2024 High School Football Preview: Public, private schools to split for postseason in new GHSA system

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 14, 2024

In recent years, the playoff picture in Georgia high school football was fairly simple: Finish in the top four in your region, make the postseason.

This season, things get slightly more complicated in the lower divisions.

Starting this year, in most varsity sports, private schools in Class A DI, Class 2A and Class 3A will split off at the end of the regular season to play for their own state championships, separate from the public schools in those classifications. This doesn’t affect the state’s three largest classifications, Class 4A, 5A and 6A, or the smallest classification, Class A DII.

Private schools are still shuffled into regions and will compete alongside their public school counterparts for region championships in Class A-3A, but, at the conclusion of the regular season, those private schools will fill a combined private playoff bracket, while the public schools in each classification will play for a state championship in their classification.

Each school, public or private, that finishes in the top four of a region is still assured of a playoff spot, and the top two in each region are still assured of a home playoff game.

For example, if Dalton’s Christian Heritage, a private school that is set to compete alongside seven other public schools in Region 7-A DI, wins the region championship, it will receive a top seed in the Class A-3A Private state playoffs. If one of the region’s public schools wins the region, it would receive a top seed in the Class A DI state playoffs. If Christian Heritage finished second in the region, it would be assured of a home game in the Class A-3A Private state playoffs.

But, with the split and the removal of private schools from the public playoffs creating holes in the region standings and in the playoff brackets and the space for at-large teams, the rest of the seeding gets a little more complicated.

The GHSA has introduced what it calls the “post season ranking formula” to help decide seeding for the playoffs. It’s a formula that is made up of a team’s winning percentage, that team’s opponents’ winning percentage and the winning percentage of the opponents of the team’s opponents. This formula, abbreviated as PSRF, will spit out a number for each team, and that will be used to seed the playoffs. The GHSA has said that the PSRF for each team will be available for viewing on its website.

At the conclusion of the regular season, for the traditional public school playoffs, all public region champions in a given classification will be seeded in the top seeds based on their individual PSRF. Then, the public schools that finished second in their region will be seeded next, based on their PSRF. Public schools that finished third and fourth in their regions will be assured a playoff spot, and, then, based on how many would-be playoff spots were vacated by private schools that exit to play in the private-only playoffs, a number of at-large teams will then be selected for the playoffs. The top teams by PSRF that finished outside the top four in their region would then qualify for the playoffs. All third-place, fourth-place, and at-large teams, once enough are selected to fill out the bracket, are then seeded solely by PSRF for the playoffs, starting under the first and second place finishers in the region.

The same system is in place for the Class A-3A Private playoffs. Region champs and second seeds that are private schools will be seeded in the top spots, based on PSRF, and then third, fourth and any at-large teams will fill in the rest of the bracket based on PSRF.

For Class A DII, Class 4A, Class 5A and Class 6A, the traditional playoff structure is used, with the top four teams from each region reaching the playoffs, since no public/private split exists in those classifications.

It’s a system that will take some getting used to, for teams and fans following along alike, but follow along with the Daily Citizen’s coverage throughout the season as we keep you up to date on the playoff picture as it takes shape.

Published below is a portion of the GHSA rulebook’s entry on the PSR formula, including example playoff brackets. The full entry can be found at GHSA.net:

Public and Non-Public Schools in Classes A DI, 2A and 3A will play in their assigned regions during the regular season, but private member schools will compete in a combined championship bracket of private member schools only. Public schools in Class A DI, 2A and 3A will participate in a separate championship bracket by assigned classification. The following format will be used for playoff seeding sports where the ranking formula is required.

Public & Private School State Playoff Qualification

Seed all of the Region Champions (1-8, or the number of region champs) by the school’s post season ranking formula totals and all of the Region Runner-Up’s (9-16, or starting at the seed below the lowest region champ) by the school’s post season ranking formula totals and then seeding the remaining 3rd & 4th finishing place schools and At Large seeds strictly by the school’s post season ranking formula (starting with the seed below the lowest region runner-up).

Example — Public Bracket

4 public schools win the region and 5 public schools finish as the region runner-up; 15 public schools finish as #3 or #4 in the region; that’s a total of 24 schools guaranteed a state playoff seed; the 8 remaining seeds are determined using the PSRF. All 3rd, 4th & At Large state playoff participants will be seeded based on PSRF.

Public Bracket

#1 Seed — Highest PSRF Region Winner

#2 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#3 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#4 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#5 Seed — Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#6 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#7 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#8 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#9 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#10 Seed — 3rd Place — Highest PSRF of 3rd, 4th & At Large

#11 Seed — 3rd Place

#12 Seed — At Large

#13 Seed — 3rd Place

#14 Seed — 4th Place

#15 Seed — 4th Place

#16 Seed — 4th Place

#17 Seed — At Large

#18 Seed — At Large

#19 Seed — 3rd Place

#20 Seed — 4th Place

#21 Seed — 4th Place

#22 Seed — 3rd Place

#23 Seed — At Large

#24 Seed — 4th Place

#25 Seed — At Large

#26 Seed — At Large

#27 Seed — 3rd Place

#28 Seed — 3rd Place

#29 Seed — At Large

#30 Seed — At Large

#31 Seed — 4th Place

#32 Seed — 4th Place

Example — Private Bracket

6 private schools win the region and 4 private schools finish as the region runner-up; 7 private schools finish as #3 or #4 in the region; that’s a total of 17 schools guaranteed a state playoff seed; the remaining 15 seeds are determined using the PSRF. All 3rd, 4th & At Large state playoff participants will be seeded based on PSRF.

Private Bracket

#1 Seed — Highest PSRF Region Winner

#2 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#3 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#4 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#5 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#6 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Winner

#7 Seed — Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#8 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#9 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#10 Seed — Next Highest PSRF Region Runner-Up

#11 Seed — 3rd Place — Highest PSRF of 3rd, 4th Place & At Large

#12 Seed — 4th Place

#13 Seed — 3rd Place

#14 Seed — At Large

#15 Seed — At Large

#16 Seed — 4th Place

#17 Seed — 4th Place

#18 Seed — At Large

#19 Seed — 3rd Place

#20 Seed — At Large

#21 Seed — At Large

#22 Seed — At Large

#23 Seed — At Large

#24 Seed — 4th Place

#25 Seed — At Large

#26 Seed — At Large

#27 Seed – At Large

#28 Seed — At Large

#29 Seed — At Large

#30 Seed — At Large

#31 Seed — At Large

#32 Seed — At Large