Two weeks from tonight, the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) football tournament will kick off with 224 teams from across the state participating in first-round games. Another 112 teams will have qualified for the playoffs, but they will be idle.

For the first time in state tournament history, some teams that earned their way into the playoffs will receive a first-round bye. In the 2020 COVID season, all schools were permitted to enter the tournament. The tournament field was determined by a seeding system, resulting in first-round byes for some schools.

This year, the top 12 schools in each region will qualify for the playoffs. The number was reduced from 16, which was the norm from 2021 to 2024.

Under the new format, the top four seeds in each region receive a first-round bye. The first-round parings include the No. 12 seed playing at the No. 5 seed, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7 and No. 9 and No. 8. In the second round, the No. 1 seed will host the winner of No. 8 vs. No. 9, the No. 2 seed will host the winner of No. 7 vs. No. 10, the No. 3 seed will host the winner of No. 11 vs. No. 6 and the No. 4 seed will host the winner of No. 5 vs. No. 12.

The possibility of a first-round bye has some area coaches scrambling for a game plan on how to best prepare for an extended break between the regular season and the tournament.

Canfield (8-0) currently sits atop the Division III, Region 9 rankings. The Cardinals are a virtual lock to earn a first-round bye.

Canfield coach Joe Ignazio says his team will take a “business as usual” approach during the time off between the last game of the regular season and the first playoff game.

“If we find ourselves in this situation after Week 10, we’ll move forward and keep things as normal as possible,” Igazio said. “We’ll practice as if we have a game that Friday. Then come Friday, instead of playing a game, we’ll go and watch the game that is going to determine our next opponent.”

Ignazio noted that several years ago, former Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky scheduled a bye week into the regular season schedule.

“The idea was to give players some rest, get healthy and use that week to sort of kick-start the rest of the season heading into the playoffs,” Ignazio said. “In our case, we don’t have any control over what the schedule looks like in Week 11, so we don’t focus on it. We only worry about controlling the controllables.

“There’s a case to be made that a week off provides rest and an opportunity to get healthy. At the same time, you don’t want to digress. You want to maintain momentum. So as a coach, it’s your job to balance those two issues of staying sharp without overdoing it. Staying in our usual routine is probably the best approach.”

McDonald (8-0) currently holds the third spot in Division VII, Region 25. The Blue Devils are projected to finish in the top four in the region. Tonight, McDonald hosts Springfield, a team it hasn’t defeated since 2018. McDonald then closes its regular season against arch-rival Mineral Ridge.

“There are two ways coaches look at the bye week scenario,” said McDonald coach Dan Williams. “If you’re heading into the playoffs on a roll, you want to play that hot hand and you want to keep the momentum rolling without a pause.

“At the same time, if you’re banged up, which a lot of teams are at this point in the season, it gives you an opportunity to get healthy and fresh for a playoff run.”

Williams says that regardless of how McDonald fares the next two weeks, he will likely welcome a one-week break.

“We close the season against two very strong, very physical football teams,” Williams said. “In our case, it might be a good thing to get that week of rest.”

Williams says his goal would be to maintain a routine while keeping the players fresh and focused. He says his staff also discussed the possibility of creating some type of team bonding activities outside of practice “just to break up the two-week run of practices without an actual game.”

Williams noted that another benefit to a bye week is the fact that he, his staff and players would have the opportunity to scout their upcoming opponent.

“Because the brackets are cut and dry, we’ll know exactly which game we’re going to attend that Friday night,” Williams said. “We’ll obviously have film on our opponent, but sometimes film can be deceiving. I feel like there’s an advantage in watching your opponents live rather than on film. Being able to attend that Friday game is definitely a positive aspect of the bye week.”

Garrettsville Garfield (fourth in Division V, Region 17) has clinched a playoff spot and is likely to finish in the top four of its region. G-Men coach Mike Moser agrees that there are some benefits to moving into the playoffs without a break, but he says he will welcome a week off if it comes his way.

“I understand both sides of the rest-versus-rust argument, but I think the positives of a bye week outweigh the negatives,” Moser said. “It gives your kids a moment to heal the bumps and bruises, to back off and catch their breath.

“Any team can lose a game in any given week, regardless of the opponent, but you can’t lose to a bye week.”

Moser said he also welcomes the possibility of an extra week of practice, which could pay dividends both during this year’s playoff run and in the future.

“Our practice time with these kids is so limited these days,” Moser said. “You get less time in the summer to work on fundamentals and such. This would give coaches an extra week to work with the younger kids who might not get a lot of playing time on Friday nights. That’s invaluable to the growth of the team.

“Beyond that, we’ll prepare things as we normally would throughout the week leading up to Friday. It will be strange come Friday. We’ll be attending a game rather than playing a game. But then come Saturday morning, we’ll be right back at it, preparing as usual.”

Youngstown Cardinal Mooney currently owns the top spot in Region 17 and is assured of a first-round bye. The Cardinals are in an unusual position in that they play South Range tonight, then have an open week to conclude the regular season. The Cardinals were originally scheduled to play Ursuline. As a result, Mooney will experience an unprecedented 21-day layoff between its final regular season game and its first playoff game.

“Having a week off is one thing, having two weeks off is a whole different animal,” said Mooney coach Frank Colaprete. “I guess we’ll take the college bowl game approach. We’re going to have a lot of time to figure things out and prepare accordingly.

“I mean, it is what it is. We won’t spend time worrying about it. We should feel blessed that we had a good enough season to be put in this situation.”

Colaprete says that it will be important for his team to quickly develop and maintain a rhythm, otherwise “it could be easy to lose focus practicing that many days without competing.” He expects to include an intra-squad scrimmage or two into the practice schedule “just to maintain that edge.”

Overall, Colaprete doesn’t expect the lengthy layoff to be an issue.

“The playoffs are special, the right to host a second-round game is an honor,” Colaprete said. “Given the circumstances, I don’t think our kids will have any issues maintaining the same desire and motivation that got them to this point.”

The six-week tournament will conclude the first weekend of December with the crowning of seven state champions.