The Georgia High School Association published the football schedules for 2015 last week.
Most teams are playing the same schedules as 2014, only flipping home and away games, but here are a few changes that you might find interesting.
- Parkview and Peachtree played each other last season in a non-region game. This year, they've decided to invite two top teams from Tennessee to Peachtree Ridge for a Saturday, Aug. 22, double-header. Peachtree Ridge will play Tennessee's Class 3A champion, Christ Presbyterian of Nashville, which was 15-0 last season. Parkview will play the McCallie School of Chattanooga, a 9-3 team last season that was rated No. 11 overall in Tennessee by MaxPreps.
- Buford, the reigning Class AAAA champion, is playing a school called Eastern Christian of Maryland in an Aug. 21 opener in Buford. Eastern Christian is an independent school founded largely for the purpose of developing football players for the next level. It calls itself the Honey Badgers. They were 3-9 last season but still ranked No. 12 in Maryland by MaxPreps because of a schedule that included New Jersey state champion St. Peter's Prep and Texas powers Trinity and DeSoto on the road. The team has several Division 1 recruits, including a linebacker, Dele Harding, who is committed to Michigan. Buford has won 40 straight games. Buford also will play McEachern again, but on the road this year on Sept. 4.
- The Corky Kell Classic will have same 12 schools for Aug. 21-22, but the matchups are entirely different. The best change is that the four Saturday games will be in the Georgia Dome. A year ago, they were farmed out to McEachern's Cantrell Stadium because of a conflict with a Falcons preseason game. The best matchups are Tucker-McEachern (rematch of the 2014 Class AAAAAA semifinals) and Colquitt County-North Gwinnett. Also pretty good is Norcross vs. Valdosta. The others are Brookwood vs. Mill Creek, Archer vs. North Paulding and Sandy Creek vs. Creekview. Too bad that Archer, the Class AAAAAA runner-up, is not playing Sandy Creek again.
- The third annual Battle of The Borders will bring four more strong Florida teams to Hallford Stadium on Aug. 28-29. Florida Class 5A champion American Heritage will play Stephenson, and runner-up Godby will play Tucker, both on Saturday. Cedar Grove will replace M.L. King (3-7 last season) and take on Hallandale, a Miami Area school that went 10-2 last season. In a Friday night game, Marist will play Cocoa, a team that lost to Florida Class 4A champion Booker T. Washington only 14-12 in the playoffs. A year ago, there were four games highlighted by Miami Central beating Stephenson 21-20 and B.T. Washington beating Tucker 19-7.
- Tucker's challenging pre-region schedule continues on Sept. 11 when the Tigers travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to play Blackman, a team that was 11-2 last season in Tennessee's Class 6A.
- Several other Georgia teams are playing new Florida opponents. Notable among those are Eagle's Landing Christian vs. North Florida Christian, Charlton County vs. Santa Fe, and Lowndes vs. Bayside.
- Class AAAAAA champion Colquitt County won't play Hoover of Alabama this season, and no replacement has been named. Colquitt's Aug. 28 spot on the schedule has not been filled.
