Class AAAAAAA will have a wild-card playoff team this season. The 32nd playoff berth will go to the highest-rated team among Region 1's fourth-place team and the other regions' fifth-place teams. That will occur because the GHSA recently ruled that four-team regions (i.e., Region 1) can have only three automatic playoff qualifiers. According to the Maxwell Ratings, that team is 59.6 percent likely to come from Region 4. Regions 1, 2, 3 and 5 have chances between 7 and 13 percent. Regions 2, 6 and 7 have almost no chance. Here are the teams most likely to get the wild card, according to Maxwell.
Walton (R4) 21.4%
Lassiter (R4) 19.2%
Etowah (R4) 15.3%
Tift County (R1) 11.9%
South Gwinnett (R8) 7.7%
North Paulding (R3) 7.4%
North Forsyth (R5) 4.3%
Newton (R8) 3.1%
Cherokee (R4) 1.9%
Woodstock (R4) 1.8%
Milton (R5) 1.4%
South Forsyth (R5) 1.2%
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