OHIO — It is getting tougher for Ohio high school football teams to make the playoffs.
Playoff format changes announced Thursday by the Ohio High School Athletic Association cut the number of qualifying teams per season to 12. That is down from 16 teams.
The OHSAA says only eight schools per region qualified from 1999 - 2019. Things changed in 2020 when OHSAA expanded the field to 12 teams per region. OHSAA expanded again to 16 teams per region in 2021 after allowing all teams to participate in the playoffs during COVID in 2020.
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“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,” said OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute.
The top four seeds in each region will receive a first-round buy.
High school football practice can begin on August 1st with the regular season beginning the week of August 18.
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