8-man state championship coming to Ohio

It took the OHSAA about 30 years to recognize boys volleyball. Hopefully they act quicker with 8-man football. A division or two of 8-man football and a corresponding reduction in the number of 11-man football divisions would be great.
 
RollingTrain said:
It's sad that the coaches association had to be the ones to make this move. Props to them. The only thing holding back 8-man in OH is OHSAA sponorship. We will see what this does.

Now who makes the move to 8-man?

Vanlue, Arcadia, Bradford, Millersport, Fremont St. Joseph are obvious choices that come to mind.
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All the money grabbing attempts by the OHSAA, this seems like an easy slam dunk to sponsor a playoffs
 
hammer89 said:
There’s not a high probability ban 8 man playoffs would be profitable for the OHSAA. Hence, no sanctioning. Which is fine. Not every sport needs to be a part of the OHSAA. Some do better without it.
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However to the nfhs 8-man is football. It's not a separate sport. A school can't offer both, for instance. So the ohsaa already has the ability to recognize it they just don't.

Most states use the argument you need a certain number of teams for the state to create a division for it.

For instance, Utah just started 8-man last year and needed 8 committed teams (Utah had a lot fewer teams than Ohio so their minimum will be a lot less) to run a tournament for them.

Kansas had 8 man for years but 6-man took years before the state association would recognize the outlaw schools playing their own schedule and tournament. Now this year will be the first sanctioned state final in 6-man.

Wyoming FORCED schools to play 9-man. Wyoming was staunchly 11-man for years until 2010 or so and added 6-man. They had a few renegade schools who were actually members of Idaho and Montana associations who had 8-man and 6-man. But 6-man cutoff was too low and some 1A teams were struggling to field 11-man teams. So the state association converted 1A to 9-man. But allowed schools to play in 2A if they didn't want to play 9-man. Only a few did.

Wyoming only has 64 teams in five classes. 10 in 4A, 12 in 3A, 15 in 2A, 16 in 9-man and 11 in 6-man.

One thing Wyoming does is that teams can petition to move up or down to keep rivalries and competitions level.

Other than 4A, the state is split east west into two divisions in each class. And the first round of the playoffs is a inter division matchup. Upton/Sundance is a 515mi one way to trip to Cokeville.

And just for funzies, 4A is a 10-team league that plays everyone else. Sheridan to Cheyenne South is a 332 mile one way drive. For a league game.
 
Sykotyk said:
However to the nfhs 8-man is football. It's not a separate sport. A school can't offer both, for instance. So the ohsaa already has the ability to recognize it they just don't.

Most states use the argument you need a certain number of teams for the state to create a division for it.

For instance, Utah just started 8-man last year and needed 8 committed teams (Utah had a lot fewer teams than Ohio so their minimum will be a lot less) to run a tournament for them.

Kansas had 8 man for years but 6-man took years before the state association would recognize the outlaw schools playing their own schedule and tournament. Now this year will be the first sanctioned state final in 6-man.

Wyoming FORCED schools to play 9-man. Wyoming was staunchly 11-man for years until 2010 or so and added 6-man. They had a few renegade schools who were actually members of Idaho and Montana associations who had 8-man and 6-man. But 6-man cutoff was too low and some 1A teams were struggling to field 11-man teams. So the state association converted 1A to 9-man. But allowed schools to play in 2A if they didn't want to play 9-man. Only a few did.

Wyoming only has 64 teams in five classes. 10 in 4A, 12 in 3A, 15 in 2A, 16 in 9-man and 11 in 6-man.

One thing Wyoming does is that teams can petition to move up or down to keep rivalries and competitions level.

Other than 4A, the state is split east west into two divisions in each class. And the first round of the playoffs is a inter division matchup. Upton/Sundance is a 515mi one way to trip to Cokeville.

And just for funzies, 4A is a 10-team league that plays everyone else. Sheridan to Cheyenne South is a 332 mile one way drive. For a league game.
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I think it’s ok for the OHSAA to say “we don’t want to devote any resources to this particular sport”
 
EHS 2001 said:
It took the OHSAA about 30 years to recognize boys volleyball. Hopefully they act quicker with 8-man football. A division or two of 8-man football and a corresponding reduction in the number of 11-man football divisions would be great.
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Not sure how you can make more than one division in 8-Man Football. How many schools are playing 8-Man? How many schools don't field a regular football team? Isn't 8 man for the smaller schools that can get the boys out to play regular football?
 
Sykotyk said:
However to the nfhs 8-man is football. It's not a separate sport. A school can't offer both, for instance. So the ohsaa already has the ability to recognize it they just don't.

Most states use the argument you need a certain number of teams for the state to create a division for it.

For instance, Utah just started 8-man last year and needed 8 committed teams (Utah had a lot fewer teams than Ohio so their minimum will be a lot less) to run a tournament for them.

Kansas had 8 man for years but 6-man took years before the state association would recognize the outlaw schools playing their own schedule and tournament. Now this year will be the first sanctioned state final in 6-man.

Wyoming FORCED schools to play 9-man. Wyoming was staunchly 11-man for years until 2010 or so and added 6-man. They had a few renegade schools who were actually members of Idaho and Montana associations who had 8-man and 6-man. But 6-man cutoff was too low and some 1A teams were struggling to field 11-man teams. So the state association converted 1A to 9-man. But allowed schools to play in 2A if they didn't want to play 9-man. Only a few did.

Wyoming only has 64 teams in five classes. 10 in 4A, 12 in 3A, 15 in 2A, 16 in 9-man and 11 in 6-man.

One thing Wyoming does is that teams can petition to move up or down to keep rivalries and competitions level.

Other than 4A, the state is split east west into two divisions in each class. And the first round of the playoffs is a inter division matchup. Upton/Sundance is a 515mi one way to trip to Cokeville.

And just for funzies, 4A is a 10-team league that plays everyone else. Sheridan to Cheyenne South is a 332 mile one way drive. For a league game.
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Those drive times are killer. If I were them, I'd make them Saturday games.
 
CometGetIt said:
If people would watch highlights from Colorado and other western states where 8-man is common, I think it'd gain popularity. It's fun to watch.
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If you like points on the board it sure is fun. lowest scoring game in the AZ 8 man playoffs was a combined total of 67 points. 4 games with a combined total of 90+, 1 game with a combined 102 points, and the State championship had a combined score of 72 points.
 
BirdDog10 said:
I highly doubt any of these schools will be adding football of any kind. 8 man to this point hasn't helped grow any new programs, just help out the ones on life support.
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I could see a lot of the smaller schools and charter and smaller private schools in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati look into it.
 
Buccaneer24 said:
I could see a lot of the smaller schools and charter and smaller private schools in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati look into it.
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smaller private schools in bigger areas makes more sense than the small public in northwest ohio. In Putnam County we have 9 schools but only 4 with football. The kids and families that care enough about playing football just open-enroll to a neighboring district that has it. The rest of those schools and communities have been around for over a hundred years now with little to no interest in football. 8 man only requiring a few less players than 11 man isn't going to change that, yet there's a ton of people advocating for it in our area saying it could grow the game. I just don't see it working out that way.
 
On another note, am I the only one that thinks a cutoff of 160 boys is ridiculous? Are these the same EMIS numbers that OHSAA divisions use? If so then all of D6 and a handful of D5 teams could decide to play 8-man.
 
BirdDog10 said:
On another note, am I the only one that thinks a cutoff of 160 boys is ridiculous? Are these the same EMIS numbers that OHSAA divisions use? If so then all of D6 and a handful of D5 teams could decide to play 8-man.
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I think it's fine. Schools like West Union have maybe 20 kids on their club team and they'd be d6 with 140 boys. Then again if you could reliably field an 11 man team, then you wouldn't be considering 8-Man
 
Can anyone list approximately how many schools are we talking about that might go to 8-Man football by region? NW, NE, SW & SE?
 
LELL said:
Can anyone list approximately how many schools are we talking about that might go to 8-Man football by region? NW, NE, SW & SE?
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Truthfully? I show six 8-man football teams in the state right now. If that number rises higher than to eight for this season I would be shocked. Next year? 12-16 would be the upper limit, with 8-10 total more likely.
 
Rangerfan said:
Truthfully? I show six 8-man football teams in the state right now. If that number rises higher than to eight for this season I would be shocked. Next year? 12-16 would be the upper limit, with 8-10 total more likely.
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With that low number, just play the schools that are close to you. I see no need in traveling over 2 hours to be honest. Just not worth it. Play them multiple times (home & away) if necessary.
 
BirdDog10 said:
On another note, am I the only one that thinks a cutoff of 160 boys is ridiculous? Are these the same EMIS numbers that OHSAA divisions use? If so then all of D6 and a handful of D5 teams could decide to play 8-man.
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i dont think its unreasonable to think that there are schools with 160 boys that could struggle to field an 11-man team. if they have the option play 8-man, and take it, that sure beats kids not getting the chance to play high school football, imo.
 
In a perfect world, OHSAA would adopt the 8 man game and have a separate championship, just like the rest of the divisions. Consolidate divisions 1-6, and make division 7 the 8 man championship. But give the schools the option of whether or not they want to jump to D6 for 11 man.
 
commodore20 said:
In a perfect world, OHSAA would adopt the 8 man game and have a separate championship, just like the rest of the divisions. Consolidate divisions 1-6, and make division 7 the 8 man championship. But give the schools the option of whether or not they want to jump to D6 for 11 man.
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In a perfect world, I'd think that each region (there's 4 of them) would have to have at least double digit participants and I don't know if there are that many. Does anyone have the numbers per region?
 
The OHSAA has established protocols for offers tournaments in new sports. 8-man was not even in same galaxy with the numbers. I think the OHSFCA is perfect entitiy to get it rolling, with the OHSAA running it if numbers dictate that.
 
EHS 2001 said:
It took the OHSAA about 30 years to recognize boys volleyball. Hopefully they act quicker with 8-man football. A division or two of 8-man football and a corresponding reduction in the number of 11-man football divisions would be great.
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Could not agree more. Excited about 8-man to give students at small schools a chance to play, hoping OHSAA goes to 5 or 6 divisions.
 
commodore20 said:
In a perfect world, OHSAA would adopt the 8 man game and have a separate championship, just like the rest of the divisions. Consolidate divisions 1-6, and make division 7 the 8 man championship. But give the schools the option of whether or not they want to jump to D6 for 11 man.
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or keep the same divisions now and have division 8 be the 8-man division.
 
LELL said:
Those drive times are killer. If I were them, I'd make them Saturday games.
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Most Wyoming schools outside the biggest only go to school four days a week. So Friday is treated like Saturday. See a lot of Friday afternoon games. And usually games are on Friday no matter what except playoffs
 
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A school like this could benefit
 
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