{"id":171687,"date":"2023-10-23T03:48:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T08:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=171687"},"modified":"2023-10-23T03:50:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T08:50:58","slug":"monday-mailbag-strictly-playoff-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2023\/10\/23\/monday-mailbag-strictly-playoff-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Mailbag: strictly playoff football"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>S<strong>COTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about the timeline of playoff expansion, playoff qualifiers and non-qualifiers, the current playoff format, and two games, one stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: Can you explain how the football playoffs have expanded over the years? I know when they began back in the early 1970s, very few teams got in. Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A: I\u2019ll try. When the playoffs began in 1972, there were three classes: AAA, AA and A, and just four teams, the regional champions from each classification, were awarded a playoff spot. That was it. There were two semifinal games then the state championship game in each class. A lot of very good teams were left out, including some 10-0 teams. Strength of schedule was huge back then.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>In 1980, the OHSAA went to five divisions and took the top two teams per region, meaning there were regional championship games, the state semifinals and the state title games.  <\/em><\/li><li><em>In 1985, the playoffs expanded to four teams per region. <\/em><\/li><li><em>In 1994, the OHSAA added Division VI.<\/em><\/li><li><em>In 1999, the playoffs expanded to eight teams per region. <\/em><\/li><li><em>Division VII came along in 2013.<\/em><\/li><li><em>The expansion to 16 teams per region was approved in 2021.<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>So when the playoffs<\/em> <em>began in 1972, there were 12 qualifying teams. Now, 448 teams get in each season.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I hope this helps you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: Can you tell me how Delphos St. John\u2019s finishes 4-6 and misses the playoffs but Parkway gets in with a 2-8 record? That doesn\u2019t make sense to me. Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>A: The key win for Parkway was over 9-1 North Central in week No. 2. That gave the Panthers a ton of second level points. The other win over St. Henry (3-7). didn\u2019t hurt either. There\u2019s one more thing \u2013 Region 24 isn\u2019t as strong as it has been in the past.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Region 26 is much stronger, at least on paper. Every single playoff qualifier is above .500. Two of the wins by Delphos St. John\u2019s came against a pair of 1-9 teams and a third win, ironically, was against Parkway. Not many second level points there. The other victory was over Lima Central Catholic (6-3).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What are your thoughts on changing the football playoff format to exclude any team with a losing record? If you can\u2019t win at least six games, you don\u2019t belong in the playoffs, right? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A: If you do that, it\u2019s going to eliminate a substantial number of teams, and that\u2019s not going to happen. There are exceptions \u2013 what about a 4-6 MAC team that played a typically brutal schedule?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To be clear \u2013 I\u2019m not a fan of the expanded playoff format. Yes, I realize that teams from all other sports qualify for the postseason but football is different and honestly, I cringe when I see some of these matchups. I do understand it gives more teams a chance to qualify for the playoffs, but at what cost?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bottom line \u2013 this format isn\u2019t going to change anytime soon.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Q: What happens if two teams play in the same stadium, yet all playoff games are on Friday night? Does one get bumped to Thursday or Saturday? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>A: Those are possibilities and another is to switch to a different venue. Crestview is affected by this. The Knights will play Tiffin Calvert in the Region 26 opener on Friday. The Senecas play their home games at Frost-Kalnow Stadium, which is owned by the Tiffin City Schools and is the home of Tiffin Columbian Tornadoes. Columbian (Division III) has a game there Friday, so Calvert and Crestview will be played at Heidelberg College.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Not all teams have this luxury though so more often, the game is bumped to a different night.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, if you have a sports question or comment for the next Monday Mailbag, please email it to <a href=\"mailto:sports@thevwindependent.com\">sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about the timeline of playoff expansion, playoff qualifiers and non-qualifiers, the current playoff format, and two games, one stadium. Q: Can you explain how the football playoffs have expanded over the years? I know when they began back in the early 1970s, very few teams got [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 00:39:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171687"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171706,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171687\/revisions\/171706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}