Trion football coach Justin Brown has not been a fan of his public school competing against private schools to determine berths in public school playoffs, but the GHSA will no longer use that system starting in the 2020-21 school year.The Georgia High School Association’s executive committee voted this week to completely split private and public schools in Class A beginning with the 2020-21 school year, and with it eliminated power ratings to determine seeding for Class A schools or to pick at-large playoff teams in higher classifications.
The vote means Class A will now have eight private school regions and eight public school regions. Playoff teams will be determined the same way across all classifications – the top four teams in each region will earn postseason berths. The current system, which will still be in place this coming season, relies on power ratings to fill playoff brackets after region champions are seeded one through eight.
The ratings are determined with a system that awards points for victories, including bonus points for wins against opponents from higher classifications. Teams are then ranked by those ratings.
The move was well received locally, where northwest Georgia’s two Class A public schools, Gordon Lee and Trion, have competed in Region 6-A, a subdivided 19-team league that has 13 private schools. Most of Gordon Lee’s and Trion’s games each season since the power ratings began have been against private schools they would not compete against in the postseason.
“Our biggest issue of the seven years with power rankings is having to play private schools and it counting against us for a public playoff,” said Trion football coach and athletic director Justin Brown, who attended the GHSA meeting as the region representative and is a member of the football subcommittee.