×

Changes coming to Ohio high school football playoffs

COLUMBUS — Saturday night lights will shine again when the Ohio High School Athletic Association stages its 2018 football playoffs.

The OHSAA board of directors approved the playoff schedule Wednesday during its June meeting. In 2017, the OHSAA experimented with having all playoff games on Fridays during the first four in rounds.

“We still had good attendance throughout the playoffs, but the overall total attendance dropped in 2017 when we moved all the games to Fridays,” said Beau Rugg, the OHSAA director of officiating and sport management and the OHSAA’s football administrator. “Some parts of the state liked staying away from Saturdays for playoff games, but we also received quite a bit of feedback, mainly from the smaller schools, that they hoped we would return to having games on Saturdays, too, so their communities could see two games per weekend instead of one.”

This season, playoff games in Divisions I, II, III and VI will be played on Fridays while Divisions IV, V and VII will be contested on Saturdays. All playoff games will kick off at 7 p.m. Previously, Friday games began at 7:30 p.m.

The board also authorized its executive director to finalize the contract with Visit Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame to host the 2018 finals at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. The specific dates and times for the title games will be announced after the semifinals on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24.

School playoff regional assignments also were approved by the board. Assignments for local schools are as follows:

≤ Division IV, Region 13: Big Red and Indian Creek, which competed in D-III a season ago but will return to D-IV.

Schools of note in Region 13 include Akron Buchtel, Cardinal Mooney, Perry, Poland and Youngstown Ursuline.

≤ Division IV, Region 15: Harrison Central. In 2017, the Huskies were assigned to Region 13. St. Clairsville also is in Region 15.

≤ Division V, Region 19: Edison and Buckeye Local.

Bellaire, Martins Ferry and Union Local also are in this division.

≤ Division VI, Region 21: Catholic Central, which was part of Region 23 in 2017.

Central’s adjusted enrollment figure of 116 makes it the smallest school in the region. Some teams of note in Region 23 are Kirtland, Mogadore, Garaway, Columbiana and Berlin Center Western Reserve.

≤ Division VII, Region 25: Toronto.

The Red Knights will be competing for a playoff spot against the likes of Warren JFK, Cuyahoga Heights, Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas and Youngstown Valley Christian School.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today