There are only two weeks remaining in the regular season, and only Boyd-Buchanan has secured a region championship.
The Buccaneers, currently the state's top-ranked Class 2A football team, wrapped up Region 3-2A with a victory over Polk County last week.
East Ridge and Ooltewah are close in Regions 3-3A and 4-5A, respectively.
East Ridge's Pioneers, who play a nonregion game tonight vs. Loudon, will have a championship showdown next week with Chattanooga Christian. An East Ridge win not only would secure the Pioneers a region title but could also bump CCS down to third behind Notre Dame.
A win tonight at Cleveland or next week against Walker Valley will be enough to get Ooltewah a title. Rhea County remains in the running but Ooltewah would have to lose both while Rhea wins out against Walker Valley and McMinn County.
East Hamilton has an open date this week but remains in the 3-4A chase. The Hurricanes will take their shot next week when they travel to current leader Stone Memorial. However, there remains the strong possibility of a three-way tie by midnight next Friday among those two and Livingston Academy.
Region 3-1A also is coming down to next Friday when South Pittsburg hosts Grace Academy. That game, along with Copper Basin at Whitwell, will decide the title and all four playoff seeds.
Despite a loss to DeKalb County, Sequatchie County still has an outside shot at winning 4-3A, but the Indians would have to have help while beating Grundy County this week and Upperman next week.
All Class 6A and Division II East/Middle teams, a group that includes Bradley Central, Baylor and McCallie, automatically qualify for the postseason.
Dalton bucks trend
Dalton isn't the only football team in the area featuring a run-first mentality, but its "throwback" offensive style is creating difficulty in game-planning - for the Catamounts and their opponents.
Dalton, 6-2 with four straight wins, features both a fullback and a tight end in its I-based offense. In today's spread-dominated game there is little game video on how to defend it. For the Cats, that's good news. The bad news is there is also scarce video for the Dalton staff to study how its opponents go about defending it.
"As an I team most teams aren't prepared for it, having to game-plan against a fullback and tight end," Dalton coach Matt Land said. "It's been an advantage and a disadvantage because we have only seen one defensive film that has helped us prepare."
As a result, the Catamounts prepare for multiple defensive looks every week.
"Every team is putting in different stuff for us," Land said. "Usually it's something they've seen that worked against us earlier in the season. So far it seems to be helping us."