Local coaches criticize OHSAA expanded football postseason format

On Apr 25, 2021

Aviators listen to head coach Seth Whiting (black cap) during a timeout against Lake during their game played at Mount Union Stadium Friday, October 30, 2020.

There are many times when more translates to better.

When it comes to the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Board of Directors’ decision to increase the postseason football tournament field from 224 to 448 teams and add an extra playoff week to create a maximum 16-game season, the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association expressed serious reservations about the move with a press release featuring two excerpts.

“The decision by the OHSAA to expand to a 16-team (per region) format is met with complete dismay by the OHSFCA,” according to the opening sentence of the release.

The OHSFCA wasn’t against enlarging the postseason tournament, noting it proposed the expansion from eight to 12 teams (per region) in January 2020.

Sebring, which has never qualified for the playoffs in the first 48 years of the event or accepted an invitation to an open tournament adopted by the state last fall to deal with the pandemic, would stand a better chance to make its first-ever playoff trip under the new format, but head coach Matt Seidel has mixed thoughts about it.

“I’m a firm believer you have to earn your way into the playoffs,” he added. “Doing this (expanding the field) makes me wonder if they’re watering down the product.”

OHSAA statistics revealed 709 high schools in seven divisions participated in 11-player football during the 2020 season. If the same number take part in 2021, 63 percent of the programs would advance to the postseason.

That is a stark contrast to the original, three-division, one team per region and 12-team format that started in 1972, the first year of the playoffs. Not only did fewer teams make the playoffs, but more than 800 high schools competed in 11-player football that season.

“I think (the original format with fewer teams) was designed for the elite teams and I can understand that,” Seidel said. “The playoffs aren’t for everybody.”

Alliance head coach Seth Whiting has guided his last four teams to postseason play, beginning with qualifying appearances from 2017-19 followed by a decision to accept an invitation to the tournament, which began in the seventh week last year, even though the Aviators were winless in six regular-season games, losing all six by close decisions.

“We decided to accept (the tournament invitation) last year, because we were a very competitive team, regardless of our record,” Whiting said.

Alliance proved it was worthy of competing in the open tournament, dropping a 42-38 decision at Hubbard.

“We had several seniors who kept working hard and some younger guys who needed to get more experience, so I felt our kids deserved to play as many games as they possibly could and having that (open) tournament gave us that chance,” Whiting said. “The proposal to go to 12 teams was good, but I think 16 is too much. Now, it’s almost embarrassing if you don’t make the playoffs.”

West Branch head coach Ken Harris, whose team won all six games before the open tournament and captured the Eastern Buckeye Conference and would have earned a playoff spot last fall, thought eight teams per region was a reasonable representative number.

“I thought the top eight teams in a region were the elite teams,” he added.

Seidel offered a different viewpoint.

“The only thing I see positive about (going from 12 to 16 teams) is they won’t have the first-round byes,” he added.

Harris not only doesn’t like expanding the field, but the way the new format would affect the entire high school football season.

“They’ve moved everything up in order to add a sixth week to the playoffs and that will squeeze everything into the first (couple weeks) in August,” he said. “Our mandatory practice starts August 1. With a longer preseason, we used those first few mandatory practice days as acclimation days. Those days are necessary because we have a lot of kids who play multiple sports, including in the summer. They need that (acclimation) time to get adjusted to football practices.”

According to the new policy, the acclimation days could be transferred to July, the time normally set aside for coaching days.

“That’s fine, but acclimation days aren’t mandatory practice days and we’re dealing with conflicts, such as summer sports and family vacations,” Harris added.

Playoff spots are currently determined by computer points, but that format could change after the OHSAA announced its intent to explore the addition of a strength of schedule provision.

That provision would make scheduling more challenging.

“People wouldn’t by shy about scheduling up a division, if they feel they have the team capable of playing bigger schools,’ Whiting said.

While disappointed in the vote, the coaches reflect the mood of the entire OHSFCA in moving forward toward preparations for the 2021 season.

“We have a good non-conference (four-game) schedule and we have a good group of returners, so we’ll adjust and get ready,” said Harris, although he agreed with the final part of the OHSFCA’s press release. “It states, ‘It’s abundantly clear that the decision is financially motivated,’ and I agree.”