New GHSA rule yields more blockbuster high school football games in 2026

The state’s best football teams found it harder to find opponents willing to play them this offseason after the GHSA passed a rule that penalizes teams for losing nonregion games.

With nowhere left to turn, those elite teams seem to have found each other, producing an unusually strong slate of nonregion games for 2026.

Buford and Grayson, the past two champions in the highest classification, are playing each other in September. It will be their first regular-season meeting.

Buford, the 2025 consensus national champion, will play home games against national power Miami Central of Florida and 2025 Class 5A runner-up Gainesville. Buford and Gainesville are 20 miles apart but haven’t played each other since 2013.

Grayson will play at Hughes, the 2022 Class 6A champion, in September. Hughes’ 73 wins are third-most in Georgia this decade. The game will be those teams’ first meeting since 2015.

Thomas County Central, the 2025 Class 5A champion, is playing Colquitt County for the first time since 2012. Those South Georgia powers have won two state titles apiece since then.

Hebron Christian, the two-time defending private classification champion, is playing Benedictine and Blessed Trinity, both bigger private schools that have won seven state titles combined since 2014. Hebron also is playing Carver of Atlanta and Morgan County, teams that were 12-1 last season.

Two-time Class 2A champion Carver of Columbus is playing high-class power Douglas County.

Sandy Creek, the reigning Class 3A champion, is playing Grayson and Douglas County. Grayson has three times Sandy Creek’s enrollment of 1,200.

“It could be a bloodbath, or it could be close,” Sandy Creek coach Darius Smiley said. “But we feel like our staff and kids are good enough to match up with some of the bigger schools. It’s a chance to test our skills on a bigger stage outside of the state championship game. It’s something our kids wanted.”

Under a new rule, the GHSA’s Postseason Rankings Formula will choose and seed playoff teams in all eight classifications. For the past two seasons, the GHSA used the PSR, a math model, to seed only four classes. The PSR rewards winning percentage, which makes playing tough schedules risky, especially for the underdog.

Just as significantly, the GHSA no longer will give preferential bracket placement based on region finish. Region champions that perform poorly in nonregion games could be seeded as low as 16th in a 32-team draw.

Smiley conceded that his choice to play Grayson and Douglas County wasn’t entirely about facing the best competition.

“It was also a deal where some of the teams we reached out to didn’t want to play us, so we were forced to play schools that were also looking for games because nobody wanted to play them either,” Smiley said. “We couldn’t find the local teams that we typically play. They wouldn’t play us after winning a state a championship.”

Jefferson and Calhoun are other midsize schools that loaded up their nonregion schedules. That included a game against each other.

Jefferson and Calhoun met in state championship games in 2012 and 2024, each winning once, but their Aug. 21 season opener will be their first regular-season meeting. It will be a two-hour drive that neither school typically makes before the playoffs.

Calhoun is playing nonregion games two hours away against North Oconee and Troup, teams that were 22-3 combined last season. Calhoun has never played either in the regular season.

“You have to find teams willing to play you, and we found a couple of teams in the same boat as us,” Calhoun coach Clay Stephenson said. “We didn’t really want to play each other, but at the end of the day, you have to play them or play somebody way out of your classification, which is not always in the best interest of your team.”

But he added, “On the other side of it, I’m a firm believer in scheduling difficult teams early on so we can be better in games 13, 14 and 15.”

Calhoun started the 2024 season 1-3 — with losses to bigger schools Creekview, Cartersville and Cambridge, — but won its final 11 games and claimed the Class 3A championship, beating Jefferson 21-7.

That 2024 season demonstrated the peculiarities of the PSR, which then protected region champions. Calhoun and Jefferson were 7-3 in the regular season, but Calhoun was seeded No. 7 and Jefferson was seeded No. 1. Calhoun would’ve been 13th under 2026 rules, which would’ve ignored Calhoun’s region championship.

Jefferson fared better because two of its opponents — Marist and North Oconee — finished 10-0. That gave Jefferson a huge boost in the PSR, which counts opponents’ winning percentage.

Jefferson got the No. 1 seed again last year with a 9-1 record, ahead of three 10-0 teams. Jefferson’s loss came against North Oconee, which went 10-0 again.

“Playing good people is advantageous to you,” Jefferson coach Travis Noland said. “I think that’s where people get lost with the PSR. The success of Marist and North Oconee helped our power ranking. It’s not automatically about just wins. People trying to schedule wins are going to be disappointed when it gets down to it. At least for us, it’s been advantageous to play good people nonregion.”

Jefferson, in addition to playing Calhoun, will travel to Peach County and to South Carolina’s Westside, a team that reached its state’s Class 4A semifinals last year. Jefferson also will play North Oconee, this time as a region opponent.

“I just hope I didn’t schedule myself out of a job,” Noland joked.

At Hebron Christian, coach Quentin Davie had no choice in his schedule. He got the job in late January, when Kenny Dallas stepped down, inheriting perhaps the toughest gantlet of any Class 4A-2A Private team.

“I didn’t have any say so, but I’m 100% down with the schedule and love what we did,” Davie said. “Our guys need it.”

Hebron opens against Carver of Atlanta in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic, then travels to Benedictine before a home game against Blessed Trinity. Morgan County, now a region opponent, is a mandatory game.

Nine of Hebron’s 10 opponents made the playoffs last season, and the one that didn’t — Duluth — is probably the worst opponent choice from a PSR standpoint.

Duluth has been 4-6 the past two seasons, but that was in the highest classification. It would be a good win for Hebron to beat a team with five times the students (about 2,500 to 500), but it won’t show up that way in the PSR universe.

“You can Monday morning quarterback and say we didn’t schedule right,” Davie said, “but it’s going to help us playing that stiff competition, going up against a team like Blessed Trinity with the No. 1 player in the nation (DJ Jacobs). If you go out and play ball, at the end of the day, the wins and losses will fall where they may and we’ll be where we need to be at playoff time.”

Top 2026 nonregion games

Aug. 13

• Roswell vs. Walton (Mercedes-Benz Stadium)

Aug. 20

• Marietta at NFL Academy (London)

Aug. 21

• Jefferson at Calhoun
• Colquitt County at Thomas County Central
• Toombs County at Benedictine
• Carrollton at Rome
• Fitzgerald at Clinch County
• Grayson at Sandy Creek

Aug. 28

• Milton at Blessed Trinity
• Sandy Creek at Douglas County
• Hebron Christian at Benedictine

Aug. 29

• Creekside at St. Joseph’s (New Jersey)

Sept. 4

• Jefferson at Peach County
• Grayson at Hughes
• Carrollton at Catholic (Louisiana)
• Camden County at Benedictine
• Blessed Trinity at Hebron Christian

Sept. 11

• Miami Central (Florida) at Buford
• McEachern at Gainesville
• Houston County at Central-Carrollton
• Brookwood at Marist

Sept. 18