By: Ron Reagin

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The discussion about PSR, Post Season Ranking, gets clearer when we separate those decisions. Did the right teams get a chance to play in the postseason? And were they seeded fairly once they got there?

We compared two seasons in Georgia’s highest classification. For 2025, we put the actual region-based playoff field against our simulation using today’s PSR rules. For 2026, we put the official PSR bracket against the teams that would have qualified under the old four-per-region system.

In each year, PSR and the old format selected the same 29 teams out of 32. This year, Peachtree Ridge, Richmond Hill and South Forsyth get opportunities the old format would have denied them. Douglas County, Dacula and Mill Creek would have qualified under the old rule but are out under PSR.

In both comparisons, the three additional qualifiers were fifth-place region finishers. No sixth-place teams got in. That means some third- and fourth-place teams were left out.

That gets to the heart of the change. The old format reserves four places for every region. PSR evaluates the full season and the schedules teams played.

That was a stated goal of many who supported changing the old system: the right 32 teams, not four places for every region regardless of what happened over the entire season.

That does not prove every choice is right, but it’s a better starting point than treating a region boundary as the end of the discussion.

Choosing the field is only half the job. The next question is how fairly those 32 teams are seeded.

This year’s Region 1 results show why there cannot always be a perfect head-to-head order. Valdosta beat Colquitt. Colquitt beat Lowndes. Lowndes beat Valdosta. Regardless of the seeding order, one of those teams will rank below a team it beat.

Last year’s Region 1 three-way tie shows the same thing from the other direction.

Valdosta won the tiebreaker and the region title, but under PSR the tiebreaker would only have decided the champion.

Seeds come from statewide PSR order. Lowndes would have been the 2 seed, Colquitt 6 and Valdosta 8, even though Valdosta beat Lowndes 23-14. This year it’s flipped, with Lowndes the region champ at 5 and Valdosta the runner-up at 1. Winning the region doesn’t automatically get you the highest seed.

Buford is another seeding debate worth noting. The defending state champions and national top-10 team is the official 7A No. 9 seed, in part because its out-of-state games get limited credit under PSR.

In a test that gave Buford full credit for those games, Buford moved to fourth. Some say that’s fair, others say they should be 1 based on national polls and previous years’ performance. That’s a whole other issue.

Region-champion protection raises another question. Denmark ranks 19th in the official raw PSR but is protected into the top 16. East Coweta ranks 16th raw and would have been at home without the adjustment.

Now East Coweta travels to Denmark for the first round. That is the reward for winning a region championship. It is not pure PSR order, and whether that produces the fairest seeding is a reasonable debate.

Then there are possible early region rematches. Some folks don’t want that. No one wants their season ending in the first round against a region rival before getting a shot at someone from elsewhere in the state.

Others embrace it. Rivals meeting with the season on the line brings back the atmosphere of those old region championship games.

The purpose is a fair chance to earn a spot in the postseason, then earn a trip to the final by winning this week and the next, until you lose or become champions. That is the standard any playoff format should strive to meet.

The field is set, so for 2026, the debate gets settled on the field, one week at a time. Come the off-season, PSR will get its review.

Whether that means changing how out-of-state games count or how region champs are protected, or schools giving PSR more weight when they schedule.

Year one gave everyone plenty to look at.