The high school playoffs are designed to prove who’s No. 1. The regular season failed to do it.
Only Prince Avenue Christian of Class A Division I and Schley County of A Division II are unanimous No. 1 teams in a composite of six statewide polls.
They have question marks, too. Schley County has never won a state title. Prince Avenue Christian, an unbeaten champion last season, showed itself vulnerable when it lost to Mary Persons of Class 3A in September.
The AJC’s other No. 1-ranked teams are Mill Creek (Class 7A), Gainesville (6A), Coffee (5A), Benedictine (4A), Calvary Day (3A) and Thomson (2A).
Among those six, the Maxwell Ratings like only Coffee. The computer favors Walton (7A), Thomas County Central (6A), Bainbridge (4A), Cedar Grove (3A) and Pierce County (2A) instead. Garnering No. 1 rankings in various other polls are Creekside and Cartersville in 5A and Appling County in 2A.
Not that a No. 1 ranking guarantees anything. A year ago, no poll had eventual champions Mill Creek, Benedictine, Sandy Creek or Thomson ranked No. 1 entering the playoffs. No. 1 teams win titles only about 30% of the time.
Here’s a closer look at the first round of this five-week journey that will sort this out.
How it works: Each of the eight classifications has a 32-team draw (except for Class A Division II, which has 31 teams). With a few exceptions, classes 4A and 2A first-round games will be played Saturday, the rest Friday. The GHSA runs the first round over two days to ensure having enough qualified officials. Teams are seeded based on their region finishes, and higher-seeded teams get home-field advantage. The finals are scheduled for Dec. 11-13 (Monday-Wednesday) at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Regulars: Six schools have made the playoffs each season this century. They are Buford, Commerce, Cook, Fitzgerald, Marist and Peach County. Of the 255 playoff teams, 215 are returnees from 2022.
Best players: Among the state’s top 50 GHSA healthy and rostered recruits, 48 are playing this week. Most highly rated are Buford’s Dylan Raiola, K.J. Bolden and Eddrick Houston, Jefferson’s Sammy Brown, Parkview’s Mike Matthews and Hughes’ Air Noland, all five-star recruits.
Best story: Glascock County restarted football in 1990 and proceeded to lose 82 consecutive games. Chris Kelley was a Glascock quarterback in 1993, when only 12 players took the bus for the final game against Lincoln County. Glascock lost 72-0. In 1999, Kelley joined the coaching staff, and Glascock broke the losing streak. In 2002, he became his alma mater’s head coach. Glascock will play its first playoff game in history Friday at Aquinas. “Our little school never quit,’’ Kelley said.
Drought breakers: Glascock County , Osborne, East Forsyth and Providence Christian are in the state playoffs for the first time. It also had been a long while for Therrell (first time since 2002), Portal (2006), Redan (2007) and Dunwoody (2009).
Missing: Calhoun failed to qualify for the first time since 1999. Other noteworthy broken streaks are those of Jefferson County (last miss was 2001), Allatoona (2009), Mount Paran Christian (2012) and Liberty County (2012). Lowndes’ eight-season streak was the most conspicuous to snap from Class 7A.
Beating odds: From a preseason perspective, the most surprising playoff team is East Forsyth, a three-year-old school given only a 0.8% chance of qualifying out of Region 8-4A by the Maxwell Ratings. Other successful long shots were Osborne (2.6%), Randolph-Clay (2.8%), East Paulding (8.5%) and Campbell (10.1%), Taylor County (10.7%) and Glascock (11.1%).
Best first-round matchups: The only game between top-10 teams is No. 2 Appling County at No. 7 Northeast in Class 2A, but several other top-10 teams got rough opening assignments, even accounting for home-field advantage. Those include No. 3 Colquitt County against Parkview in 7A, No. 9 Houston County against North Atlanta in 6A; No. 6 Kell against Cass and No. 8 Greater Atlanta Christian against Dalton in 5A; No. 6 Perry against Burke County and No. 4 Spalding against Wayne County in 4A; and defending champion Sandy Creek against Monroe Area in 3A.
Hardest to pick: The Maxwell Ratings peg three games as pure toss-ups. Those are White County at Bremen, Athens Academy at Columbia and Troup at Cairo. One-point favorites are Houston County over North Atlanta, Oconee County over Douglass, Appling County over Northeast, Holy Innocents’ over Cedartown and Luella over East Forsyth.
What’s next: The second round is next week. If all favored teams advance, the rounds of 16 could produce matchups such as Class 6A defending champion Hughes at No. 6 Rome and No. 4 Toombs County at Class 2A defending champion Thomson.
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Georgia high school playoff brackets
Round 1 Georgia high school playoffs scoreboard
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