GHSA relents, allows Gainesville to play Friday at near full strength
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.
Gainesville pointed out an inconsistent ruling between the Gainesville case and one involving Macon schools Southwest and Northeast in a game played Aug. 22.
Similar to the Nov. 21 Gainesville-Brunswick playoff game, the Northeast-Southwest game was suspended in the third quarter and one team declared the winner. But the GHSA did not suspend all players who left the bench area during the Macon altercation.
“We didn’t address it the same way we addressed this situation,” Scott said Monday afternoon. “I felt we handled this one [the Gainesville case] by the bylaws, but the earlier one, I’m not sure we did what we needed to do and felt I needed to correct the situation. … When there’s an inconsistency with what we do at the office, it’s my responsibility, and I needed to correct it.”
The GHSA suspended 79 players (38 for Gainesville, 41 for Brunswick) after the Nov. 21 playoff game. Brunswick, as punishment for being the instigating team of the altercation, also was banned from postseason play in 2026.
The decision to play the Gainesville-Hughes game Friday resulted in a schedule change for both 5A semifinals, which now will be played Thursday, Dec. 11.
The Roswell-Thomas County Central game, originally scheduled for this Friday, will be pushed back to ensure all semifinal teams have the same rest before the championship game. Rome will play the winner of the Gainesville-Hughes game.
The schedule change also affects Class 6A, which was scheduled to play its championship game Wednesday, Dec. 17. Class 6A now will take the Tuesday slot, allowing the 5A finalists six days of rest before a Dec. 17 title game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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