OHSAA: Football playoffs going to 12 teams per region

The high school football playoffs in Ohio are changing.

Twelve teams from each region will qualify for the post season.

Over the past couple seasons it was 16 teams from each region.  In addition, the first three rounds of the postseason will be hosted by the higher-seeded team instead of the first two rounds.

From 1999 through 2019, eight schools per region qualified for the playoffs, which was a five-week tournament. In early 2020, the OHSAA approved a proposal from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association to expand to 12 qualifiers per region, which added a week to the postseason. Shortly after that, the Covid-19 pandemic greatly affected high school sports, and the OHSAA allowed every school to participate in the 2020 playoffs since schools played a varying number of games. The positive feedback from schools that season prompted the OHSAA to expand from 12 to 16 qualifiers per region from 2021-24.

“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,” said Doug Ute, OHSAA Executive Director. “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. We appreciate the feedback we received and will continue to gather comments moving forward. Like we do with all of our sports, we want to make sure the student-athletes are our No. 1 priority.”

With the top four seeds in each region receiving a first-round bye, the first-round parings include the No. 12 seed playing at the No. 5 seed, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 and No. 8.

In the second round, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of No. 12 vs. No. 5, the No. 2 seed will host the winner of No. 11 vs. No. 6, the No. 3 seed will host the winner of No. 10 vs. No. 7, and the No. 4 seed will host the winner of No. 8 vs. No. 9.