By: Ron Reagin

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Valdosta beat Camden County by 53 points Friday night and its PSR went down.

That’s how the GHSA formula works. What happens on everybody else’s scoreboard counts almost as much as what happens on yours.

Here’s my projection of the Class 7A PSR after Week 10.

It’s based on scores I’ve collected from GHSA and GPB Sports. These numbers are unofficial and subject to change.

A quick refresher: the PSR is 35 percent a team’s winning percentage, 35 percent its opponents’ winning percentage, and 30 percent its opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage.

Valdosta (8-0) stays No. 1 at .77992, down slightly from last week.

When you’re unbeaten, another win barely moves the needle, and the Wildcats’ strength of schedule took a small hit when former opponent KIPP Atlanta lost 13-12 to Holy Innocents. The lead still grew, though. Newton was off this week and stayed No. 2, about .046 back.

Lowndes (8-0) beat Richmond Hill 36-15 but still slid from fourth to fifth.

The Vikings got hurt by their schedule. Three former opponents lost Friday: Jenkins fell 17-0 to Ware County, Harris County lost 31-7 to Griffin, and Camden lost to Valdosta.

That pulled down Lowndes’ strength of schedule just enough for Carrollton to pass them.

Brookwood held third, and Carrollton jumped from sixth to fourth after a 66-27 rout of a Westlake team that came in 6-1. Beating a team with a record that good gave Carrollton’s schedule a big boost.

Camden County (5-4) slipped from 15th to 16th. The loss knocked its winning percentage down, but it didn’t fall further because playing an unbeaten Valdosta team strengthened its schedule and got back most of what the loss cost.

Richmond Hill (5-4) took the biggest hit in the region, falling from 17th to 18th. The loss to Lowndes lowered its winning percentage, and Lowndes’ schedule hasn’t been strong, so it dragged down Richmond Hill’s opponents’ opponents number.

Colquitt County (5-3) was idle and slipped from eighth to ninth without playing. Richmond Hill, a Packers opponent, losing to Lowndes dinged Colquitt’s schedule, and that was enough for Westlake to stay just ahead of them even after its loss to Carrollton.

Elsewhere, North Gwinnett made the biggest jump in the top 10, from 12th to 7th, after beating a 6-1 Peachtree Ridge team 39-18.

Peachtree Ridge fell from 9th to 15th.

North Cobb shows how strange the formula can be: theyy beat winless Wheeler and still dropped from 11th to 14th, because adding an 0-7 team to its schedule hurt more than the win helped.

My projected 7A top 10: 1. Valdosta, 2. Newton, 3. Brookwood, 4. Carrollton, 5. Lowndes, 6. Buford, 7. North Gwinnett, 8. Westlake, 9. Colquitt County, 10. North Paulding.

Next Friday, Valdosta and Lowndes meet in the Winnersville Classic with the Region Title and plenty of PSR on the line.