High School Football in Ohio

Congratulations to Norwalk Catholic School's St. Paul Flyers, who will be 1 of 2 teams representing the Firelands Conference in the Ohio high school football playoffs. This is a very young team, with only 11 returning seniors on the roster, and half of those seniors seemed to have season-ending injuries at some point during the year. So, in what should have been a "re-building year", the Flyers are to be congratulated on making the playoffs.

Something, however, is confusing to me. Now, I played high school football on a very successful Van Vandals football team in the state of Texas (which is, of course, THE state when it comes to high school football), so I consider myself -- as ALL Texans believe themselves to be -- at least something of an "expert" when it comes to high school football. But I am completely baffled by how Ohio high school football teams -- in this instance, the St. Paul Flyers -- qualify for the playoffs.

In Texas, the district champion and the district runner-up (and I think now even the third-place team) qualify for the playoffs. But I don't get the impression that Ohio prep football works the same way. In the Firelands Conference, for example, 3 teams finished ahead of the Flyers. Only 1 of those teams, however, is headed to the playoffs. The other teams, one of whom is the conference co-champ (who received their only conference loss at the hands of the Flyers) and the other of whom finished with the same conference record as the Flyers but defeated them in the head-to-head matchup, will be staying home while the Flyers move on to the playoffs.

Makes absolutely no sense to me. Can someone explain to me how this system works?

Is it similar to the BCS system where Tennessee can obliterate California and have the same 1-loss record, but be ranked behind them in the polls? Or where Auburn can defeat Florida and have the same 1-loss record, but -- just 1 week later -- be ranked behind them in the polls?

Just wondering.