FOOTBALL

Fewer Ohio high school football teams will make the playoffs: Here's what OHSAA decided

Portrait of Dave Purpura Dave Purpura
Columbus Dispatch

At least one central Ohio high school football coach whose team would have been left out of the 2024 postseason under the OHSAA’s latest playoff adjustment is in favor of the change to 12 teams qualifying per region.

“I felt like 16 teams was just a little too much,” said Olentangy coach Wade Bartholomew, whose team won eight games last season and was the 13th seed in Division I, Region 3. “I felt it diminished the process of getting to the playoffs. Making the playoffs used to be a big deal when you made it to the top eight. … (This) makes it nice because now you to have earn the right to play.”

The OHSAA announced June 12 that the top 12 teams per region will make the playoffs, a change from the 16 that have made it in each of 28 regions across seven divisions since 2021.

The move was approved by the OHSAA’s board of directors earlier in the day.

The change comes after the OHSAA surveyed principals, athletic directors and football head coaches, seeking feedback on whether 16 teams were too many and whether the OHSAA should change back to eight teams per region, as was the format from 1999-2019, or adjust to 12.

Hilliard Bradley's Iain Tolber takes down Hilliard Davidson's Keevin Gibbon during a Division I, Region 2 quarterfinal in 2024.

Under this system, which is effective immediately, the top four teams per region receive a first-round bye. The fifth seed plays No. 12, and the other first-round games pit No. 6 against No. 11, No. 7 vs. No. 10 and No. 8 vs. No. 9.

Better-seeded teams would host the first three rounds, through the regional semifinals, one round longer than before.

“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,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said in a release. “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.”

Central Ohio’s other 13th-seeded team in Division I in 2024, Hilliard Bradley, entered the playoffs at 2-8 but upset Springfield 34-30 in a Region 2 first-round game.

The OHSAA expanded the playoffs to 16 teams per region in 2021 after all teams were eligible in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The format has faced widespread criticism that it diminishes the achievement of making the postseason and leads to numerous early round blowouts.

Olentangy's Luke Chilicki looks to pass against Olentangy Berlin last season.

Just 198 of 1,764 playoff games over the past four seasons have been won by teams seeded ninth through 16th. A 16th seed has won once, when Milan Edison beat top-seeded Bellevue in a Division IV, Region 14 first-round game in 2021, and 15th-seeded Delphos St. John’s made the Division VII, Region 26 final last fall.

“You see some of those 1-16 scores throughout the state and that’s not playoff football in my opinion,” said Linden-McKinley coach Casey Mock, whose 7-3 team was seeded 10th in Division III, Region 11 last fall. “But in our region, we had more than 16 teams in my opinion that were playoff-caliber. We will have our work cut out for us again.”

All but seven Division I teams statewide qualified for the playoffs under the 16-team format, meaning many with as few as one or two wins made it. Last year, 11 such teams were in the field.

Now, 48 of 71 big-school teams will advance.

Contributing: Frank DiRenna

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High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.