The Georgia High School Association placed its 457 member schools into regions for the 2024-26 academic years Thursday, pushing reclassification one big step closer to completion. The GHSA approved the appeals of six schools to move out of Class 6A, which will be the highest classification, and into Class 5A. Winning those appeals were Arabia Mountain, Houston County, Kennesaw Mountain, New Manchester, Newnan and Shiloh.

Prince Avenue Christian’s Aaron Philo retook the lead in GHSA passing yards with a 388-yard game last week against Oglethorpe County. Philo has thrown for 2,568 yards in eight games. Wayne County’s Matthew Fuller and Loganville’s Ahmed Souare continue to lead the GHSA in rushing and receiving, respectively. Each has only one regular-season game remaining.

Parkview visits Colquitt County for a Class 7A game Friday night in what is perhaps the marquee matchup of the first round, a north-south Georgia battle between an undefeated blue blood and a Gwinnett County team that played for a region title last week. The question is whether Parkview has fuel in the tank after losing to Grayson 41-14.

Arabia Mountain's Daniel Turpin, Bainbridge's Cam Sanders, Stephenson's Devin Ingram and Trion's Toby Maddux produced big numbers in their teams' championship-clinching victories in the final weekend of the regular season, and Marcus Calwise helped Newton break a two-game losing streak and grab the No. 2 seed in Region 4-7A.

Four defending champions and three teams that have never won state titles will enter the playoffs with No. 1 rankings. The defending champions are Mill Creek in Class 7A, Benedictine in 4A, Thomson in 2A and Prince Avenue Christian in A Division I. Coffee in 5A, Calvary Day in 3A and Schley County in A Division II are No. 1. They have never won state titles. Gainesville, in 6A, is the final No. 1 team.

The playoffs kick off this week as 255 GHSA teams, 36 GIAA teams and six GAPPS teams begin the road to the championships. Champions will be crowned by the GAPPS on Nov. 24, by the GIAA on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Mercer's Five Star Stadium, and by the GHSA Dec. 11-13 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Each week this season, scores compiled from online scoreboards and social media will be posted on the Scores & Schedules page late Friday night. GHSF Daily will begin reconciling and verifying the scores Saturday morning. Here is the updated version from Week 12. If you have additional corrections, please contact us.

Prince Avenue Christian’s Aaron Philo retook the lead in GHSA passing yards with a 388-yard game last week against Oglethorpe County. Philo has thrown for 2,568 yards in eight games. Wayne County’s Matthew Fuller and Loganville’s Ahmed Souare continue to lead the GHSA in rushing and receiving, respectively. Each has only one regular-season game remaining.

City and private schools took a hit in reclassification two years ago with a new 3.0 multiplier. They are probably smiling today. The Georgia High School Association on Wednesday placed its 457 member schools into classifications for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years, and some larger county public schools got the worst of it. Nineteen schools are moving into the highest classification. All are county schools.

As the final week of the regular season approaches, here are 10 storylines to follow, most with an eye toward history and the unusual. Eleven games will decide region titles outright. Two of them, each to be played near the Florida-Georgia border, match top-10 teams. They are No. 1 Coffee at No. 5 Ware County in Region 1-5A and No. 8 Cairo at No. 3 Bainbridge in Region 1-4A.

Big nights on offense by Adairsville WR Tre Winters, Providence Christian WR Caleb Lee and Southwest QB Chase Dupree helped their teams pick up crucial victories in the race for the playoffs, while Kel Ikpechukwu led the Grayson defense in a dominant win over Archer that created a tie for first place in Region 4-7A.

Fourteen top-10 teams lost football games last week, and six fell out of the rankings. Most conspicuously absent is Calhoun, the previous No. 10 team in Class 5A. The Yellow Jackets lost to unranked Cass 52-29. Calhoun is out of the rankings for the first time since early 2020 and won’t be in the playoffs for the first time since 1999. They finished 6-4 overall and 2-3 in Region 7-5A, which includes top-10 teams Cartersville and Hiram.

Prince Avenue Christian’s Aaron Philo retook the lead in GHSA passing yards with a 388-yard game last week against Oglethorpe County. Philo has thrown for 2,568 yards in eight games. Wayne County’s Matthew Fuller and Loganville’s Ahmed Souare continue to lead the GHSA in rushing and receiving, respectively. Each has only one regular-season game remaining.

Numerous games around the state this weekend will determine region championships. Among them are 1-7A (Valdosta at Colquitt County), 1-6A (Lee County at Thomas County Central), 2-5A (Jones County at Warner Robins), 7-5A (Dalton at Cartersville), 2-4A (Perry at Spalding) and 2-3A (Mary Persons at Upson-Lee). Others, like Rabun County at Commerce in 8-A Division, will go a long way in deciding the champions.

With two weeks remaining in the regular season, here are GHSF Daily’s choices as the eight most intriguing region races. The preference is for multiple good plots and not a single pending showdown for the title such, as Ware County vs. Coffee in Region 1-5A or Thomas County Central vs. Lee County in Region 1-6A. If a hat draw might decide a champion among three top-10 teams, or if Calhoun or Jeff Herron isn’t certain to make the playoffs this late in the game, that’s a region that could make this list.

Kell linebacker Elijah Washington and Milton quarterback Luke Nickel put their teams in position to win region championships this weekend with big nights in Week 10, while Cairo's K.J. Spence, Lumpkin County's Cal Faulkner and Washington-Wilkes' James Danner made impacts on both sides of the ball.

A week after getting bounced from the Class 7A rankings for losing to an unranked team, Parkview re-entered the top 10 this week with a big victory its own Friday night. Parkview defeated No. 5 Newton 28-21, complicating the Region 4 standings and showing how competitive the state’s highest classification can be. Parkview, now ranked No. 9, has lost to Archer, the first-place team in Region 4, and to No. 1 Mill Creek.

Wayne County’s Matthew Fuller is the GHSA’s new leading rusher, and five other running backs took the lead in their classifications after strong performances last week. Fuller ran for 272 yards against New Hampstead and sits at 1,560 for the season. Providence Christian’s Quinton Slaughter took the Class 2A lead with a 389-yard rushing game against Union County. The 389 yards are the most for a player in a game this season.

Sole possession of first place is at stake in several regions in Week 10, including 2-7A (Westlake vs. Carrollton), 4-6A (Marist vs. North Atlanta), 6-5A (Greater Atlanta Christian vs. Kell), 2-2A (Spencer vs. Northeast), 8-A Division I (Commerce vs. Elbert County) and 6-A Division II (Manchester vs. Schley County). And Sandy Creek meets Cedar Grove in a rematch of the controversial 2022 Class 3A final.

The Georgia High School Association is waiting on Department of Education enrollment numbers before placing schools into classifications for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. During the most recent reclassification in 2021, that news broke the first week in November. Keep in mind this is not a projection of the final classes that will start in 2024, as those will be based on enrollment statistics that will have changed significantly since 2021.