"Last fall we received overwhelmingly positive feedback when we allowed every team to enter the football playoffs due to the shortened season because of COVID-19," OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said in a statement. "We know there are some who want to keep the football postseason to a smaller number of schools, but the postseason tournament gives such a positive experience for our student-athletes, the schools and their communities that we felt strongly about giving that opportunity to more schools to make the playoffs. And football remains the only OHSAA sport in which not every team automatically qualifies for the postseason."

Last summer, the OHSAA announced it was going to expand to 12 teams per region, up from the previous number of eight which had been in place since 1999.

That expansion would have given first-round byes to the top four seeds in each region.

The new expansion will now add one week to the playoff schedule compared to in 2019, the last year in which there was a limit on football playoff qualifiers. Last fall, every team that wanted to participate was allowed to due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The teams will be seeded as usual based upon the Harbin computer rankings, which have been used every year since the playoffs began in 1972 except last year. The No. 1 seed will play No. 16, No. 2 against No. 15 and so on.

The first and second rounds of the playoffs will be held at the home sites of the higher seeds. Neutral sites will begin in the regional-semifinal round and continue through the remainder of the playoffs.

The site of the state championship games has not yet been determined, but the format will include one game Thursday, Dec. 2, and two games each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 3-5.

During the first five rounds of the playoffs, Division I, II, III and IV schools will play on Friday nights, while Division V, VI and VII schools will play on Saturday nights.