OHSAA Announces Change In Football And Basketball Regions And Schedules

Talks began on June 1, 2017 in regards to the Ohio High School Athletic Association fall sports playoff schedule and the way that the regions are split up throughout the state.

The decisions were finalized as of June 6 by the board of directors of the OHSAA. The new breakdown will be as follows:

• Playoff games in all divisions for the first four rounds of the postseason now will be played on Friday nights. Last fall, Divisions I, II, IV and VI were held on Fridays but Divisions III, V and VII were played on Saturdays.
• During state championship week, Division I, II, V or VII will play its title game Thursday, Nov. 30, with the other three held Friday, Dec. 1.
• Divisions III, IV and VI all will be played Saturday, Dec. 2.
• The state finals will be held in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.

“For a few years now we’ve studied the possibility of moving all playoff games to Friday nights for the first four rounds,” OHSAA assistant commissioner Beau Rugg said. “Due to so many more college football games being played on Saturday nights, attendance at our Saturday playoff games has steadily declined and more potential playoff sites have said they cannot host games on Saturdays. We now have enough playoff sites to handle all the games on one night, and the football coaches association was in support of this change, too, because teams will get to stay on their normal weekly schedule of playing on Friday night.”

There will also be changes in the makeup of the Regions and Divisions that will effect all of the 719 teams in the state.

The changes are as follows:

• Defending State Champion Akron Archbishop Hoban moves up in football from Division III to Division II Region 5.
• Defending State Champion Villa Angela-St. Joseph moves up in boys basketball from Division III to Division II.
• Gilmour Academy, Lutheran West and Warrensville Heights boys basketball teams also move up from Division III to Division II.
• Defending State Champion Lutheran East moves up in boys basketball from Division IV to Division III.
• Oberlin boys basketball drops from Division III to Division IV.
• Elyria Catholic girls basketball drops from Division II to Division to Division III.
• Rocky River girls basketball drops from Division I to Division II.
• Lutheran East girls basketball moves up from Division IV to Division II.
• Hathaway Brown, Geneva and Hoban girls basketball moves up from Division II to Division I.
• Defending State Champions Gilmour Academy girls basketball moves up from Division III to Division II. Hawken, Lutheran West and Cleveland JFK also move from D-III to D-II.