By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced changes to its football playoff format that will begin immediately in the 2025 season.

The OHSAA will reduce the number of qualifying postseason teams from 16 to 12.

Additionally, the top-four seeds will earn a first-round bye, with the first three rounds of the playoff games being hosted by the higher-seeded team — an increase from the first two rounds from prior seasons.

As a note, the OHSAA will continue to run high school football within seven divisions.

“For the last few years, we have been pleased that more schools experienced the football playoffs, and there were some lower seeds that won playoff games,” said OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute. “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.”

The number of teams that have qualified for the playoffs have adjusted over time.

     • 1972-1979: Schools were divided into classes instead of divisions. Their were three classes: A (small schools), AA (mid-level) and AAA (large). The top-four teams from each classes qualified for the playoffs, playing for the three state championships.

     • 1980-1984: The OHSAA introduced a new division format, introducing five divisions — again based on school size. To qualify for the playoffs, the top-two teams from each of the four regions with the division advanced. This jumped the number of teams playing in the postseason from 12 to 40.

     • 1985-1993: The five-division format remained, but the playoffs expanded to include the top-four teams from each region. This doubled the field from 40 to 80 and pushed the playoffs into a three-weekend schedule.

     • 1994-97: Ohio introduced a sixth division for football, but kept in place that only the top-four teams qualified for the postseason. The new division, though, jumped the playoff teams from 80 to 96.

     • 1999-2012: The six divisions remained, but the OHSAA expanded the teams per region to grow from the top four to the top eight. This jumped the number of playoff berths from 96 to 192.

     • 2013-2019: A seventh division was introduced by the OHSAA, but the number of teams per region that qualified remained at the top eight. The new division increased playoff teams from 192 to 224.

     • 2020: The OHSAA allowed all member schools to qualify for the postseason because of the pandemic season having a significant impact across the state in both games played and roster availability.

     • 2021-2024: The seven divisions remained, but expansion has been pushed to the top-16 teams from each region (from the top eight), which has doubled the playoff field from 224 teams to 448.

With the top four seeds in each region receiving a first-round bye, the first-round parings include the No. 12 seed playing at the No. 5 seed, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 and No. 8. In the second round, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of No. 12 vs. No. 5, the No. 2 seed will host the winner of No. 11 vs. No. 6, the No. 3 seed will host the winner of No. 10 vs. No. 7, and the No. 4 seed will host the winner of No. 8 vs. No. 9.