COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hamilton football coach Nate Mahon stressed about the playoff seeding vote for a few hours earlier this week.
Indian Hill coach Tony Arcuri asked a soccer coach for some advice on how to properly evaluate the online voting process.
St. Xavier coach Steve Specht and Lakota West coach Tom Bolden had an interesting discussion about the seeding process for Cincinnati-area teams.
Welcome to the 2020 Ohio high school football playoffs selection process.
"It's sort of exciting waiting around and seeing how things are going to play out with the draw and everything," Talawanda football coach Larry Cox said.
It seems everyone wants to know who voted for whom in this unique process for Ohio high school football.
"I looked at Joe Eitel's page," Mahon said. "I tried to be as reasonable as possible. I believe in good and bad karma. I tried to be as reasonable as possible and again try to protect the GMC (Greater Miami Confererence) as much as you could too but still be reasonable."
The Ohio High School Athletic Association is scheduled to publish the postseason football brackets for all seven divisions on Thursday afternoon.
"I am fine with what has transpired and appreciate every day that we get to play football in the great state of Ohio," Mason coach Brian Castner said.
Coaches voted Monday and Tuesday this week in an online format similar to other OHSAA team tournament sports.
The OHSAA will send all the voting results to the schools but won't post that information to its website. Schools are free to share that information.
"Every coach ranking the teams 1-15 with the shortened season and cancellations due to COVID was the only way to go this year in my opinion," said Colerain coach Shawn Cutright.
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This is the first time since 1972 that all Ohio teams were eligible for the postseason instead of using the computer points system or what is sometimes commonly referred to as the Harbin computer points.
The change in the postseason was brought on by the shortened regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All state finals need to be completed by Nov. 21, according to the OHSAA.
Mahon was a proponent this past summer of moving the season to the spring of 2021 with so much uncertainty in July and August.
But, he had a smile on his face just two days before the regular-season finale at Colerain.
"So to be here talking with you about playoffs for Week 7 I'm surprised but very grateful and gracious that we have the chance," Mahon said. "I think more people need to be reminded of that, too."
The playoffs start Oct. 9 and some Division I teams will receive a bye.
Divisions I, II, III and VII will have football games on Friday throughout the playoffs. Divisions IV, V and VI will play on Saturday.
The OHSAA has not announced a venue for the state football finals. It may be played at multiple locations given the limited attendance capacity requirements set forth by the Ohio governor's office.
If a team is not able to participate in a postseason game within a day or two of the original date, the OHSAA will work with those schools on a possible rescheduled opportunity.
If that can't be obtained, the game will be vacated and the other team will advance to the next round of the postseason.
Schools eliminated from the OHSAA playoffs or that chose not to enter the playoffs will have the option to schedule additional regular-season contests through Nov. 14, with a maximum of 10 regular-season contests permitted.
