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| OHSAA headquarters located in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo: Gene Simmons/Ohsfbmedia.com) |
COLUMBUS, Ohio--The Ohio High School Athletic Association has decided to modify the football playoff structure, reducing the number of teams in each region from 16 to 12, as announced by Doug Ute, the Executive Director of the OHSAA.
In the previous format, 16 teams were eligible to qualify for the playoffs across the 28 regions within the seven divisions, adding this was the format from 2021-2024.
Shifting them down to 12 creates a bye scenario for the top four seeds in every region, the initial three rounds of the postseason will be conducted by the higher seeded team rather than just the first two rounds.
In the broader context, this implies that the initial round of the playoffs is inherently more competitive compared to the alternative format, where it is possible for a team with a losing record to qualify for the playoffs.
With the top four seeds granted a bye, the bracket will unfold as follows: the #12 seeded team will visit the #5 seeded team, the #11 seeded team will visit the the #6 seeded team, and this pattern will continue until the eight remaining teams are matched up in that specific region.
For the last few years, we have been pleased that more schools experienced the football playoffs, and there were some lower seeds that won playoff games.But over the last year, we have received feedback from our schools, with a slight majority favoring 12 qualifiers per region, and we had many conversations with stakeholders around the state that led us to make this proposal to our board.We appreciate the feedback we received and will continue to gather comments moving forward. Like we do all of our sports, we want to make sure the student-athletes are our No. 1 priority. --Doug Ute.
In my view, the Division I regions were the focal point of discussion, as each of the four regions contained fewer than 20 teams. Therefore, in comparison to the 16-team format, those regions would encompass all but one or two teams.
For the complete press release, please visit: ohsaa.org
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