2025 Pigskin Pick’Em: final tally

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports

It doesn’t seem possible. For most teams, the 2025 high school football season began on August 22 and just like that, it’s over. The season came to an end Saturday night, when the Liberty Center Tigers, on their third try in as many years, became Division V state champions with a 35-3 victory over Wheelersburg.

The game was one of seven state championship games that weren’t really very close at all. The closest game was in Division I, where Olentangy Orange beat Cincinnati St. Xavier 28-14. It was 28-7 with just over five minutes left in the game. In five of the seven title games, the losing team was held to seven points or less.

A shocker for many people was Glenville’s 45-7 win over Associated Press poll champion Shelby. In fact, many people, including a couple of computers, predicted Shelby would win. While I didn’t think the Whippets would lose by that kind of margin, I never really thought they’d win. It’s not a knock on Shelby, it’s just that Glenville is so talented and when you look at their non-conference schedule, it almost made the championship game seem like a walk in the park.

The St. Henry Redskins, who snapped Marion Local’s record 76 game winning streak, rolled to the Division VI title with a 37-3 win over Hillsdale. Division VII has been around for 13 seasons and St. Henry’s win gives the MAC 11 state championships in that division. Marion Local alone has won six of those and in three other seasons, they were in Division VI and won that title.

As a noted before, there were complaints (annual complaints) about the state championship games being held in northeast Ohio instead of Columbus. There’s the annual call by some fans to hold the championship games at Ohio Stadium, which has been done before but most likely won’t happen again. Ohio State has no interest in hosting them anymore. If a site, any site, doesn’t want to host, that’s the end of the matter. Where else in Columbus then? I’m not a fan of the idea of hosting state title games at Columbus Crew Stadium. There are some small colleges there and some big high schools. While I’m sure many of them are nice, is that what people want for the final game of the season?

I wondered this a few days ago and I’ll repeat it – if the championship games are already being played in northeast Ohio, perhaps they could move to the new domed stadium the Cleveland Browns, if they’re willing to  host? Why not? At least people wouldn’t be sitting outside in 20 degree weather and players wouldn’t have to deal with arctic-like conditions.

The last order of business – I went 7-0 with my state championship picks, the first and only time I had a perfect week. My final postseason record stands at 37-7 (84 percent), not bad. My overall season record finished at 208-42 (83.2 percent), a bit above my stated goal of 80 percent.

I hope you enjoyed the ninth season of Pigskin Pick’Em. You may not have always agreed with the picks and that’s fine – just remember, I’m picking who I think will win, not necessarily who I want to win. Pigskin Pick’Em will return in August of next year.