It has been 20 years since the PIAA conducted its first football championship playoffs.

While the state's governing body for high school athletics has done a nice job of dressing up its football finals, it still has a long way to go before folks in the southwest corner of Penn's Woods consider a PIAA title as the ultimate.

The PIAA finals will be played Dec. 12-13 at Hersheypark Stadium. The truth is they still take a backseat to the WPIAL championships even after 20 years. For most teams in the Pittsburgh area, winning a WPIAL crown is the most important thing. Winning a PIAA title is the icing on the cake, but nothing more.

Part of that has to do with the history of the PIAA championships. When the idea of state-wide playoffs was first proposed in the mid 1980s, the WPIAL was opposed to the notion. WPIAL representatives voted against the PIAA instituting state-wide playoffs.

When the PIAA tournament became a reality in 1988, a number of WPIAL schools decided not to participate, citing the length of the season as a reason. Among them was Class AAAA champion Upper St. Clair.

Central Catholic, the WPIAL runner-up, took Upper St. Clair's place in the PIAA field and won the Quad-A title, defeating Cedar Cliff, 14-7, at Penn State's Beaver Stadium.

That was the only time Beaver Stadium was used for a PIAA final. Since 1998, all of the PIAA finals have been played at Hersheypark Stadium. From 1992-97 they were at Altoona's Mansion Park Stadium and before that they took place at several sites across the state.

The PIAA has taken a page from the WPIAL in holding all of its playoff games at one site since 1992. Unlike the WPIAL, the site has lacked pizzazz.

The WPIAL finals are played at Heinz Field and before that they were at Three Rivers Stadium. The playing surface at Heinz Field aside, those are major-league facilities, the kind of venue that sends chills up the spines of high school athletes when they walk out onto the field.

Hersheypark Stadium might be in Chocolate Town USA, but its still nothing more than a big high school facility.

"We played at Heinz Field for the WPIAL title with the NFL locker room and then we go to Hersheypark for the [PIAA] final and the playing surface was fine, but the locker room was terrible," said Greg Botta, who guided Franklin Regional to WPIAL and PIAA Class AAA titles in 2005.

"I've talked to a lot of [coaches] about this and what [the PIAA] ought to do is alternate the championship games each year between Heinz Field and the Philadelphia Eagles stadium [Lincoln Financial Field]."

Tim O'Malley, WPIAL executive director, recognizes the advantage the league has in holding its finals at an NFL facility. He also believes there is a need for a state football playoff.

"Any time a kid suits up [in the WPIAL], his No. 1 goal is to get to Heinz Field and to play for a WPIAL title," O'Malley said. "His team should also have an opportunity to play for a state title."

And the WPIAL championships have become a stepping stone to a shot at a PIAA crown, even though coaches admit it's tough to get players motivated for PIAA playoff game at a high school fields after playing at Heinz Field.

"I talked to [Bethel Park coach] Jeff Metheny last week and he asked me, 'Now what do I do after those kids played so hard [in the WPIAL final]?'" O'Malley said. "That's always the problem."

Still, there are some coaches who look at the PIAA title as the big prize.

One of those is Thomas Jefferson's Bill Cherpak, who has the Jaguars in the PIAA playoffs for the third year in a row.

"No question. I talked to Bill the other day and they point to the [PIAA] final," said West Allegheny coach Bob Palko, who guided his team to a PIAA title in 2001. "I don't think [playing in the PIAA playoffs] is viewed as much of a downer any more. To say you're a state champion means something."

But in this part of the state, will it ever mean more than winning a WPIAL title to players, coaches and fans?

"There are a lot of positives to winning a PIAA title," Botta said. "Are there negatives involved with it ... absolutely. But when you win [a PIAA title] the negatives don't mean as much."

The WPIAL title games at Heinz -- "We're going to keep going there as long as Mr. Rooney will have us," O'Malley said -- are tentatively scheduled for either Nov. 27 or 28, the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving, depending on Pitt's and the Steelers' schedules.

There is a possibility the final would be played Nov. 21 but only if the PIAA decides to revamp its 2009 calendar.

The problem is that Labor Day is late (Sept. 7). That means training camps for fall sports are scheduled to open Aug. 17 and the first football playing date is set for Sept. 4. Nine weeks for the regular season and four weeks for the WPIAL playoffs puts the WPIAL finals the weekend after Thanksgiving and the PIAA finals Dec. 18-19.

The problem with that timetable is that the winter sports schedule -- the first practice would be Nov. 23 -- is squeezed.

WPIAL officials would like to see the PIAA push things forward a week and allow fall sports to begin practicing Aug. 10 and play the first football games Aug. 28. That would make the WPIAL finals the weekend before Thanksgiving.