It’s official, the 2018 Ohio high school football championships will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The Ohio High School Athletic Association made the announcement on Wednesday.
The OHSAA also announce that playoff games in Divisions I, II, III and VI will be played on Fridays, while Division IV, V and VII playoff games will be played on Saturdays. Last year, the OHSAA experimented with having all playoff games on Friday nights during the first four rounds. In addition, all playoff games will kick off at 7 p.m. Previously, Friday playoff games kicked off at 7:30 p.m.
“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.”
In addition, the OHSAA Board of Directors approved school playoff regional assignments and the playoff schedule. The regional maps, which show the number of schools within each region, and the lists of schools in each region are posted at: http://www.ohsaa.org/sports/football.
