OHSAA approves 16 football playoff teams per region

Would it work sure you can make anything work, is it feasible no. 16 is a perfect number for a bracket no byes needed (just like 8). You say you want to give better teams a bye so week 1 top 8 get a bye and you have the following matchups 9-16, 10-15, 11-14, 12-13. After week 1 now you have 12 teams not perfect for a bracket so you need byes in week 2, teams 1-4 would have another by as teams 5-8 play winners from week 1. After week 2 you would then have 8 teams perfect for a bracket everyone plays but it will have been 3 weeks since teams 1-4 have played.
Thanks @RedHawk89 really appreciate it. I do see the challenges there.
 
Would it work sure you can make anything work, is it feasible no. 16 is a perfect number for a bracket no byes needed (just like 8). You say you want to give better teams a bye so week 1 top 8 get a bye and you have the following matchups 9-16, 10-15, 11-14, 12-13. After week 1 now you have 12 teams not perfect for a bracket so you need byes in week 2, teams 1-4 would have another by as teams 5-8 play winners from week 1. After week 2 you would then have 8 teams perfect for a bracket everyone plays but it will have been 3 weeks since teams 1-4 have played.

Is there any math that gets the 1-4 playing early and avoids 1 vs 16 and 2 vs 15?
 
Is there any math that gets the 1-4 playing early and avoids 1 vs 16 and 2 vs 15?
Not really the only way to do what you are thinking is when you don't have that perfect bracket number. I think this is the reason most people would have preferred they gave 12 a chance instead of going straight to 16. With 12 you could give 1-4 one bye and after the other teams play week 1 you are at 8 teams which is a perfect bracket number then.
 
I still feel like top 8, is good enough for around 30 teams in a region.

Now if you wanted to go top 10, you could have top 6 teams get a bye, and then have #10 seed play at #7 seed. Have #9 seed, play at #8 seed. These would not be the top teams obviously playing here, but nice competitive so called play in games for to get into the top 8. You now have your even 8 teams playing out the bracket
 
Like I said before ... now my team (Mogadore) and many others will NEVER have to worry about our consecutive playoff appearances streak being interrupted. We're going for 100 in a row! Woo Hoo!
Under the new format, those streaks so many schools were so proud of, are going to mean virtually nothing. My Lucas Cubs have been in since 2014, but now, d*mn near everyone is freaking in, so who gives a .
 
No one likes a bye week... players, coaches, parents, etc.


I wouldn't say no one, there are some coaches who definitely didn't mind it. Especially if you were banged up, gave your guys a week to heal up, also, they were able to scout the game that they played the winner of.

Other states have bye weeks and its no issue.
 
I absolutely hate the thought of anybody having byes. Stay with eight, or go to sixteen. Twelve is a disaster.
but we really don't know that it is a disaster until we try it, we will never get the chance. I honestly would have liked to see how it worked before kicking it to 16.

Also, I believe they had a provision in that you didn't have to take the bye as a top 4 team you could instead play round one and the 5-8 seed would get your bye based on your seed. But I am going back to make sure I am right on this
 
Is the elephant in the room no matter how much it seemed Yappi hated the special COVID rules for playoffs last year, it ended up actually working out ok? And as adults we should know, if your budget has big issues there are only two ways to get out of it. Less money out, or more money in. We have to understand that more money in has to be on the table. No one wants less money out. If that means more tourney game then it is what it is.
 
Last edited:
Is the elephant in the room no matter how much it seemed Yappi hated the special COVID rules for playoffs last year, it ended up actually working out ok? And as adults we should know, if your budget has big issues there are only two ways to get out of it. Less money out, or more money in. We have to understand that more money in has to be on the table. No one wants less money out. If that means more tourney game then it is what it is.

that’s a great point. One of the OHSAA releases stated they’re bringing back the scholarship program that they didn’t do in 19-20 or 20-21. If the option was bring back the scholarship program and do 16 teams, or not bring it back and go 12, does anyone change their opinion?
 
West Virginia has long played ten games over eleven weeks. That gives everyone a week off sometime in the season. It also makes scheduling a whole lot easier.

I don't like byes in the playoffs at all.
 
that’s a great point. One of the OHSAA releases stated they’re bringing back the scholarship program that they didn’t do in 19-20 or 20-21. If the option was bring back the scholarship program and do 16 teams, or not bring it back and go 12, does anyone change their opinion?

the total given out in 19 was $170,750. Question is, could they still do this after this year? Maybe not. But next year as things are trending towards normal, I'd say they could find a way if it was important to them.

 
They should have stayed at 12. Top 4 get a bye, giving special reward to those. 8 teams worked because you still had to have a good season, expand it to 16 and now 4-6 will easily get in. Schools like Mooney, Ursuline and Lake Catholic will guaranteed never miss the playoffs from here on out
 
In DI, it makes no sense.
In DII and below it does. Some DII are in a DI conference and play DI OOC.
I don't like byes in high school.
 
In DI, it makes no sense.
In DII and below it does. Some DII are in a DI conference and play DI OOC.
I don't like byes in high school.
Other than last year for the playoffs, do you really see byes very often?

I would still rather see 12 teams in and a bye than 16 teams.......
 
The Biggest issue is really in d1 because you will get teams who have no business being in the playoffs in there, and only what 6 teams won't qualify, then the state will feel sorry for those kids, parents, schools, and communities and just play an 8 game season with everyone in the playoffs.

Its really only a matter of time until everyone gets in, lets be honest.
 
After thinking about it a lot I like the idea of 14. 14 is roughly half of every region in D2-7. The top 2 seeds get byes, in my opinion that’s an advantage. Also the biggest blowouts will be avoided as well with no 1-16 and 2-15 matchup. Top 14 will all have 5-5 records or better most years in D2-7 and it forces D1 schools to win a couple games to get in.

The ohsaa gets 56 more games of revenue than they would with 12 seeds making it. I know there are still 56 less games than with 16 seeds but what revenue are you making when a 3-7 or 4-6 team travels to take on a 10-0 team anyway? which is what a lot of those games would be.
 
Last edited:
After thinking about it a lot I like the idea of 14. 14 is roughly half of every region in D2-7. The top 2 seeds get byes, in my opinion that’s an advantage. Also the biggest blowouts will be avoided as well with no 1-16 and 2-15 matchup. Top 14 will all have 5-5 records or better most years in D2-7 and it forces D1 schools to win a couple games to get in.

The ohsaa gets 56 more games of revenue than they would with 12 seeds making it. I know there are still 56 less games than with 16 seeds but what revenue are you making when a 3-7 or 4-6 team travels to take on a 10-0 team anyway? which is what a lot of those games would be.
The rent for the stadium is minimal. And though they haven't stated it explicitly, I wouldn't be surprised if the OHSAA is going to cut back on travel reimbursement. Last year they didn't pay any.

This is the problem with the whole "ohsaa doesn't charge membership dues" argument used to explain why OHSAA is better than other state associations. It works since Ohio attended playoffs in large numbers compared to other states to dip into the proceeds to take in what would be the membership due revenue.

It works as long as ticket sales aren't disrupted. Other states mostly just chugged along. Maybe cutting expenses since playoff stadiums weren't as important (PA went higher seed hosts through the state semifinals because a) the state didn't pay for rent, b) the schools gladly offered their stadiums to host games with no travel, c) only one team had to hire or pay for busses to be reimbursed, d) fan restrictions in PA were so much more severe than Ohio that any stadium could accommodate the projected crowds of a few hundred).

It's nice saying Ohio doesn't charge a membership fee, but in PA, for instance, it's about $475 a school year and covers all sports. Even in a covid year, the first 100 fans to your first football game covers your dues for the entire year. And even if you're not using ticket revenue, that's a fraction of a drop in the bucket for a school's budget.
 
I personally thoroughly enjoyed the "bye" week last year. A tremendous advantage in my opinion. However, I am not a fan of the use of the "bye" in any football playoff format.
Kids play best when they're in a routine, a bye week screws that routine up. The coaches that I know who had a bye last year saw it as a chance to get some banged up players healthy but recognized the challenges of over coming that broken routine. Their team did not play well after the bye week.
 
Top