The high school football playoffs resume tonight with 14 semifinals and the long-awaited Gainesville-Hughes game. Gainesville-Hughes is the quarterfinal the GHSA postponed last week while sorting out the matter of 38 suspended Gainesville players. The semifinals won't be upstaged by one famous quarterfinal, though. The semifinal winners are going to the Benz, the Falcons’ home field.

Defending state champions Bowdon and Hebron Christian will be back in action Friday night in the GHSA football semifinals. Bowdon, seeking its fourth consecutive state title, will travel to Clinch County in a Class A Division II game. Hebron Christian of Class 3A-A Private will face Greater Atlanta Christian in the first meeting between the Gwinnett County private schools.

Burke County and Carver of Columbus will meet Friday in the Class 2A semifinals in a rematch of last year’s state championship game, won by Carver 52-14. Carver advanced to the semifinals for the third consecutive season with a 38-10 victory last week against Thomson, the regular-season champion in Burke County’s region.  

Gainesville will play Hughes in the Class 5A football quarterfinals Friday at near full strength as the Georgia High School Association decided Monday not to fight a restraining order that kept it from suspending 34 Gainesville players. The turning point in the deadlock took place Sunday, according to GHSA executive director Tim Scott.

Carrollton and Marist defeated defending champions Grayson and North Oconee, ending the state’s two longest winning streaks, while Sumter County and West Laurens advanced to their first semifinals in history with playoff victories last week. Worth County and Pepperell reached semifinals for the first time since the 1990s.

Grayson picked up its third No. 1 national football ranking when MaxPreps moved the Rams into the top spot this week. Grayson moved up from No. 2 after its 31-10 victory over Norcross in the second round of the playoffs last week. The Rams replaced Maryland’s St. Frances Academy, which fell to No. 3 after being idle last week. Grayson became the No. 1-ranked team in the High School Football America poll three weeks ago and ascended to No. 1 in the USA Today rankings last week.

The Georgia High School Association suspended 39 Gainesville football players Monday because of a fight during Friday night’s playoff victory at Brunswick. However, the team still plans to play its Class 5A quarterfinal game Friday at No. 1-ranked Hughes, Gainesville City Schools superintendent Jeremy Williams said in a statement Monday revealing the GHSA’s ruling.

Jackson County and Douglass ousted defending champions in the second round of the football playoffs Friday, eliminating Milton and Calhoun, respectively, while Sumter County, Wheeler County and Whitfield Academy, along with Jackson County, made history by reaching the quarterfinals for the first time. The three No. 1-ranked teams that faced ranked opponents came out alive.

Two of south Georgia’s best football teams will be in Gwinnett County for blockbuster games tonight as the football playoffs resume with 64 second-round games in eight classifications. In Class 6A, the highest, No. 6 Lowndes is playing at No. 8 North Gwinnett while No. 9 Colquitt County plays at No. 1 Grayson. No. 8 Lee County, another south Georgia power, will be at No. 1 Hughes in Fairburn for a Class 5A game.

Washington-Wilkes, Jenkins County and Charlton County were the only No. 3 seeds to survive the first round of the playoffs in Class A Division II. Of those, Washington-Wilkes will have the toughest task this week when it travels to three-time defending champion Bowdon, projected as a 34-point favorite by the computer Maxwell Ratings. Jenkins County will visit Schley County this week, and Charlton County will play at Screven County.

No. 1 seed Carver-Atlanta, No. 3 Carver-Columbus and No. 4 Morgan County are heavy favorites this week, but the computer Maxwell Ratings are expecting some particularly close second-round matchups in Class 2A. Hapeville Charter is a one-point favorite at Appling County, Burke County is favored by one point over Columbia, and the Thomson-Callaway game is projected as a tossup.

Defending Class 4A champion North Oconee will continue its quest to win back-to-back titles when it meets M.L King in a second-round game Friday night. M.L. King is making its first appearance in the second round since 2012. Marist, the runner-up in 2024, will face Blessed Trinity in a battle of metro Atlanta private schools. The winners of those two games will meet in the quarterfinals next week.

Unranked Walton, Berrien and Washington-Wilkes beat heavily favored top-10 opponents Friday night, and Centennial won as a 36-point underdog in the first-round’s biggest upset. Walton’s 28-24 victory over undefeated McEachern resonated loudest around the state, as McEachern, ranked No. 4 in Class 6A, had won nine of its 10 games by 21 points or more, and Walton had lost to the Indians 50-17 in the opening game.

The Georgia high school football playoffs kicked off Thursday with the first two of 119 first-round games to be played from the Chattanooga suburb of Fort Oglethorpe to the Atlantic harbor town of Brunswick. The first round often simply culls the herd – the computer Maxwell Ratings correctly forecast 104 of 119 games last year – but it takes only a few upsets and history-makers to make it special.

Bowdon’s quest for a fourth consecutive state championship kicks into high gear Friday night when the Red Devils open the Class A Division II playoffs with a home game against Wilcox County. Bowdon has won its first-round game each of the past six seasons and is 16-9 all-time in the round of 32. Brooks County, last year’s runner-up is making its 18th consecutive playoff appearance and will host Taylor County in the first round.

The first round of the Class 2A playoffs will match some unfamiliar foes, as 13 of the 16 games will be between teams that have never met. Among the teams playing an opponent for the first time are No. 1 seed Carver-Atlanta (vs. Butler), No. 3 seed Carver-Columbus (vs. Redan) and No. 5 seed Appling County (vs. Hart County). On the other hand, No. 3 seed Morgan County will face Westside-Macon in a rematch of a regular-season game.

The Georgia High School Association placed its 454 member schools into regions for the 2026-28 academic years Monday. Schools have one week to request a move into a different region in the same classification. The GHSA’s reclassification committee will hear those appeals Nov. 17. Seventeen schools won appeals Monday to play in lower classifications than they were assigned last week.

The Class 4A bracket is filled with playoff regulars. Among the teams with long streaks of postseason appearances are Ware County (24 consecutive seasons), Tucker (19), Kell (18), Benedictine (15), Blessed Trinity (15), Warner Robins (15) and Cartersville (14). No one, however, has more than Marist, which is in the playoffs for the 32nd consecutive season. The War Eagles face Starr’s Mill at home Friday night.

Top-ranked Grayson will begin the defense of its 2024 Class 6A championship when it meets playoff regular Norcross in the first round of the playoffs Friday night. This is Grayson's 12th consecutive playoff appearance. The Rams won their first-round game each of the past 11 seasons and are 19-1 all-time in the round of 32.

West Laurens’ Ty Cummings, North Hall’s Alex Schlieman and Calhoun’s Justin Beasley are the regular-season rushing, passing and receiving champions, respectively. Cummings became the state’s lone 2,000-yard rusher by finishing strong, rushing for 267 yards in West Laurens’ 27-3 victory over Westside of Augusta for the Region 4-3A championship.