33 teams facing long road trips in first round of playoffs

Northwest Whitfield is eight miles from the Tennessee border but will be eight miles from the Atlantic Ocean on Friday night when the Bruins play Jenkins at Memorial Stadium in Savannah. That 350-mile trip isn’t the longest of the first round. That distinction goes to Glynn Academy’s 377-mile trip to Rome’s Barron Stadium. The GHSA this year made playoff format changes in all sports that increased the likelihood of these long-distance relationships. In past years, regions 1-4 (which house the more southerly teams in a classification) and regions 5-8 (the more northerly teams) could not face off in the first round. This year, first-round pairings have Region 1 teams vs. Regions 7 teams and Region 2 teams vs. Region 8 teams. The GHSA’s new points ratings system that seeds classes 3A to A Division I does not consider region affiliation, making first-round matchups geographically random. Those changes have contributed to more first-round travel. The average one-way road trip is 109 linear miles this season compared to 94 in 2023. Linear miles are faster to calculate than road miles. Assuming that road miles are 20-25% longer than linear miles, it can be estimated that first-round playoff teams are traveling an extra 36 round-trip miles on average this season. Here are the longest trips in driving miles this week.

377 - Glynn Academy at Rome

363 - Camden Co. at North Cobb

350 - NW Whitfield at Jenkins

341 - Villa Rica at Brunswick

321 - Southeast Bulloch at Heritage (Ringgold)

297 - Valdosta at Walton

284 - Rabun Co. at Fitzgerald

269 - Savannah Country Day at Mount Vernon

269 - Union Co. at Sumter Co.

267 - North Paulding at Lowndes

264 - Effingham Co. at East Paulding

263 - Vidalia at Fannin Co.

261 - Tucker at Ware Co.

255 - Benedictine at SW DeKalb

253 - Habersham Central at Lee Co.

251 - Coosa at Worth Co.

249 - Washington-Wilkes at Brooks Co.

244 - Winder-Barrow at Thomas Co. Central

244 - Glascock Co. at Early Co.

229 - Cairo at Douglass

227 - Chattooga at Dodge Co.

225 - Charlton Co. at Lincoln Co.

223 - Wheeler at Colquitt Co.

222 - Monroe at Jefferson

220 - Trion at Schley Co.

214 - New Manchester at Lakeside (Evans)

213 - Coffee at Jackson Co.

210 - Long Co. at Upson-Lee

209 - Elbert Co. at Gordon Lee

201 - Gordon Central at Dublin

199 - Jackson at Pierce Co.

199 - Warren Co. at Clinch Co.

197 - Dade Co. at Lamar Co.