The reclassification of Georgia’s Region 6-AAA took another step toward completion this week.
There is, however, still much work to be done.
When the GHSA – to the surprise of many – decided to put 10 schools in the region, it created several issues, the biggest being whether the league should subdivide for football or play a full region schedule of nine games plus one non-region game.
After a meeting last week among administrators solved nothing, that decision was made for the schools this week. The GHSA, based on a rule in its constitution that says regions with 10 or more schools must subdivide, ordered the region to split along north and south lines.
As a result, the north sub-region will include Coahulla Creek, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Murray County, North Murray and Ringgold, while the south sub-region will be made up of Adairsville, Bremen, Calhoun, Haralson County and Sonoraville.
While one issue was settled, others persist and will likely also have to be decided by the GHSA’s reclassification committee. At the heart of the impasse are two main questions. One is how many crossover games are to be played; the other is how the region’s qualifiers for the state playoffs will be decided.
“We’re at a standstill right now,” said Calhoun athletic director and football coach Hal Lamb, who represents one of five schools that did not want to subdivide. “Everything we vote on is a five-to-five vote. We can’t decide on crossover games or the play-in format. It’s a difficult situation where nobody is budging.”
The north sub-region teams want to play two crossover games with south teams in addition to the play-in/crossover game in the final week of the regular season, which would leave them with three non-region games. South teams want three crossover games and two non-region contests.
The stickier issue is the play-in format and how to determine the region’s four postseason teams. The north side would prefer the more traditional format of the sub-region champions playing for the region title and the No. 2 seeds playing the No. 3 seeds, with the winners advancing to the state playoffs.
The south sub-region, which has this year’s top three teams in the 6-AAA football standings – Calhoun, Adairsville and Sonoraville – wants a format that has the No. 1 seed in each sub-region playing the No. 4 seed from the other and the second seeds playing third seeds. It’s a plan in which all four playoff teams could come from the same sub-region.
“There’s a lot of problems with that, I think,” Ringgold athletic director and football coach Robert Akins said. “What if both fours beat both ones, then who’s the region champion? If you’re a No. 1 seed, are you willing to travel to a No. 4 for the play-in game? That seems crazy to me.”
A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday to try and hash out the differences, but neither side is optimistic it will get done.
“We were going to meet tomorrow, but we decided we were still deadlocked at five each, so we’ll meet Tuesday,” Akins said. “My guess is the GHSA will have to make the decisions. Everybody is looking out for what’s best for their schools, and I can respect that.”
Of course, this is just the procedure being discussed for football. Coaches in other sports will also be meeting over the next few weeks to determine their formats for regular and postseason play.
“Softball, volleyball and cross country will have to be decided soon after the first of the year so they can get schedules set,” Akins said. “I don’t think it will be as difficult as football, but you never know.”
‘ Also this week, the GHSA denied each of the six schools requesting a lateral transfer between regions, including Cartersville, which was seeking to move to Region 6-AAAA for the 2016-18 classification cycle.
That region will include northwest Georgia schools Heritage, LaFayette, Northwest Whitfield, Ridgeland and Southeast Whitfield, along with Gilmer and Pickens. All of those schools and Cartersville are currently members of Region 7-AAAA.
Cartersville, which faces Buford for the Class AAAA state football title today at the Georgia Dome, will instead be placed in Region 5.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.