COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association has announced the football regions and schedule format for the 2017 playoffs. And the four Clinton County schools have remained in the same regions.

New in 2017, all playoff games during the first four rounds will be played on Friday nights.

Wilmington will be in Division III Region 12, Clinton-Massie in Division IV Region 16, Blanchester in Division V Region 20 and East Clinton in Division V Region 20.

Also announced was the format for the state championship games, which will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton Nov. 30 through Dec. 2.

The new regions and playoffs format were approved Thursday by the OHSAA Board of Directors at the June meeting as part of the 2017 football tournament regulations. New divisions were announced on April 6.

“For a few years now we have studied the possibility of moving all playoff games to Friday nights for the first four rounds,” OHSAA assistant commissioner Beau Rugg said. “Due to so many more college football games being played on Saturday nights, attendance at our Saturday playoff games has steadily declined, and more potential playoff sites have said they cannot host games on Saturdays. We now have enough playoff sites to handle all the games on one night, and the football coaches association was in support of this change, too, because teams will get to stay on their normal weekly schedule of playing on Friday night.”

The regional assignments can be found at the following website: http://www.ohsaa.org/Sports-Tournaments/Football/Football-2017

Following is the OHSAA football schedule for the coming year.

Monday, July 31 – Practice begins (mandatory 5-day acclimatization period)

Monday, Aug. 21 – Regular season begins (719 schools playing football in 2017)

Tuesday, Sept. 19 – Weekly computer point releases begin

Saturday, Oct. 28 – Regular season ends

Sunday, Oct. 29 – Final computer points and playoff qualifiers announced (224 total qualifiers)

Friday, Nov. 3 – Regional quarterfinals played at higher seed, 7:30 p.m. (112 games)

Friday, Nov. 10 – Regional semifinals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (56 games)

Friday, Nov. 17 – Regional finals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (28 games)

Friday, Nov. 24 – State semifinals played at neutral sites, 7:30 p.m. (14 games)

State Championship Games at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, Canton

Championship game time assignments will be announced Saturday, Nov. 25

Thursday, Nov. 30 – Division I, II, V or VII, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 1 – Division I, II, V or VII, Game times at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 2 – Division III, IV or VI, Game times at 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.