First USA TODAY Super 25 Massey Challenge Football Game To Be Played on Saturday

Game to be broadcast on FSN - The Fox Regional Sports Networks

MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY has announced that the first USA TODAY Super 25 Massey Challenge football game will be played on Saturday, September 25 at 4 p.m. ET in Steubenville, Ohio. Don Bosco Prep of Ramsey, N.J., last year's number one team in the Super 25, will play St. Ignatius of Cleveland, Ohio, a frequently ranked team in the Super 25. FSN, The Fox Regional Sports Networks, will broadcast the game.

USA TODAY and HighSchoolSports.net created the USA TODAY Super 25 Massey Challenge game to showcase last year's number one Super 25 team. This is the first year of the game.

"USA TODAY Sports is excited to introduce a major entrant into the fall sports landscape, extending our industry-leading USA TODAY Super 25 Rankings for high school football into this new nationally-televised championship property.  Our joint efforts with HighSchoolSports.net, the leading high school sports digital media business, and FSN, our broadcast partner for the game, will provide significant audience reach and distribution into more than 100 million television homes and 15 million digital consumers," said Ross Schaufelberger, vice president and general manager of USA TODAY Sports.

The Super 25 is a property of USA TODAY Sports and maintained by prep sports reporter Jim Halley. Since the ranking's inception in 1982, it has been viewed as the premier ranking for high school sports in the nation.

The Massey Ratings are the creation of Ken Massey, a mathematics professor at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn. The Massey Ratings are a detailed rating system that takes into account offense, defense, strength of schedule and some historical criteria. The system also allows people to predict the outcome of games before they occur or hypothetical matchups that they may like to see. The interactive tool can be found only at www.highschoolsports.net.

The game is being produced by Fox Sports Ohio for distribution on FSN, The Fox Regional Sports Networks. Please check local television listings for times in your area. The game can also been viewed on demand at USATODAY.com and HighSchoolSports.net.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Today, through its newspaper, website and mobile platforms, USA TODAY connects readers and engages the national conversation. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in print circulation with an average of more than 1.8 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website  launched in 1995, reach a combined 5.9 million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with more than five million downloads on mobile devices.  The USA TODAY brand also includes USA TODAY Education and USA TODAY Sports Weekly. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

SOURCE USA TODAY