There’s always some silly reason to try to stop what makes eminent sense— no matter how it‘s structured, the people who don’t like or want change will have some reason why they don’t want it— the one earlier was “I like having those two (or three) out of league games, before we start our league schedule, to build Harbin points for the playoffs”— now, you’re saying “We’d have games against bad teams”— well, that happens regardless. Just stop with the obfuscation— if you don’t want and byes, you can ALWAYS agree to be seeded lower— and there are bad games against overmatched teams, whether the playoffs include 8 per region, 12 per region, or everybody in a region.
If you want to win the state title, you don’t care at all about the stuff you mentioned above— it’s just delays before getting to the serious games— use them to prepare— Ohio State doesn’t quibble about (in fact seeks out) games against Youngstown State or Nobody StateU early in the season— and it doesn’t stop Ohio State from being ready for the tough games at the end.
The bottom line is that EVERY other Ohio HS sport has ALL teams in the playoffs— and mismatches happen in all sports— they even happen in the state Division I football championship game— there is NO reason that football needs to be (or SHOULD be) different from the other sports.