Four teams in playoff contention

COLUMBUS — The Ohio High School Athletic Association released the first official football computer ratings on Tuesday. The weekly ratings report will be released each Tuesday for the remainder of the season, leading up to the final report on Oct. 26. New for 2025, the top 12 in each region will qualify for the playoffs, with the top four seeds getting a first-round bye. The OHSAA weekly report will list the top 16 schools in each region. In June, the OHSAA announced that the number of playoff qualifiers in each region would be reduced from 16 to 12. The first three rounds of the playoffs will be hosted by the higher-seeded team in the matchup. The playoffs then shift to neutral sites for the regional championships and state semifinal rounds. The seven state championship games will again be played Dec. 4-6 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The 72 largest schools are in Division I, while the remaining schools are divided equally in Divisions II through VII (approximately 106 schools in each division). The OHSAA football website is at ohsaa.org/sports/football, and includes statewide schedules and playoff information, MaxPreps rankings and stat leaders, OPSMA Weekly Notebooks and Spectrum broadcast information. In Div. V Region 18, Edison (4-1) again finds itself in contention for a home playoff game, and a potential first-round bye. The Chargers enter Friday's game vs. Bellevue (3-2) in the SBC Bay opener as the No. 6 seed in the region. The Redmen are 13th in Div. IV Region 14. Edison is just .55 points behind No. 4 Genoa for the fourth and final first-round bye. According to the early Drew Pasteur projections at fantastic50.net, the Chargers will need to go 9-1 to earn a spot among the top four, but have an 87 percent chance to host a first round game with seven wins. Western Reserve (4-1) enters Friday's game vs. Monroeville (3-2) as the No. 8 seed in Div. VI Region 22. The loaded region includes Hopewell-Loudon (5-0), Archbold (4-1) and Bluffton (5-0) at the top. Margaretta (4-1) is the No. 5 seed, which gave the Roughriders their lone loss, 21-0, on Aug. 29. If the 'Riders were to win out at 9-1, Pasteur's site projects them as the No. 6 seed with another first-round home game at Bachelder Field. Like Edison, Western's percentage at the playoffs is 87 percent with seven wins. Their home game odds dip from 95 percent to 52 if they finish with eight wins. In Div. VII Region 25, the Eagles can see their playoff standing increase in a big way with a win at Western. Monroeville sits at No. 6 in the region this week. If the Eagles were to finish 7-3 or better, they will again host a first-round game at Marsh Field. According to Pasteur's early projections, the Eagles will earn a bye if they win out. They are still projected a 100 percent lock to host in the first round with seven wins, and even 99 percent with six wins, The site projects the Eagles at 7-3 as the No. 5 seed in the region, and they even currently have 76 percent odds to host with five wins. After visiting Western, the Eagles still travel to Div. VI Crestview (3-2) and FC rival St. Paul (2-3). Speaking of the Flyers, they check in at the No. 12 and final spot in the region this week after losses to Port Clinton (No. 14, Region 18), Edison and Western. At 5-5, Pasteur's site projects the Flyers as the No. 8 seed, which would be the lowest seed eligible to host a first-round game. They are projected with 99 percent or better chances to be at Contractors Stadium in Week 11 with six or more wins, and even 42 percent chances with five. As far as overall odds, St. Paul currently has a 93-percent projection at making the field even with four wins. The current top four in Region 25 includes McDonald (5-0), Fairport Harding (4-0), East Palestine (5-0) and Mogadore (4-1).