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What’s the right amount? Local coaches debate correct size of playoffs

For a second straight year, the Warren John F. Kennedy football team faces an unexpected bye-week. A lack of players forced St. Thomas Aquinas to cancel a string of games, including tonight’s scheduled matchup with the Eagles.

In years past, JFK coach Dom Prologo would have likely worked feverishly to find a last-minute replacement. Given the current high school football landscape that includes a 448-team, six-week tournament, Prologo is content to rest his players.

At Springfield High, the combination of an inexperienced team and a brutal non-conference schedule resulted in an 0-4 start for the Tigers. Springfield coach Sean Guerriero scheduled South Range (7-0), Brookfield (6-1) and Geneva (5-2) knowing his team was young, but also knowing that he could afford a possible rough start and still make a run at the playoffs.

Today, Springfield (3-4) has already clinched a postseason berth.

Needless to say, the expanded playoff format implemented in 2021 has changed the way some coaches approach the regular season.

It doesn’t seem to have changed their feelings about the present-day format.

“My thoughts haven’t changed, I didn’t like the expansion to sixteen teams (per region) when it was announced and I don’t like it today,” Prologo said. “I always felt like the playoffs were a reward for winning and for playing a solid schedule. Now, there’s almost a participation trophy feel to the qualifying process.

“We also shouldn’t be asking teenagers to play sixteen games in a season. There’s a reason colleges don’t play that many games. The NFL players weren’t happy about adding a seventeenth game. Yet we’re asking kids, most of whom play multiple sports, to commit to as many as sixteen games.”

Kennedy’s 2020 season included a bye week between the end of the regular season and its first playoff game. The Eagles would go on to play in six tournament games en route to an appearance in the Division VII state title game. A year ago, the Eagles played in five playoff games.

“That bye week made me think that maybe this is something we want to look at in the future if we feel like we have a team that can make a long playoff run,” Prologo said. “It can be especially beneficial for a small school with a limited roster, where one or two injuries can make a huge difference.”

Guerriero knows first-hand the possible pitfalls of a playoff format which includes eight teams per region. In 2018 his Tigers went 9-1, losing only to McDonald (11-1), and finished ninth in the region.

Still, Guerriero wonders who truly benefits from the current expanded tournament.

“A couple of years ago the Ohio High School Athletic Association really placed an emphasis on player safety, they limited how much hitting we could do,” Guerriero said. “But then they reduced our summer doubles so they could start the season earlier in order to expand the playoffs.”

“You have to really wonder if the focus is on safety or trying to make up for lost revenue during COVID.”

While there were some first-round upsets a year ago, there were also plenty of lopsided games.

“In our region, does a 3-7 team really want to play a Lowellville or a JFK,” Guerriero said. “And a 10-0 team is now forced to play an additional game at the risk of possible injuries.”

Guerriero said the expanded playoffs gave him the confidence to “be more aggressive” when putting together his non-league schedule.

“We were telling our kids all summer long that they weren’t playing for a state championship in week one,” Guerriero said. “We just want them to be playing their best football in week ten.

“We were pretty young and inexperienced in August. South Range, Brookfield and Geneva helped us grow up. With the expanded playoffs, we have a lot of leeway in how we schedule non-conference opponents.”

When the OHSAA doubled the number of teams in the tournament in 2021, the decision was met with harsh criticism from the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association – which proposed an expansion to 12 teams per region.

The OHSAA originally agreed to the 12-team format, but then altered its decision without consulting the OHSFCA.

In a statement released in April of 2021, the OHSFCA stated that the OHSAA “failed to work in good faith with our association” and that the 16-teams-per-region format “was a decision that was financially motivated.”

Austintown Fitch coach T.J. Parker still believes the 12-team format is the best option.

“As a coach you’re a little nervous about eight teams, you can have a really good season against quality opponents and still get left out,” Parker said. “Sixteen is just too much. You see some very lopsided playoff games early on, especially in the lower divisions.”

Parker says he favors 12 teams – with a twist.

“I’d love to see a seeded tournament sort of like what we have in basketball,” Parker said. “Let the coaches from the higher seeded teams decide whether or not they want a bye. Let them have the power to dictate who they might play. It would provide more incentive for finishing higher in the rankings and it would generate tremendous interest.”

Like Prologo and other coaches, Parker isn’t ruling out bye weeks in the Falcons’ future schedules.

“When they first announced a sixteen team tournament I immediately thought about the possibility of a bye week,” Parker said. “Being an independent can result in a brutal schedule. It’s a grind, week after week.

“If your realistic expectations are playing deep into the playoffs, it seems as though a bye week can be very beneficial.”

Poland benefited from the expansion last year when it finished ninth in Division IV, Region 13. The Bulldogs defeated Fairless in a first-round game before falling to West Branch. This year, the ‘Dogs (4-3) are already almost assured of advancing beyond week 10.

Still, Bulldogs coach Tom Pavlansky remains strong in his belief that the OHSAA erred when it expanded the playoffs to 16 rather than 12.

“A lot of experienced head coaches have strong opinions on how things are being done and their voices need to be heard,” Pavlansky said. “It’s disappointing that the coaches association didn’t have a seat at the table when the decision was made to expand to sixteen.

“For the most part, a one-versus-sixteen game is not a healthy matchup. It’s also debatable whether or not a sixteen game schedule is in the best interest of our student-athletes. I understand there are risks in everything, but football is a physical game and we have to be smart in what we do.”

Like many other coaches, Pavlansky believes the current-day format has taken away some of the charm of the playoff atmosphere.

“I’m part of that era where the playoffs were special, where making the playoffs was truly a special reward. I think we’ve lost some of that magic,” Pavlansky said. “It is what it is, and we have to make the best of it.”

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