Daily List: From No. 1-ranked to missing the playoffs

Houston County must defeat No. 2 Northside (Warner Robins) and No. 1 Valdosta this week and next just to make the playoffs, that after spending seven weeks at No. 1. Without winning out, Houston County will finish fifth in a five-team region that also includes No. 8 Lee County and No. 10 Coffee. There have been 100 teams in GHSA history to be ranked No. 1 and then fail to make the playoffs, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, but it has happened only twice in the past 20 years - 2006 Lowndes and 1999 Valdosta - or since the GHSA expanded the state playoffs to 32 teams per class. Below are the only 10 teams in the past 50 years that were ranked No. 1 and then failed to finish in the top four of their regions. To make it comparable to the Houston County predicament, the list does not include No. 1 teams that missed the playoffs but still finished in their region's top four. Notable among those are 1971 Lakeside, 1975 Warner Robins and 1981 West Rome, each going 9-1 but finishing second in regions that advanced only the champion.

2006 Lowndes (1)

1999 Valdosta (5)