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.