NEWPLAYOFF.JPG
Glenville's Aaron Morris dives to tackle St. Ignatius' Robert Grebenc in a 2009 Division I football playoff game. This fall, Glenville will be in Division II and St. Ignatius will remain in Division I in the new OHSAA playoff format. Division assignments were released Thursday.
(Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The high school football playoff picture will expand and change dramatically this fall. Numerous schools have changed divisions, and a new division was added.
A new “super” Division I will have the largest 72 schools, and the remaining six divisions have between 105 and 109 schools.
A seventh division was added beginning this fall.
As in recent years, each division will have 32 playoff teams, and seven state champions will be crowned in December.
However, there is an added twist in Division I. It will be divided into two regions, Northern (35 teams) and Southern (37 teams). Each region will have 16 playoff teams, and the first-round playoff seeding will be No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, etc. The two Division I regional champions will be crowned the fourth round of the playoffs, which also will be the state semifinals.
The other six divisions will continue to be divided into four regions, with eight playoff teams in each region.
The Northern region will consist of schools from Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Summit Trumbull, Mahoning, Stark, Union, Lucas and Delaware counties.
Franklin County schools, which include Columbus, will be in the Southern region.
OHSAA spokesman Tim Stried said making four regions of 18 schools each was not workable and the regions would have been S-shaped. The OHSAA strives to keep schools in the same county within the same region.
The new football division enrollment figures are as follows. The numbers are for male enrollments in grades 9-11 this past school year:
Division I: 608 or more.
Division II: 403 to 607
Division III: 281-402
Division IV 213-280
Division V: 156-212
Division VI: 112-155
Division VII: 111 or fewer.
Here are the Division I, Region 1 (Northern division) schools: Austintown-Fitch, Berea-Midpark, Brunswick, Canton McKinley, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga Falls, Delaware Hayes, Elyria, Euclid, Findlay, GlenOak, Green, Hudson, Lakewood, Lorain, Massillon Jackson, Massillon Perry, Marysville, Medina, Mentor, Newark, North Canton Hoover, North Royalton, Olentangy Liberty, Shaker Heights, Stow, St. Edward, St. Ignatius, Solon, Strongsville, Toledo Whitmer, Wadsworth, Warren Harding, Westerville Central and Youngstown East.
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division II: Amherst Steele, Avon, Avon Lake, Barberton, Bedford, Boardman, Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Brush, Canton Timken, Copley, Eastlake North, East Tech, Ellet, Firestone, Garfield Heights, Glenville, John Adams, John F. Kennedy, John Marshall, Kent Roosevelt, Lakeside, Lincoln West, Madison, Maple Heights, Massillon, Mayfield, Medina Highland, Midview, Nordonia, Normandy, North Olmsted, North Ridgeville, Olmsted Falls, Riverside, Rhodes, Parma, Shaw, Twinsburg, Uniontown Lake, Valley Forge, Walsh Jesuit, Westlake and Willoughby South.
The schools that dropped from Division I to Division II are Amherst, Avon Lake, Boardman, Brecksville, Brush, East Tech, Eastlake North, Garfield Heights, Glenville, John Adams, John Marshall, JFK, Lincoln West, Mayfield, Massillon, Nordonia, North Olmsted, North Ridgeville, Parma, Riverside, Rhodes, Twinsburg, Valley Forge and Willoughby South.
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division III: Akron East, Akron Garfield, Akron North, Alliance, Archbishop Hoban, Aurora, Brooklyn, Buchtel, Buckeye, Canfield, Canton South, Chardon, Cloverleaf, Coventry, Geneva, Harvey, Howland, Hubbard, Kenmore, Kenston, Louisville, Lake Catholic, Marlington, Niles Mckinley, Norton, Padua, Poland Seminary, Ravenna, Revere, Rocky River, St. Vincent-St. Mary, Springfield, Tallmadge, University School and West Geauga.
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division IV: Bay, Benedictine, Brookside, Cardinal Mooney, Chagrin Falls, Clearview, Cleveland Central Catholic, Cortland Lakeview, Conneaut, Crestwood, Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Edgewood, Fairview, Field, Firelands, Holy Name, Jefferson, John Hay, Keystone, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Orange, Perry, Ravenna Southeast, Streetsboro, Struthers, Vermilion, West Branch and Woodridge
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division V: Beachwood, Black River, Cardinal, Campbell Memorial, Canton Central Catholic, Champion, Columbia, Elyria Catholic, Fairless, Garrettsville Garfield, Gilmour, Girard, Grand Valley, Hawken, Independence, Labrae, Liberty, Lutheran West, Manchester, Pymatuning Valley, Sandy Valley, Tuslaw, Warrensville Heights, Wellington, Wickliffe, Youngstown Ursuline.
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division VI: Berkshire, Brookfield, Cuyahoga Heights, Jackson-Milton, Kirtland, McDonald, Mogadore,New Middletown, Newton Falls, Oberlin, Springfield, Rootstown, South Range, Villa Angela-St. Joseph, St. Thomas Aquinas and Waterloo.
Here are the Northeast Ohio schools in Division VII: Berlin Center Western Reserve, East Canton, Fairport Harbor, Ledgemont, Lowellville, Lutheran East, Newbury, Open Door Christian, Richmond Heights, Sebring McKinley, Southington Chalker, Trinity, Vienna Matthews, Warren John F. Kennedy, Windham and Youngstown Christian.