PSR has undefeated football teams getting lower seeds than teams they beat

Lowndes and Appling County just won marquee games between 8-0 teams, but both will be seeded in the playoffs below the teams they just defeated, according to the GHSA’s Post Season Rankings standings and Maxwell Ratings projections.

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Lowndes and Appling County are among 25 teams Maxwell is projecting will get lower seeds than teams they have beaten with no other indirect results (such as three teams that are 1-1 against each other) to contradict those outcomes.

Others include North Oconee (projected No. 3 seed) ahead of Jefferson (No. 7) in Class 5A and Cairo (No. 5) ahead of Dougherty (No. 6) in Class 4A. Jefferson beat North Oconee last week. Dougherty beat Cairo earlier last month. Those were region games in regions that Jefferson and Dougherty won.

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2026 GHSA football printable bracket, when PSR seeding will be finalized

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In some cases, there will be teams left out of the playoffs that beat teams that made it. One is Chattahoochee County (projected No. 32 seed in Class A) going ahead of Marion County (No. 36) and Crawford County (No. 41), teams that it defeated, and will finish ahead of Chattahoochee County in Region 4-A.

In the highest class, Lowndes beat Valdosta 32-31 last week, but the PSR standings show Valdosta (8-1) at No. 1 and Lowndes (9-0) at No. 3.

A similar scenario is playing out in Class 2A, where Toombs County (8-1) is No. 1 and Appling County (9-0) is No. 3 despite Appling’s 11-7 victory.

Lowndes and Appling County have played weaker schedules, and both are playing Top 10 opponents Friday — Lowndes vs. Colquitt County and Appling vs. Pierce County.

But even if they win those games, Lowndes and Appling will be seeded No. 2 or No. 3, according to the Maxwell Ratings, which compute the PSR and project how they will go with one week remaining in the season.

Appling County coach JD Sellers told AJC Varsity this week that he is not a fan of the PSR.

“I think it’s subjective,” Sellers said. “It’s impossible to know what teams are going to be like going into the year when schedules are made, so on and so forth. I prefer the traditional way where it was completely objective. It was how you finished, based on your win-loss record in the region, and then you went into the seeds based on that. That’s just my personal take on it, but that’s the rules of the situation, so we’ll have to line up and play however the cards fall.”

The PSR is computed using a team’s winning percentage, their opponents’ winning percentage and their opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. In past years, the GHSA seeded based primarily or entirely on a team’s finish in region standings.

Below are the PSR standings as calculated by Maxwell with one week remaining in the regular season.

The list shows each team’s PSR current standings and its projected finish.

The GHSA’s published PSR standings are different and less accurate because of school athletic directors’ tardiness in reporting scores. More than 80 teams have inaccurate won-lost records in the GHSA’s standings, according to a Maxwell Ratings and AJC Varsity audit.

Class 7A

• Valdosta: 1 → 1
• Newton: 2 → 2
• Lowndes: 3 → 3
• Carrollton: 4 → 4
• Brookwood: 5 → 5
• North Gwinnett: 6 → 6
• Colquitt County: 7 → 12
• Buford: 8 → 8
• McEachern: 9 → 9
• Parkview: 10 → 14
• North Paulding: 11 → 13
• Westlake: 12 → 10
• Grayson: 13 → 11
• North Cobb: 14 → 7
• Peachtree Ridge: 15 → 17
• Denmark: 16 → 16
• East Coweta: 17 → 15
• South Gwinnett: 18 → 19
• Hillgrove: 19 → 18
• Camden County: 20 → 20
• Richmond Hill: 21 → 21
• Marietta: 22 → 24
• Walton: 23 → 22
• Harrison: 24 → 23
• Archer: 25 → 26
• South Forsyth: 26 → 28
• North Forsyth: 27 → 25
• North Atlanta: 28 → 27
• Norcross: 29 → 29
• Lambert: 30 → 31
• West Forsyth: 31 → 33
• Etowah: 32 → 34
• Collins Hill: 33 → 32
• Dacula: 34 → 30
• Douglas County: 35 → 36
• Paulding County: 36 → 35
• Rockdale County: 37 → 37
• Pebblebrook: 38 → 39
• Campbell: 39 → 38
• Kennesaw Mountain: 40 → 40
• Mill Creek: 41 → 41
• Duluth: 42 → 42
• Cherokee: 43 → 43
• Central Gwinnett: 44 → 44
• Northgate: 45 → 45
• Wheeler: 46 → 46
• Berkmar: 47 → 47
• Seckinger: 48 → 48
• Forsyth Central: 49 → 49
• Discovery: 50 → 50

Class 6A

• Thomas County Central: 1 → 1
• Lee County: 2 → 2
• Jackson County: 3 → 3
• Coffee: 4 → 5
• East Paulding: 5 → 4
• Sequoyah: 6 → 7
• Clarke Central: 7 → 9
• Milton: 8 → 6
• Creekside: 9 → 8
• Hughes: 10 → 10
• Heritage (Conyers): 11 → 11
• Roswell: 12 → 17
• Gainesville: 13 → 14
• Kell: 14 → 15
• Habersham Central: 15 → 13
• Effingham County: 16 → 16
• Houston County: 17 → 18
• Bradwell Institute: 18 → 12
• Lassiter: 19 → 19
• Newnan: 20 → 20
• South Effingham: 21 → 24
• Dunwoody: 22 → 21
• New Manchester: 23 → 22
• Woodward Academy: 24 → 23
• Shiloh: 25 → 25
• Walnut Grove: 26 → 26
• Northside (Columbus): 27 → 27
• Creekview: 28 → 29
• Tift County: 29 → 30
• Loganville: 30 → 28
• Mountain View: 31 → 36
• Veterans: 32 → 34
• Northside (Warner Robins): 33 → 33
• Cedar Shoals: 34 → 41
• Brunswick: 35 → 37
• Lanier: 36 → 32
• Chamblee: 37 → 31
• South Cobb: 38 → 38
• Alexander: 39 → 35
• Rome: 40 → 42
• Greenbrier: 41 → 43
• Lovejoy: 42 → 39
• McIntosh: 43 → 46
• Woodstock: 44 → 44
• Glynn Academy: 45 → 40
• Hiram: 46 → 47
• Alpharetta: 47 → 48
• Decatur: 48 → 45
• Tri-Cities: 49 → 49
• Alcovy: 50 → 51
• Grovetown: 51 → 52
• Pope: 52 → 50
• South Paulding: 53 → 53
• Morrow: 54 → 55
• Johns Creek: 55 → 54
• Meadowcreek: 56 → 56
• Apalachee: 57 → 58
• Chapel Hill: 58 → 57
• Lakeside (Atlanta): 59 → 59
• Osborne: 60 → 60
• Riverwood: 61 → 63
• River Ridge: 62 → 62
• Lakeside (Evans): 63 → 61
• Midtown: 64 → 64

Class 5A

• Cartersville: 1 → 2
• Blessed Trinity: 2 → 1
• North Oconee: 3 → 3
• Cass: 4 → 8
• Dalton: 5 → 4
• Mays: 6 → 9
• Benedictine: 7 → 6
• Tucker: 8 → 5
• Jefferson: 9 → 7
• Marist: 10 → 10
• LaGrange: 11 → 12
• Central (Carrollton): 12 → 11
• Richmond Academy: 13 → 14
• Ware County: 14 → 17
• Stockbridge: 15 → 13
• Jones County: 16 → 23
• Lithonia: 17 → 15
• Flowery Branch: 18 → 18
• Cedartown: 19 → 19
• Ola: 20 → 16
• Statesboro: 21 → 20
• Jonesboro: 22 → 24
• Cambridge: 23 → 25
• Whitewater: 24 → 21
• Perry: 25 → 22
• Villa Rica: 26 → 27
• Griffin: 27 → 29
• Centennial: 28 → 26
• Southwest DeKalb: 29 → 28
• Dutchtown: 30 → 30
• Warner Robins: 31 → 33
• East Forsyth: 32 → 31
• M.L. King: 33 → 32
• Harris County: 34 → 36
• St. Pius: 35 → 35
• Drew: 36 → 34
• Allatoona: 37 → 37
• Jenkins: 38 → 38
• Winder-Barrow: 39 → 42
• Evans: 40 → 39
• Chattahoochee: 41 → 44
• Locust Grove: 42 → 40
• Lithia Springs: 43 → 43
• Druid Hills: 44 → 49
• Maynard Jackson: 45 → 41
• Woodland (Cartersville): 46 → 45
• Eastside: 47 → 48
• Wayne County: 48 → 46
• Sprayberry: 49 → 47
• Banneker: 50 → 50
• Starr’s Mill: 51 → 52
• Madison County: 52 → 51
• Mundy’s Mill: 53 → 53
• Union Grove: 54 → 54
• Eagle’s Landing: 55 → 58
• Groves: 56 → 56
• Arabia Mountain: 57 → 55
• Forest Park: 58 → 57

Class 4A