Overtime and Omaha Productions are creating a high school football national championship.
Corner Canyon (Utah) and St. Frances Academy (Maryland) will meet Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 in Baltimore for the inaugural Overtime Nationals High School Football Championship. The matchup pits Corner Canyon’s offense — third in the country per Massey Ratings — against St. Frances Academy’s top-ranked defense. Texas A&M quarterback commit Helaman Casuga, Maryland five-star edge Zion Elee, and Alabama five-star safety Jireh Edwards are among the top prospects set to play.
The winner will receive a $250,000 donation to enhance their athletic program.
“When you think about football in America, every level has its championship, the Super Bowl, the College Football Playoff, except high school,” Overtime Football GM Hunter Mandel said. “We built Overtime Nationals to finally give high school athletes that same pinnacle moment.”
The partnership brings together two major players in sports media. Overtime runs alternative basketball leagues OTE and Overtime Select, plus the OT7 football league. Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions has overseen ESPN’s Emmy-winning ManningCast and produced Netflix athlete docuseries, including Quarterback, Receiver, and Starting 5. Omaha has also joined forces with the NFL to reimagine the Pro Bowl and launch the NFL FLAG Championships.
High school football has never had a true national championship. State associations operate independently, making a unified postseason structure nearly impossible to coordinate. Overtime and Omaha are sidestepping that by handpicking a marquee matchup and giving it a major platform.
Whether this becomes an annual event or fizzles after one year depends largely on execution and reception. But with ESPN providing distribution and Manning’s brand attached, it’s getting a real shot to prove the concept works.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.