Every October schools from around the country descend on Ohio State’s intramural fields at Fred Beekman Park with one goal: to be the best flag football team in the regional tournament. The prestige of being the best also comes with a trip to the national championships in December.
Teams and officials come from states as far as Alabama, Iowa and North Carolina to compete, said Ken Hill, Assistant Director of Intramural Sports. There were approximately 10 states represented this year.
OSU has hosted the three-day regional tournament for the past eight years. This year’s tournament took place all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It takes two months to plan the total program which consists of getting registration information mailed to schools and working with different sponsorship programs through the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association,” Hill said. Finding accommodations for visiting teams and officials are also part of the planning process.
There is no limit to schools that can participate in the eight NIRSA regional flag football tournaments held across the country. It is open to everyone from junior colleges to military academies. Players are limited to current students, faculty or staff members.
“There are three team round robins and the top two from every pool advance to a single elimination tournament,” said Dave Thompson, a senior in sports and leisure studies. Thompson spent half a day setting up the brackets prior to play Friday night. During play he is on the field entering information into a computer as games finish. Statistics for all-tournament team and results of the games are constantly updated.
Brackets are determined by past performances by teams as well as by school. Teams from the same school are generally kept out of the same brackets.
The top two teams from each division received a trophy and a travel stipend to attend the National Championship held annually at the University of New Orleans beginning December 26. The winner in the women’s division was Akron University, Middle Tennessee State in the men’s division and Ohio University won the co-ed division. The top seven players in men’s and women’s competition and the top eight players in co-ed competition also received all-tournament recognition.
Intramural officials are also in a competition of their own. Each school is eligible to send their top officials to the tournament. These officials are then in consideration to attend the national championship and receive recognition as being among the top officials in the country.
“It is a great honor to be chosen. The ultimate goal is to go to Nationals and to be an All-American,” Matt Zahler a junior in sports industry from Ohio University said. Zahler was chosen by his supervisors as one of three officials attending from OU. “It’s a learning process, here you’re working with better caliber officials than on campus.”
One of the reasons OSU continues to host the tournament has to do with it’s facilities. “We get the notoriety of our program and our facilities. When the students and participants travel here to Ohio State they get to see one of the finest recreational facilities in the country,” Hill said. “People are generally in awe of the program area, the fields, the grass, and the fact that we have grass. Many schools come and say they have no grass on their intramural fields this time of the year. It makes us feel good to know we have a quality program and facilities to run our program.”
