COLUMBUS — The Ohio high school football playoffs are expanding for the second time in less than a year.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board of Directors on Thursday approved a recommendation to increase the number of playoff qualifiers from 12 to 16 teams per region, starting this fall.
In May of 2020 the OHSAA announced the number of playoff qualifiers would jump from eight to 12 teams per region beginning with the 2021 season. Then last fall, the OHSAA announced all teams wishing to participate in the playoffs could do so during the coronavirus-abbreviated season.
“Last fall, we received overwhelmingly positive feedback when we allowed every team to enter the football playoffs due to the shortened season because of COVID-19,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said.
“We know there are some who want to keep the football postseason to a smaller number of schools, but the postseason tournament gives such a positive experience for our student-athletes, the schools and their communities that we felt strongly about giving that opportunity to more schools to make the playoffs.
“Football remains the only OHSAA sport in which not every team automatically qualifies for the postseason,” Ute said.
Last year, there were 709 football-playing schools in Ohio. Those schools were divided into seven divisions based on student enrollment, with Division I being the biggest and Division VII the smallest.
Within each enrollment division, there are four geographic regions. Since 1999, eight teams per region — or 32 per enrollment division — qualified for the playoffs.
The new format allows for 16 teams per region, or 64 per enrollment division, to qualify for the playoffs. The total number of playoff qualifiers will jump from 224 to 448.
The May 2020 expansion plan called for 12 regional qualifiers. Under that plan, the top four teams in each region were to receive a first-round bye. Under the new initiative, the postseason bye week is eliminated.
The 16 teams will be placed on a traditional bracket with the No. 1 seed hosting No. 16 and the No. 2 seed hosting No. 15, etc. The first two weeks of the playoffs will be hosted by the higher-seeded team before shifting to neutral sites beginning with the regional semifinals.
The regular season is set to begin Aug. 20 and the first round of the playoffs is scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 29 to 30.
The playoffs began in 1972 with only the four regional champs in each of the three enrollment classes (A, AA, AAA).
The first round of expansion came in 1980 when the OHSAA changed to five enrollment divisions, with the top two teams per region advancing to the tournament for a total of 40 qualifiers.
In 1985. the playoffs expanded again to allow for the top four teams in each regional to qualify. A sixth division was added in 1994 and the number of qualifiers was increased to eight schools per region in 1999. A seventh division was added in 2013 to bring the number of qualifiers to 224.
