Correspondent file photo / Michael G. Taylor Liberty quarterback Dawaun Moody (3) runs for a first down during a game against Girard on Aug. 30 at Arrowhead Stadium in Girard.

The high school football playoffs will have a different setup moving forward.

On Thursday, the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced that the playoffs will shrink from 16 teams to 12 in each region. The change came after a vote by the OHSAA Board of Directors.

Under the new format, the playoffs will have 12 teams advance in each region and the top-four seeds will earn a first-round bye. Additionally, the first three rounds will be held at the higher seed’s site.

New Liberty head coach Dom Prologo didn’t want the playoff to expand to 16 teams. He preferred the eight-team system, but he said the new format is “a better step than the 16-team system.”

“Having 12 teams, I think, is a better idea than 16,” Prologo said. “My years at Kennedy when we went to the 16 team playoff, our kids didn’t enjoy getting ready for it and I was always concerned we were going to get a player dinged in that game, and it was never a ballgame.”

This isn’t the first time the OHSAA had 12 teams in each region. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the season, the 2020 tournament featured 12-team brackets.

From 1999-2019, only eight teams made it per region. But the OHSAA approved a one-year expansion because the COVID-19 pandemic canceled games in 2020 and resulted in a number of teams statewide not completing a 10-game regular season.

That one-year bump in playoff participation eventually led to the 16-team brackets that were used starting in 2021.

“For the last few years, we have been pleased that more schools experienced the football playoffs, and there were some lower seeds that won playoff games,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said in a press release. “But over the last year, we have received feedback from our schools, with a slight majority favoring 12 qualifiers per region, and we had many conversations with stakeholders around the state that led us to make this proposal to our board. We appreciate the feedback we received and will continue to gather comments moving forward. Like we do with all of our sports, we want to make sure the student-athletes are our No. 1 priority.”

Last season, 27 teams from The Vindicator and Tribune Chronicle coverage area made it to the playoffs. Under the new system, 22 would have qualified.

Chaney would have been one of those teams left out. The Cowboys reached the playoffs as the 16 seed last year, but they would have been three points shy of making it under the new rules.

“Even with us getting in on the 16 last year, I definitely support the 12,” Chaney head coach Seth Antram said. “My opinion is it’s up to us to schedule accordingly, win those games and earn the right (to get) in.”

Warren JFK coach Damon Buente and Antram both said everyone will have to wait and see if there are any drawbacks with the new setup. Prologo mentioned that the No. 1 seed playing the winner of the matchup between No. 5 and No. 12 could cause an uproar come November, but he wasn’t concerned about it.

In the end, the three coaches approved of the new system. Specifically, they were excited for the addition of the first-round bye and the home games for the higher seeds.

They said it will incentivize programs to schedule tougher competition to try and get one of the top-four spots in a region.

“If you break it down into three sections of four, there’s incentives for each of those groups,” Buente said. “The top four, how about getting two home playoff games plus a bye? It can’t get any better than that. Then five through eight, you get yourself a home playoff game also.

“What’s really important is that nine through 12 seed, you’re gonna reward athletic directors and coaches that play tough schedules. Maybe a 6-4 here or 7-3 there, and they’re gonna get into the playoff and maybe get a rematch or something and shock some people. Seeds nine through 12, look at our region. Cuyahoga Heights was a nine and went all the way to the regional final.”

There was one objector: Ursuline coach Dan Reardon.

Reardon said the OHSAA should have gone back to eight teams or stayed 16. He also isn’t a fan of a bye week and wants his kids to keep the momentum of the regular season going into the tournament.

“I prefer 16 because it gets four more teams and four more groups of seniors a chance to play another game,” Reardon said. “And if the complaint was that the season was too long, they didn’t make the season any shorter by doing this.

“I’m a proponent of letting kids play football. The football season is such a short season in general, just 10 guaranteed games. I was in the minority, but I didn’t see the harm in letting four more teams play one more game.”

The OHSAA announced division changes and regional assignments on May 1. The playoff change will not affect those assignments.

The first football Friday will be held on Aug. 22, the playoff field will be finalized on Oct. 26 and the postseason will begin on Oct. 31.