EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a four-part seris on the expansion of Ohio’s high school football playoff system.
HOWARD — The entire town was painted Purple.
Signs sprang up in every yard and in front of every business and everywhere coach Cody Reese or All-Ohio running back Caleb Gallwitz went, they were treated like celebrities. East Knox was in the midst of a historic run to the Division VI state semifinals and everyone wanted a piece of the Bulldogs.
“The community loved it,” said Reese, a 2006 East Knox graduate. “It wasn’t just our community. All of Knox County was behind us.”
About 40 miles to the northwest, an even more remarkable scene was unfolding in Richland County. Both Mansfield Senior and Lucas were on their way to state championship games — Senior High in Division III and Lucas in Division VII — and the two communities united in ways neither Mansfield Senior coach Chioke Bradley nor Lucas boss Scott Spitler could have envisioned.
“The support that’s being shown from these two communities, it is unreal, man,” Bradley said.
“It’s just unbelievably special that two communities can come together like this and support high school student athletes,” Spitler added.
A combined community pep rally in downtown Mansfield during the run-up to championship weekend drew hundreds of fans. Players from both teams crowded into Central Park’s gazebo as fans chanted and cheered and the mayors from both towns delivered fiery speeches as snow flurries flew.
“I love my city,” Bradley said.
While the celebrations raged in Howard, Mansfield and Lucas, the streets were silent in Gibsonburg and Northwood. Those towns, the former in Sandusky County and the latter across the border in neighboring Wood County, celebrated throughout the fall as their football teams went undefeated during the regular season. But when it came time for the Ohio High School Athletic Association to pass out postseason invitations, both were left on the outside looking in.
It was the first time since 2001 an unbeaten team missed out on the postseason.
Gibsonburg finished ninth in Region 23 of Division VI. Northwood was ninth in Division V, Region 18.
The top eight teams in each region qualified for the playoffs. That number will increase to 12 beginning next fall after the OHSAA Board of Directors unanimously approved playoff expansion in May.
“I don’t know if the decision to expand the playoffs was a knee-jerk reaction to what happened to Gibsonburg and Northwood, but it was definitely taken into consideration,” East Knox’s Reese said. “Those teams did everything that was asked of them. They beat every opponent on their schedules.”
Gibsonburg and Northwood were victims of bad luck — and talent-heavy regions. Both schools accumulated enough points to qualify for the playoffs in every other region of their respective divisions.
Gibsonburg, which qualified as the No. 2 seed in the Region 22 playoffs with a 9-1 record in 2018, was shifted to Region 23 for the 2019 season. The new-look region included eventual Division VI state champ Anna along with perennial powerhouses Coldwater and Minster, all of the Midwest Athletic Conference. The combined record of Gibsonburg’s 10 opponents was 33-66.
Northwood moved up to Division V after qualifying for the Division VI, Region 22 playoffs in 2018. Seven of the Rangers’ 10 opponents were Division VI or Division VII and only two had winning records.
“If you go 10-0, I don’t care what your schedule is. You are a good football team,” said Spitler, whose Cubs qualified for the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in Region 25 with an 8-2 record. “Gibsonburg and Northwood can’t control the quality of their opponents. They are locked into their league games and you can’t predict how (non-conference) teams are going to be two or three years down the road.
“You do schedules so far in advance. A lot of times your schedule is two or three years out or even further. You can’t predict what an opponent is going to be two or three years down the road.”
The new playoff format will all but eliminate the possibility of a team sitting at home for the playoffs after going undefeated in the regular season. But does adding four additional teams in each region compromise the integrity of the playoff field?
“That is the question I have. Is it too watered-down?” said Reese, whose Bulldogs finished ninth in Region 23 in both 2017 and 2018. “We had a couple of near misses, but I felt like we didn’t earn it. I can see it from both sides.”
So can Clear Fork’s Dave Carroll. The Colts were the top seed in Region 14 of Division IV in 2017 and 2018, going undefeated both years, but slipped to 6-4 last fall. Clear Fork finished ninth in the final regional rankings after being leap-frogged by Clyde the final week. Clyde became just the second school in history to win a state title as a No. 8 seed, knocking off Licking Valley 42-14 in the finals.
“The more, the better,” Carroll said. “Football is one of the last places where kids can really be challenged mentally and physically. Football is all about team and sacrifice and there’s not a lot of places where you can push a kid to his limits to help him out in the real world.
“Anything that can up the enthusiasm for football is a good thing.”
Four additional playoff qualifiers in each region could help solve another problem, Ontario’s Chris Miller said.
“The other thing it does is help people schedule games. It’s such a strategic play on who to play in your non-league and how many points will they get you,” Miller said. “There’s so much shifting around from a scheduling standpoint and even league affiliation based on football and the ability to make the playoffs.
“In an indirect way, maybe it helps establish more secure conferences down the road. It’s hard to tell what those effects will be from that standpoint.”
Scheduling has been a challenge for Mansfield Senior, especially after reaching the state championship game last fall. The Tygers are scheduled to play Trotwood-Madison in a rematch of last year’s Division III state final in Week 2.
“Now teams won’t be reluctant to schedule a top-tier team,” Bradley said. “Now they can go schedule two big-time teams in the non-conference schedule. You can lose one and still make the playoffs. It’s a win-win.”