THOMASTON — Whether it has become more heightened because of the COVID-19 outbreak or just because resources are limited, the Georgia High School Association on Monday issued a release to all its member schools that will have ramifications for years to come.
The GHSA said it will "set up a rotation of classifications playing on Saturday for the first round for the coming years," Associate Director Kevin Giddens said in the statement.
The 2020 playoffs will be the first to take on these new directives as all Class 2A and Class 4A games will be moved to Saturday.
That involves several northeast Georgia area teams. Jefferson and Flowery Branch in Class 4A and Rabun County, Union County, and Banks County in Class 2A all will have their games shifted.
Giddens cited "a lack of (playoff) officials available for the first round," as for the main reason the organization felt it needed to make this move.
In recent years this has become more common and for most of the 2020 regular season games around the state were having to be moved to Thursdays and Saturdays in many cases to accommodate the officials shortage. That allowed the officials to work multiple days to get games covered.
(Below is the playoff schedule for the 14 northeast Georgia area teams that advanced to the GHSA playoffs.)
STATE PLAYOFFS 1st ROUND SCHEDULE FOR Nov. 27
(Games at higher seeded team)
(All games are a 7:30 p.m. kickoff unless otherwise stated.)
CLASS 7A
Gainesville (Region 6, Seed 3) at Archer (Region 7, Seed 1)
CLASS 6A
Douglas County (R5, S4) at Buford (R8, S1)
Habersham Central (R8, S3) at Rome (R5, S2)
CLASS 3A
Dawson County (R7, S3) at Adairsville (R6, S2)
LaFayette (R6, S4) at Cherokee Bluff (R7, S1)
North Murray (R6, S3) at North Hall (R7, S2)
White County (R7, S4) at Rockmart (R6, S1)
CLASS A PRIVATE
Lakeview Academy (R6, S3) at North Cobb Christian (R7, S2)
CLASS A PUBLIC
Manchester (R5, S4) at Commerce (R8, S1), 8 p.m.
STATE PLAYOFFS 1st ROUND SCHEDULE FOR Nov. 28
(Games at higher seeded team)
CLASS 4A
Luella (R5, S3) at Flowery Branch (R8, S2), TBD
Mt. Zion-Jonesboro (R5, S4) at Jefferson (R8, S1), TBD
CLASS 2A
Banks County (R8, S4) at Calloway (R5, S1), TBD
Haralson County (R5, S4) at Rabun County (R8, S1), TBD
Union County (R8, S3) at Heard County (R5, S2), TBD
