COLUMBUS, Ohio – When the 2014 Ohio High School Athletic Association football playoffs begin Friday, 22 central Ohio schools will be among the 224 schools competing, including one making its first appearance another making its record-setting 34th.
EXTRA: Playoff dates and time for central Ohio teams.
Central Crossing is one of 10 schools making their first playoff appearances this year. The 7-3 Comets are seeded 15th in their region and travel to No 2-seed Cincinnati St. Xavier Saturday.
Newark Catholic is making its 34th playoff appearance, a record its shares with Cincinnati Moeller. The Green Wave holds the record for consecutive championship game appearances with eight from 1980 to 1987.
The playoff qualifiers and pairings were announced Sunday when the final computer ratings were released.
After being played for 24 years at Canton Fawcett Stadium and Massillon Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Stark County, the state championship games will return to Ohio Stadium Dec. 4-6. The title games were played at Ohio Stadium throughout the 1980s but needed to find a new home in 1990 when natural grass was installed in the stadium.
There are seven football divisions, with the largest 72 schools placed in Division I and the remaining schools placed in Divisions II through VII with approximately 108 schools in each division.
During the playoffs, Divisions II, III, IV and VI teams will play on Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Divisions I, V and VII play on Saturdays at 7:00 p.m.