OHSAA expanding football playoffs in ’21

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

COLUMBUS — More Ohio high school football teams will qualify for the postseason, starting in 2021.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted unanimously on Wednesday to expand the OHSAA football playoffs from eight schools to 12 teams per region beginning with the 2021 season. The vote was in response to a proposal from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association.

The expansion means the number of football playoff qualifiers will go from from 224 to 336 teams, or nearly half of all football playing high schools in Ohio. It will all but eliminate the possibility of teams going 10-0 or 9-1 and not qualifying for the postseason, as three did in 2019. It also means more 5-5 teams and more teams with a sub-.500 record will have a chance to qualify for the playoffs. Football is the only OHSAA team sport in which not every school qualifies for the postseason.

“We still have details to work out regarding the format and specific season dates, but this vote by the Board gives us the green light to finalize those details for 2021,” Beau Rugg, Senior Director of Officiating and Sport Management for the OHSAA and the Association’s football administrator said. “We are thankful for the Board’s support on this proposal, which will bring all the great things of playoff football to 112 additional schools and communities.”

Rugg also said that the football finals in 2021 are expected to end during the same weekend as previously scheduled, December 2-5, indicating the season will start a week earlier in August.

The format will go like this – the top four seeds in each region will have a bye during the opening round, while the No. 12 seed will play at the No. 5 seed, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 at No. 8. In the second round, the No. 1 seed will play the winner of the 8 vs. 9 game; the No. 2 seed will play the winner of 6 vs. 11; the No. 3 seed will play the winner of 7 vs. 10 and the No. 4 seed will play the winner of 5 vs. 12.

In addition, the higher seeded teams will be able to host their playoff games during the first and second rounds of the postseason.

The OHSAA football playoffs began in 1972 when just 12 schools qualified for the playoffs, four schools in each of three classes – Class AAA, Class AA and Class A. Expansion first occurred in 1980 when the OHSAA switched to five divisions with eight teams each.

A sixth division was added in 1994 (96 total qualifiers) and the number of qualifiers was increased to eight schools per region in 1999 (192 total qualifiers).

A seventh division was added in 2013 to bring the number of qualifiers to 224.