Interestingly this year was also the highest rated seasons for Roswell and Mill Creek as well, both handily defeated by the Packers over the last two weekends. All three, along with a strong Grayson team, entered the semifinals undefeated before facing each other.

– Allatoona downed Glynn Academy in a close game to claim the AAAAA title. Allatoona was upended by East Paulding to open the season in what ended up being one of the season's least likely results, but then won 14 straight to close the season.

– Cartersville took the AAAA title by denying Buford their fourth straight. Both teams entered the championship game after having played relatively weak regular season schedules, but dominated each of their playoff opponents, including Buford's 35-18 defeat of previously undefeated Woodward Academy and Cartersville 38-7 drubbing of previously undefeated Bainbridge.

- Now, if there's any team that can complain about the computer underrating them, Westminster is it. The Wildcats, who started the season 3-4 before winning eight straight, were projected underdogs in each of the five rounds in the playoffs! Their amazing finish in the championship game only parallels their amazing finish to the season.

But although their rating has improved by nearly three touchdowns since the end of the regular season, the computer still can't quite overlook those early season losses and places Blessed Trinity and Calhoun ahead of them in the final ratings.

Still, I'm sure a quick glance at the trophy case soothes the sting :-)

- Pace Academy also played the underdog role for the last two games to win the AA championship. The Knights started in the semifinals by avenging their regular season loss to Greater Atlanta Christian and then routing Fitzgerald in the title game. They also achieved the highest rating in their school's relatively short history by two touchdowns. However, on the season as a whole, Greater Atlanta Christian edges them out in the final ratings.

- Clinch County is the third team to avenge a regular season loss in the championship game with a 24-7 victory over Irwin County to claim the Class A-Public title. From the start of the playoffs the computer pegged the Panthers as the favorites, but their eventual pairing with Irwin County, a fellow region member who had defeated them 28-12 in the regular season, made for an interesting rematch.

- Eagle's Landing Christian cruised to a 35-14 win over Aquinas in the Class A-Private championship game. ELCA faced the toughest schedule in Class A during the regular season, playing AAAAA Stockbridge, AAAA Woodward Academy, and AA Greater Atlanta Christian, all of whom were legitimate title contenders in higher classifications.

Maxwell GHSA Football Ratings

As this season's games are played, the Maxwell Ratings will be based on a modified logistic regression of the current football season's results in combination with each team's historical performance. More recent games and games against similarly rated opponents carry more weight and the weight of each team's historical performance diminishes as the team's season progresses.

The current total weight of all team's historical performance is 0.10%.

For the current season, the ratings accurately account for the winner of 2,045 of 2,241 total games including 2 tie(s) (91.30%) and accurately reflect approximately 68.3% of all game margins within 13.10 points.

The ratings are scaled so that 100.00 is the rating required to win 91.5% of all games in an infinite round robin tournament against all teams in the highest classification. The schedule strength is the rating required to win 50% of all games in an infinite round robin tournament against a particular team's opponents.

All data is courtesy of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.

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Visit the Maxwell Ratings for more ratings and information, including Maxwell's Georgia High School Football Archive.

Home Advantage: 1.67

By Class

All-Class

Classification rankings are shown in [brackets]. Each team links to its page at the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. Please submit errors or omissions through their forums.

Regions

Each region is shown with its “Competitive Rating”, which is the rating required to win 80% of all games against the region’s teams in an infinite round robin competition, and its “Average Rating”, which is the rating required to win 50% of all games against the region’s teams in an infinite round robin competition.

Least Likely Results

These are the least likely results of the season using the ratings above. These may change as the season progresses. Each row shows the game data, the difference in the teams after accounting for the home advantage, the expected winning percentage of the favored team, and the likelihood of the on-field result.

Highest Rated Matchups

These are the highest rated matchups of the season using the ratings above. The game rating is the rating required to win 50% of all games in an infinite round robin competition against the expected rating of the loser of the game, which favors games with highly rated and closely matched opponents. These may change as the season progresses. Each row shows the game rating, the game data, the difference in the teams after accounting for the home advantage, and the expected winning percentage of the favored team.