The landscape in Class A will change again beginning with the 2020 football season. After separating for the playoffs at the start of the 2012 football season, public and private schools in Class A will move a bit further apart a year after the coming season when they will be placed in separate regions for the regular season as well.
Here is an excerpt from a story written by the AJC's Todd Holcomb, covering last Monday's meeting of the Georgia High School Association's Executive Committee:
“Class A beginning in 2020-21 will have eight public-school regions and eight private-school regions. That’s in contrast to the current eight regions total that exist in Class A, Georgia’s classification for schools with fewer than 525 students. Most current Class A regions have both public and private schools. There are about 120 Class A schools, about 90 that play football, so the new regions will be small, assuming the 525-student ceiling remains in place. The move also means 64 Class A playoff teams (32 in public, 32 in private) compared to the current 48 teams.
“Power rankings will no longer be used to determine seeding for Class A schools or to pick at-large playoff teams in higher classifications. The current rule guaranteeing only three playoff berths for regions with just four teams was abolished, meaning that a region with only four or fewer teams would qualify all of its teams. Class A will go back to seeding its playoff teams the way other classes do, based on region standings, not power rankings.”
So how will these new regions look? Here’s a preview of what the public regions could be (we’ll breakdown the possible new private regions next week):
PUBLIC
Region 1: This region is already an all-public league made up of 10 teams: Baconton Charter, Calhoun County, Chattahoochee County, Miller County, Mitchell County, Pataula Charter, Pelham, Randolph-Clay, Seminole County and Terrell County.
Region 2, 3 and 5: Region 2 is already an all-public league with eight teams: Atkinson County, Charlton County, Clinch County, Irwin County, Lanier County, Telfair County, Turner County, Wilcox County. Region 3 is subdivided into two, six-team sub regions. All six teams in Division B are public schools (Emanuel County Institute, Montgomery County, Jenkins County, Johnson County, Treutlen and Wheeler County), while three of the six in Division A are public (Claxton, McIntosh County Academy and Portal). There are no public schools in Region 5. These 17 teams could comprise Regions 2, 3 and 5 in what could look something like this:
Region 2: Atkinson County, Charlton County, Clinch County, Irwin County, Lanier County and Telfair County.
Region 3: Emanuel County Institute, Montgomery County, Jenkins County, Johnson County, Turner County, Wilcox County.
Region 5: Claxton, McIntosh County Academy, Portal, Treutlen and Wheeler County.
Regions 4-8: Between Regions 4-8, there are 24 public schools, none in Region 5. They are: (Region 4) Central-Talbotton, Crawford County, Dooly County, Greenville, Hawkinsville, Macon County, Manchester, Marion County, Schley County and Taylor County; (Region 6) Bowdon, Gordon Lee, Mt. Zion-Carroll and Trion; (Region 7) Georgia Military College, Greene County, Hancock Central, Lincoln County, Twiggs County, Warren County, Washington-Wilkes and Wilkinson County; (Region 8) Commerce and Towns County.
Taking proximity into consideration, these 24 schools would be divided amongst the four remaining regions – 4, 6, 7 and 8 – perhaps into four, six-team leagues. They might look something like this:
Region 4: Crawford County, Dooly County, Greenville, Macon County, Marion County and Warren County.
Region 6: Bowdon, Central-Talbotton, Gordon Lee, Manchester, Mt. Zion-Carroll and Trion.
Region 7: Georgia Military College, Hawkinsville, Taylor County, Twiggs County and Wilkinson County and Warren County.
Region 8: Commerce, Green County, Hancock County, Lincoln County, Towns County and Washington-Wilkes.
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