Football region play-in schedules: Marist plays vs. Carver at Lakewood for 6-AAAA title
Eight Georgia regions are split into two divisions and are staging play-in football games this week for the purpose of determining seeds for the state playoffs and for filling out the schedules for the teams that won’t make the playoffs.
Below are tentative schedules of those games.
The play-in schedules have not been released officially, so these are compilations based on region rules as we understand them. Some are confirmed. Some are not.
If you see mistakes as we attempt to confirm them, please let us know.
Region 4-AAAAA
#4B McIntosh at #1A Union Grove
#4A Ola at #1B Whitewater
#3A Drew at #2B Creekside
#3B Northgate at #2A Mundy’s Mill
#5B Starr’s Mill at #5A Mount Zion (Jonesboro)
#6A Forest Park vs. Spalding (4-AAAA)
Region 7-AAAAA
#1A Creekview at #4B Riverwood
#4A Forsyth Central at #1B Kell
at #2A Sequoyah at #3B Sprayberry
#3A Northview at #2B Pope
#5A Cambridge at #5B Osborne
#6A North Springs at Kennesaw Mountain (4-AAAAAA)
Region 3-AAAA
#1B Burke County at #1A Wayne County
#3B Cross Creek at #2A Statesboro
#2B Richmond Academy at #3A South Effingham
#4B Glenn Hills at #4A Liberty
#6B Hephzibah at #5B Butler
Note: If two No. 2 seeds (or two No. 3 seeds) win, the winner of the region championship will determine the No. 3 seed for the state playoffs if there is a tie. In other words, if Burke County (north) beats Wayne County (south), the north team will be the No. 3 seed for the state playoffs in the event of a tie between Richmond Academy/Statesboro or Cross Creek/South Effingham.
Region 4-AAAA
#4B North Clayton at #1A Stockbridge
#4A Eagle’s Landing at #1B Griffin
#3B Riverdale at #2A Locust Grove
#3A Dutchtown at #2B Jonesboro, Southern Crescent Stadium
#5B Upson-Lee at #5A Woodland-Stockbridge
#6B Spalding at Forest Park (Region 4-AAAAA), Tara Stadium (Thursday)
Region 6-AAAA
#1A Marist at #1B Carver-Atlanta, Lakewood Stadium
#3B Washington at #2A Chamblee
#3A Columbia at #2B Grady
#4A Lithonia at #4B Banneker
#5B Therrell at #5A Stone Mountain
#6A Redan at #6B South Atlanta
Region 7-AAAA
#1A River Ridge at #1B Ridgeland
#2A Gilmer at #3B Northwest Whitfield
#3A Pickens at #2B Dalton
#4A Cedartown at #4B Southeast Whitfield
#5A Cass at #5B LaFayette
Johnson-Gainesville (8-AAAA) at #6B Heritage-Ringgold
Region 3-A
#1A Savannah Christian vs. #1B Emanuel County Institute
#3A Jenkins County at #2B Johnson County
#3B Treutlen at #2A Calvary Day
5B Montgomery County at #4A Claxton
#5A Savannah Country Day at #4B Wheeler County
#6A Portal at Glascock County
Region 6-A
#1B Walker at #4A Gordon Lee
#4B Mount Paran Christian at #1A Mount Zion
#3B Mount Pisgah at #2A Darlington
#2B Whitefield Academy at #3A Trion
#5B King’s Ridge at #5A Christian Heritage
#6B Fellowship Christian at #6A Southwest Atlanta Christian
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67 comments Add your comment
Tiger4Life
November 6th, 2012
10:09 am
The bottom line is Region play-in games to decide if you go to the playoffs is Stupid.
Why would anyone sigh up for that?
You could have a injury to a key plaer that needs rest going into the playoffs, but now you can’t.
Chamblee Dad
November 6th, 2012
10:48 am
It’s HS football Tiger4Life. Why would you need to rest a key player? Why would a player not want to play against the best? This is not SEC football…. These boys are 14-19. I say let them play; and if ya lose go home!!
WarEagle
November 6th, 2012
11:26 am
Tiger4Life — In the past I also have preferred an all-region schedule to having play-in games. But the one advantange for the subregion No. 1 seeds is that you get to play a good game right before the playoffs, which might have your team better prepared and more focused for round 1. True, you don’t get to rest guys, but I’ve seen plenty of guys get hurt against week teams right before the playoffs as well (that’s what happened to Marist last year, in fact). Of course, if the play-in system makes No. 1 play No. 4 to qualify for the playoffs, then I think that is just plain stupid.
WarEagle
November 6th, 2012
12:24 pm
BTW, just wanted to state that Delando Crooks for Carver sounds like a really great kid — good football player, better person — based on what I have read about him. Hope that young man does well in the future (though I’d prefer he not do so well this Friday!).
GoBulldogs
November 6th, 2012
1:00 pm
The thing to remember about these so-called play-in games is that this is still the regular season. Since a play-in game in effect adds another round to the playoffs, any team in a region with a play-in has to win 6 rounds instead of 5 to win the championship. Big disadvantage there. Any coach buying into that plain and simply isn’t a very bright coach. But perhaps a bigger drawback to the system is that if both #3 teams win, then you have teams going to the playoffs who finished the regular season with worse records than teams who stay home, PLUS the teams who stay home beat the teams going to the playoffs.
Example: if Columbia and Washington (both #3 teams) both win, then Columbia goes and Chamblee stays home, despite Chamblee having a better record, both overall and in region, AND Chamblee beat Columbia 34-0. Also Washington would go and Grady stays home despite having the same record AND Grady having beaten Washington by 20 points (42-22).
The system just makes absolutely no sense. None.
Dekalb Co Guy
November 6th, 2012
2:27 pm
@ GoBulldogs
Well its the formula that schools use when they have sub regions. Again the system was developed basically to help when one sub region is stronger than the other.
For example, what if 6A had divided like this rather than Atlanta/Fulton in 1 subregion and Dekalb in other region, what if they had divided North South and the sub regions looked like this.
North
Marist
Chamblee
Stone Mountain
Carver
Grady
Washington
South
Redan
Columbia
Lithonia
Banneker
South Atlanta
Therrell
Then what if there was no play in games, simply take the Top 2 from each sub region.
Then you would have Marist/Carver/Chamblee/Grady. 2 would have no chance at being in the playoffs. Most likely the other 2 teams would be Columbia and Banneker. While I think Columbia is an ok team, Banneker would be runner up and in the playoffs over Chamblee/Grady, and I think its clear that they are better teams than Banneker. So instances like that is why “play-in” games were created to balance sub regions.
Does that help explain it a little better?
WarEagle
November 6th, 2012
2:41 pm
GoBulldogs: I understand your concern, but here is the flip side: with subregions, one sub might be much weaker than another. Thus, the No. 3 team in subregion X might be better than every team in subregion Y. Why should the arbitrary assignment of subregion membership determine who is in and who is out? With the play-in games, we give 6 teams a chance to prove who should fill the region’s 4 seeds based on actual play on the field. Yes, for the 2 and 3 seeds it is a win or go home game, but it seems more fair than comparing teams that have largely different schedules based on records that might not tell you actually who is better. I mean, imagaine if the subregions had been aligned so that Therrell, Lithonia, Redan, South Atlanta, and Stone Mountain all were in the same subregion this year — would you really want the best of those teams to get a pass into the playoffs without a play-in game?!
WarEagle
November 6th, 2012
2:43 pm
@DeKalb Co Guy — well said!
Tiger4Life
November 6th, 2012
3:16 pm
@Chamblee Dad
If your key player, asy one of these kids runshing for 300 yds. per game has a sore ankle he’s been playing with for 3 weeks. Your team is 9-0 playing a team thats 2-7 for the final regular season game.
Why would you not rest him?
Walker Fan
November 6th, 2012
3:40 pm
Regarding Class A Region 6…given what Mr. Holcomb confirmed with the Region secretary, does that now mean that the following can happen…
- Assume Walker (sub-region A6B Champ) wins, going to 10-0 / 6-0
- Assume Mt. Zion (sub-region A6A Champ) loses…but having already beaten Darlington this season
- Assume Darlington wins
It is possible to for Darlington to jump over Mt. Zion (who already beat them) and for Darlington to jump ahead of Walker and take the region championship based on the points system being the determining factor despite Walker having a better region record and being undefeated…really???
Chamblee Dad
November 6th, 2012
5:24 pm
Mr. Tiger4Life – For me it’s because HS football is HS football. If your TEAM relies so heavily on one player then you are not very likely to be 9-0 in the first place. These kids are student-athletes. The student part comes first for a reason.
You gotta play and beat everybody to win it all anyway. How can you predict when/where you need to “rest” your star player… If you are 9-0 this week – you can rest the kid anyway. They all get in the playoffs. Right?
I lived in Tucker a long, long time. Best of luck this week and always!
Burkeboy32
November 6th, 2012
7:32 pm
I am with tucka tiga 12 I feel and think the same way burke beat all of them
WarEagle
November 6th, 2012
7:32 pm
@Chamblee Dad — if Chamblee were 9-0 and was playing Therrell in a last meaningless regular season game, would you want to rest No. 17 to get ready for the playoffs or would you tape up his shoulder and send him out there?
Chamblee Dad
November 6th, 2012
7:47 pm
Hey Mr. WarEagle! If Chamblee was 9-0 and guaranteed to play next week at home in the first round of the playoffs -why would it matter if he played against Carver (like you guys)…… I don’t see the difference, but I am hoping someone can help me understand!!
Thanks
Bear_Backer
November 7th, 2012
1:33 am
Hey TIGER_12 – Keep running your trap, Stockbridge WON against Griffin on a last play field goal with no time remaining on the clock after missing two attempts earlier. The (paper) Tigers do not have a kickjng game at all. If you played Griffin now, you would get SMASHED so shut up already. Stockbridge won the game but did not BEAT Griffin as much as Griffin beat themselves that game. I know how the playoffs go, and Stockbridge will probably be one and done. Enjoy your cupcake crossover game against a North Clayton team that you BARELY lucked out a win (by one point) during regular season. I’m calling you out on this ..where will you be when Stockbridge gets bounced? I dare you to come on here and offer kudo’s to whoever it is that shuts your trap. Man up or shut up.
GoBulldogs
November 9th, 2012
8:28 am
DeKalb Co Guy & WarEagle,
First off, if the region was North-South, then Carver would be in the South and Redan would be in the North if you went strictly by who was physically more North or South. But I see your point about one sub-region being stronger. Regardless, even in your scenario, only one team from each sub-region is guaranteed a spot. And upsets can always happen. But more importantly, how often would one sub-region be THAT MUCH stronger than the other, realistically? Certainly not this year. But with the current system, you have the VERY REAL possibility of not only one but two lessor teams going to the playoffs over stronger teams EVERY SINGLE YEAR. It’s a flawed system.
GoBulldogs
November 9th, 2012
8:49 am
Another problem in the current system involves the cross division games. This year, Carver beat Columbia and Grady beat Lithonia earlier in the year. What if those schedules were swapped and Carver had played Lithonia and Grady had played (and beaten) Columbia? Now you have a situation where Grady would have to beat Columbia TWICE to go to the playoffs. There are just way more holes in the current system than simply worrying about one sub-region being stronger.