COLUMBUS – Darke County football teams learned their possible playoff paths as the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced details of the 2018 high school football playoffs.
All seven of Darke County’s football teams will remain in the same divisions they competed in last season. Greenville will remain in Division III, Versailles will remain in Division V, Arcanum will remain in Division VI, Ansonia will remain in Division VII, Bradford will remain in Division VII, Mississinawa Valley will remain in Division VII, and Tri-Village will remain in Division VII.
A change in the 2018 postseason is the return of Saturday night playoff games. Last year the OHSAA contested all of its playoff games – prior to the state finals – on Friday nights. This year Divisions I, II, III and VI will play playoff games on Fridays while Divisions IV, V and VII will play on Saturdays.
The changes to the playoff schedule were announced after attendance at 2017 playoff games dropped. The OHSAA had moved all playoff games to Friday nights to avoid conflicts with college games.
“We still have good attendance throughout the playoffs, but the overall total attendance dropped in 2017 when we moved all the games to Fridays,” said Beau Rugg, OHSAA director of officiating and sport management and the OHSAA’s football administrator. “Some parts of the state liked staying away from Saturdays for playoff games, but we also received quite a bit of feedback, mainly from the smaller schools, that they hoped we would return to having games on Saturdays, too, so their communities could see two games per weekend instead of one.”
Another change is that all postseason games, prior to the state finals, will kick off at 7 p.m. Previously Friday night playoff games kicked off at 7:30 p.m.
The 2018 state championship games will remain at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The state championship games will begin on Nov. 29 and continue through Dec. 1.
The OHSAA football season will begin the week of Aug. 20 with most teams kicking off the season on Aug. 24. The playoffs will begin on Nov. 2.
For a complete list of regional assignments, visit http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/football.
