Postseason games to be on one day

By Charles Grove

and Codie Talley

cgrove@vindy.com ctalley@vindy.com

Saturdays will be reserved for college football in the state of Ohio this year.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association Board and Directors voted 9-0 on Thursday to approve the proposal moving all playoff football games (with the exception of the state finals) to Friday nights.

The move was made after 2016’s playoff attendance was the second lowest since the tournament expanded to five rounds in 1999.

The OHSAA plans to send a formal release on the news regarding the regional format on Tuesday.

The OHSAA tabled a proposal to extend the baseball and softball seasons by two weeks, saying more information is needed.

In years past, schools from Divisions III, V and VII played playoff games on Saturdays. But the OHSAA found those games often conflicted with college football while also noting high school football attendance is typically higher on Fridays than Saturdays.

“Obviously if a team makes the playoffs they’ll be excited whether it’s on Friday or Saturday,” Canfield head football coach Mike Pavlansky said. “But I trust the state has done their research.

“We were given studies back in February and it showed the games moved from Friday to Saturday lost money while the games on Friday made money. Money is a big factor if not the driving factor.”

Crestview head coach Paul Cusick said he likes the move to Fridays from a preparation standpoint.

“It helps keep you in routine,” Cusick said. “You try to keep the same thing going. It wasn’t a huge deal if it wasn’t your first time [playing on Saturday] but if you’re not used to it it’s a big deal.”

One of the potential unattended consequences to playing all seven divisions in one day could be smaller schools being left behind by fans flocking towards the larger division games.

“That is a problem I think,” Cusick said. “The people who go to the playoff games typically pick a game and travel. But now with more choice on one night they may go out and see the bigger schools play.”

Struthers head coach Curt Kuntz thinks the smaller schools won’t be impacted negatively but wonders how local media will be able to cover the multitude of games in one night.

“Smaller schools fans will be there no matter what. They could play the game on Wednesday night and the stand would be full,” Kuntz said. “I would like to interview the local media and ask them how they feel about this. They are the ones that will have to scramble around and figure out what to cover. For coaches and players, it makes no difference.”

Overall, Kuntz said he believes attendance may dip due to the fact nobody will be able to go to two games in one weekend anymore.

“It will hurt attendance I think,” Kuntz said. “Casual fans like to go to one game Friday and one game Saturday. Now they’ll have to choose one.”