Br, as might be expected.