Colin Lacy
Rule Change
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With the 2024 season just around the corner, everyone is scouring websites, rosters, and Phil Steele Preseason magazine.
While rosters and coaching staffs in this day-and-age of college football change year to year, there is another aspect that does as well…the rules of the game.
While 2024 High School football will look virtually the same (the only rule change for HS Football is the home team jersey has to be a darker color to contrast with white numbers), there are a couple of key changes in the rule books for both the college and NFL games that will undoubtedly affect the game this year.
Saturdays in college football have seen a “trickle down” effect for rules implemented in the NFL a few years prior but changes this year have taken longer than usual to find their way to the college game. The main changes include the implementation of the 2-minute warning, player-to-coach communication, and tablets on the sidelines.
The 2-minute warning is a term that most football fans have known for a while in the NFL and was first implemented in professional football in 1942.
For the second and fourth quarters of a college football game, there will be an additional timeout at the 2-minute mark for the first time in the history of college football.
The new pair of two-minute stoppages are designed to not only help players and coaches with late game and late half execution while also making it slightly easier for officials when timing changes in the last two minutes of the half (clock stopping on a first down to set the ball).
A couple of technological advances that again stem from the NFL are entering the college game in 2024 as well.
The first that was a hot topic of conversation last season in the Michigan sign-stealing saga of 2023 is coach-to-player communication systems in players helmets.
This is a system that places a speaker in one player’s helmet on the field that allows a coach to speak to that player to call in a play.
These helmets that have the communication device will have the green dot sticker on the back (much like the NFL protocol), and allow a coach to talk into the player’s ear until the system is cut off with 15-seconds remaining in the play-clock or the snap of the ball (whichever happens first).
The other technological advancement is the ability to have tablets on the sideline which will actually give coaches more of a resource than are in the NFL.
NFL Tablets have been on the sideline since 2014, but in the professional side, the tablets only show images and not instantaneous video replays.
The college game will implement the allotted 18 tablets on the sidelines that can view in-game video only from either the broadcast feed as well as coaches video angles from the sideline and endzone.
While the rule modifications for college football are more ancillary, the NFL changes for 2024 affect the game more directly.
The biggest that has been a point of conversation for many years now was the new kickoff rule adjustment that follows a similar format that the XFL spring league used in 2023.
While the kickoff will still take place from the 35-yard line, the remaining 10 members of the kicking team will line up on the opposite 40-yard line. The receiving team will have a minimum of 9 players between the 30 and 35-yard lines with a maximum of 2 players back deep to receive. The play doesn’t begin (meaning players can’t move) until the ball is either caught by a returner or bounces inside the “landing zone” which is defined as the goal line to the 20-yard line. Any kick that touches in the landing zone must be returned (or downed) even if it bounces into the endzone.
The other NFL rule change for the coming fall is the elimination of the “hip-drop” tackle when a defender grabs the runner with both hands or wraps the runner up with both arms, then unweights himself by dropping his lower body AND trapping the runner’s legs at or below the knee underneath.
While there could be some late additions like the NFL experimenting in the pre-season with the chips in the ball to determine a first down, this is the majority of the changes you’ll see this fall.
While the NFL is more an “on-the-field” change, the college game may get talked about more and deeper into the season as an impact of whatever this ever-changing college football landscape looks like.
One or The Other?
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As the 2024 NFL Draft ran through the first round, many would say that the biggest surprise wasn’t the “who” of the pick, but the “why”.
When the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Michael Penix Jr. from Washington with the 8th pick overall in the 2024 Draft, there were skeptics in Atlanta and around the football world as to the “why” for that pick considering the Falcons signed veteran QB Kirk Cousins to a 4-year deal worth $180 million back in March.
At the end of the day, do I think it was the right move? No, I don’t agree with it, but there are much smarter and better equipped folks that made the call.
I do though think that while some see this as possibly the perfect storm, I think it could turn out to be a great long-term move for the Falcons organization. Why? Let’s dive into it.
In other situations, two different quarterbacks has turned into a toxic situation for everyone involved. However, there are a lot of fans that have conceded the fact that Kirk Cousin’s personality could make this work with and take Penix under his wing. That said, it takes both sides to make that dynamic work, and I genuinely believe that is exactly what the Dirty Birds have in play.
Cousin’s personality and demeanor has been well documented in the media and in the Netflix Documentary “Quarterback” that followed Cousins, Marcus Mariota (coincidentally in the 2022 season as a Falcon), and the Chiefs standout Patrick Mahomes.
While it’s the general understanding that Cousins, who is still expected to be the starting QB for the at least foreseeable future, would be one of the best mentors for a (relatively) young player entering the NFL. That being said, both sides of this equation must be on the same page and have a certain demeanor for this to work.
The portion of this equation that I don’t believe gets nearly enough light is the person and the personality of Michael Penix Jr.
Penix really burst onto the scene when he arrived in Washington in December of 2021 after transferring from Indiana. Penix went on to lead the country in passing yards in his initial season in Seattle in 2022, then led the Huskies to the College Football Playoff National Championship Game this past season where he finished as the runner up in the Heisman Trophy voting.
While the left arm is undeniably special, and I think will be an impact the NFL in a big way at some point, Penix is not your typical rookie coming out of college and is much more mature and has had to overcome so much.
Penix began his collegiate career at Indiana and was a member of the Hoosiers for his first four seasons before his final two seasons with Washington. He was part of college football for six seasons because of an injury riddled first three seasons in Bloomington.
The 24-year-old, now Falcon, began in 2018 but suffered a torn ACL after three games and was redshirted.
Expectations were high in 2019 and was named the starter entering the season, but only played six games due to a separate injury to the joint that connects the collar bone and sternum.
The COVID-shortened 2020 season came around after vigorous rehab to be ready to be the Hoosier QB1 again, but at the end of November, Penix again was sidelined with another torn ACL in a game against Maryland.
Now, yes that may raise red flags to Falcon fans with an injury history, but I write that not for the injuries, but the determination to return from the injuries, and still continue to grow as a quarterback into the 8th overall NFL Draft pick.
I’ve had the pleasure (and I truly mean pleasure) to talk with Penix briefly twice. Once in his time at Indiana, and once in the midst of the Washington skyrocketing, and this is an extremely mature rookie in the NFL and has the perfect combination of passion and levelheadedness to make this work in Atlanta for however long he is under the wing of Kirk Cousins.
At the end of the day, again, there are much smarter executives that made these decisions to bring in two quarterbacks to Atlanta. As much as it’s not the move I would have made, I think this could really turn out rosy for the Falcons for a while.
How I believe this plays out is that for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Penix serves as one of the best second-string players in the NFL. At some point, barring something unforeseen, Penix will be a starting quarterback in the NFL, hopefully for the Falcons and he becomes the starter of the future that it’s believed at this point.
When that happens is unclear, but it provides Penix to be able to acclimate to the NFL and doesn’t have to be thrown into the fire out of the gate AND gets to learn from one of the more cerebral quarterbacks in the league and will turn into a great future in Atlanta.
Who Dat?
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Although the New Orleans Saints haven’t finished worse than a tie for second in the NFC South since 2016, the last 3 years haven’t been to the standards of the “fleur-de-lis”.
With a pair of 9-8 finishes in 2021 and 2023 sandwiched between a 7-10 debut season for Head Coach Dennis Allen in 2022, Saints fans have been looking to find the answer to get back to the offense they’re accustomed to with a run of four consecutive division championships from 2014-2020.
After a 2022 season where quarterback play left much to be desired, Saints fans were hopeful last season with the signing of veteran quarterback Derek Carr, but it did not pan out like the savior of the offense that Saints fans had hoped for.
Carr turned in a season with 3,878 passing yards, which turned out to be the fourth lowest in his eleven-year career (ten previous with the Raiders), and the lowest total in a season where he played more than 15 games (17 in 2023).
Although the yards were a low point in the career totals for Carr, he did throw 25 TDs, which were the most Carr had thrown since 2020 with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The biggest question mark I think leading into 2024 for New Orleans is can Carr be “the guy” for the Saints, or do the reigns get handed off to the next in line.
Entering 2024, one of the biggest question marks is going to be “what does the offense look like this year?” Everyone across the league knows and has heard thru minicamp and OTAs that it will be different under first year Offensive Coordinator Klink Kubiak.
Kubiak takes over his 4th ream in the past four years after serving as the OC for the Vikings in 2021, Pass Game Coordinator & QBs coach in 2022 for the Denver Broncos, and with San Francisco in 2023 as Pass Game Coordinator under Kyle Shannahan, but early indications from pre-season work between Kubiak and Carr seems to be positive coming out of the Saints practice facility.
One eye-brow raiser from Saints early pre-season work has been the selected workload of a few different players because of contract negotiations. Most notably, Alvin Kamara has attended most walkthrough portions of practice, but when full practice that is open to media comes around, Kamara heads inside.
Kamara’s deal expires after the 2025 season, but the way the deal is structured, none of the 2025 money is guaranteed. All indications say that Kamara intends on continuing with the Saints and would like to get a new deal done before kickoff of the 2024 season to extend the current deal.
One thing that raises concerns of the Saints is a couple of key injuries on the offensive side that are expected to be key targets for Derek Carr.
Tight End Juwan Johnson looked to be a big part of the success of the Saints in training camp last year, but it didn’t pan out how anyone in the black and gold had hoped, with just 368 yards on 37 catches for the year.
While Kubiak had hoped to get Johnson more involved in the offense, at least for the first part of the season, Johnson will be rehabbing from a foot surgery. While the timetable for the Johnson return is unclear, the tight end for New Orleans to start will be some combination of their Swiss-Army knife Taysom Hill and former LSU Tiger Foster Moreau.
The other key injury is also unclear, but standout playmaking receiver Chris Olave suffered a shoulder injury in his off-season weight room work that has kept him in a non-contact jersey in pre-season work.
Early indications don’t seem to have Olave missing much if any time, but how much does it affect what he’s able to do?
At the end of the day, this Saints team is a HUGE swing team depending on how the offense clicks (or doesn’t), especially in an NFC South that has struggled as a whole the past few seasons.
Realistically I could see the Saints winning the South with as many as 11 or 12 wins, but I could also see this team struggling in year one under a new offensive coordinator while 5th Round pick Spencer Rattler matures into hopefully the QB of the Saints future.
A New Home
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We’ve documented so many changes to the GHSA and how the 2024-25 athletic year will look. Between the elimination of the 7A classification, which forced region realignment, and the fact of private GHSA schools in 3A and lower playing for a separate state title, the latest change for the upcoming year was announced late last week from the GHSA Offices.
At least for the 2024 football season, the GHSA State playoffs will have a built in off-week prior to the semifinal matchups giving the teams that are still playing the week of Thanksgiving off.
While “practicing on Thanksgiving” had been a badge of honor for some teams, meaning that you’re one of the few teams still playing at that point of the year now that week will be free for everyone.
While the casual fan of both high school football and college football in the state of Georgia will be spared from making the choice between a high school semifinal matchup, and “Good Ol Fashion Hate,” there are more reasons behind the shift in the schedule.
Allegedly purely coincidentally, the Georgia vs Georgia Tech matchup on the gridiron was announced last week as well to be taking place on ABC on Black Friday, but the GHSA office says that it is just that, purely coincidence.
GHSA executive director Robin Hines said that the shift in the schedule will give players and staff of teams still alive in the postseason to “have a normal Thanksgiving for a change.”
With the built in off-week in the schedule, the GHSA Football State Championships will now take place December 16-18 inside Mercades-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The location is another key factor in why the change occurs for the coming year. Because of a Leap Year…Yes, I said a Leap Year affects the schedule…the SEC Football Championship Game will be held in Mercades-Benz Stadium on December 7th which would have been in the middle of the originally scheduled GHSA Championships forcing the GHSA to find a new home.
All in all, as much as folks will also benefit from being able to watch the Georgia-Georgia Tech game on Black Friday, and as much as nay-sayers want to point to the college game dictating the GHSA schedule, it gets deeper than that.
While, yes, ONE college game does affect the schedule, it’s not the Georgia-Georgia Tech game that falls on the now bye-week for the high schoolers.
The majority of the decision comes to keeping the GHSA from having to find a new home for the GHSA State Championships which I can get on board with. The Championships should always be at “the Benz,” and this keeps the games where they belong.
Super Post-Season
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For college baseball fans, this is the best time of year…College Baseball Postseason!
College baseball postseason is structured a little differently than most other sports in college athletics but has become one of the most entertaining postseasons recently.
This week (May 20 thru May 26) is the week for most league’s conference tournament.
Following “Championship Sunday” where most leagues will have the championship game, there’s a dead period of about 18 hours or so that leave teams convincing themselves (or sometimes sweating it out) that they will hear their name on Selection Monday.
At high noon on Memorial Day, the college baseball world will be locked into the selection show to wait on which 64 teams will head to an NCAA Regional.
Since 1999 when the tournament expanded to 64 teams, NCAA Baseball has structured the postseason with ranking the top 16 national seeds and those 16 teams will “host” a Regional at their home ballpark and welcome in three other teams determined by the NCAA selection committee.
With the 31 Division I conferences each receiving one “automatic bid”, that leaves 33 at-large bids up for grabs that are also selected by the committee. Most of the 31 auto-bids are given to the conference tournament champions.
Once the field of 64 is set, and the Regionals are determined, the top 16 national seeds will host the NCAA Regionals Friday May 31st through Sunday June 3rd. The Regionals are a miniature double elimination tournament between the four teams assigned to that Regional site. The winner of each Regional advances to the Super Regional round.
With just one team advancing out of each Regional, the field quickly gets trimmed from 64 to 16 over one weekend. When the Regionals are set, two Regionals are paired together (#1-seed & #16-seed paired, #2-seed & #15-seed paired and so-on) and the winner from each of those regionals will face off in the Super Regional which will be hosted at the higher ranked team’s park. With the field cut down and only 8 Super Regionals going on, this round consists of a best-of-3 game series.
If you’re one of the eight teams lucky enough to win a Super Regional, it’s time to head to the college baseball mecca…Omaha, Nebraska.
Now to the casual fan, Omaha, Nebraska may not sound majestic, but to a college baseball player, coach, fan….broadcaster….it is the “Magical Land of Oz of College Baseball.”
Since 1950, Omaha has been the destination on the mind of every college baseball team as the host of the College World Series.
From 1950 until 2010, Rosenblatt Stadium was the site for the CWS before moving in 2011 to Charles Schwab Field (formerly TD Ameritrade Park).
Make no mistake, no matter the stadium, no matter the year, Omaha is the perfect site for the grand finale to college baseball.
Each of the 8 Super Regional winning teams will flock to Omaha and be embarrassed with open arms from the community that treats this event like Christmas.
The Omaha area essentially is laser focused with everything that isn’t around the College World Series and serving the visitors shutting down.
The college baseball postseason may seem odd and somewhat drawn out to casual fans, but to baseball fans, it’s an almost month-long celebration of another season of the game so many love…College Baseball.
A Near Strike Out
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In a series opening game in May at Founders Park in Columbia, Georgia Baseball opened a three-game series against the then Number 13 South Carolina Gamecocks.
The Dawgs chased the Gamecock’s starter Roman Kimball after scoring four in the top of the 1st inning, then the second inning saw Charlie Condon launch a Ty Good first pitch past the left field wall to go back-to-back with teammate Corey Collins. That blast was his 34th of the season to maintain the national homerun lead.
Condon not only led the nation in homers, but also led the country with an average over .450 and had driven in 72 runs at that point for the Diamond Dawgs. He’s having a historic year for Georgia, but it’s almost a career that never came to fruition.
Near the end of his career at The Walker School in Marietta (North Metro Atlanta area), Condon had no Division I offers to play baseball.
The two offers on the table were from D III Rhodes College in Memphis and University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn to play both baseball and also play quarterback for the football programs.
Condon did have a potential preferred walk-on opportunity for the Tennessee Volunteers, but a late pull from Vols Head Coach Tony Vitello took that opportunity off the table.
Scott Stricklin, former Georgia Head Coach from 2014 thru 2023, got a phone call from a friend telling him about Charlie, and was told that Condon may be a potential target.
Stricklin and staff got some video of Condon’s skills and thought he would be able to be a factor for the Dawgs down the road.
So how did everyone miss on someone that potentially could be the number one overall pick in the upcoming MLB Draft?
Well, it may be a full storm of factors. First off, Condon was a late bloomer. While the last few years in high school were impressive, he wasn’t on the top travel ball team, he wasn’t the measurable masterpiece.
All of that along with COVID-19 was affecting the sports world still while his recruiting process. High school schedules were affected, College coaches weren’t out on the road and able as many players as they normally would, so late bloomers, and players that were under the radar didn’t get a look.
If there needed to be another factor, the MLB Draft was shortened from 40 rounds to 20, so there weren’t many scholarships to go around.
Condon turned into the perfect fit for the Bulldogs before even taking an at-bat. Condon was exceptional student and was able to be accepted to the University of Georgia and didn’t need a scholarship to come to school.
As a pure walk-on, Condon didn’t see action as a freshman. Scott Stricklin told Condon that the plan was for him to redshirt and really hit the weight room in 2022 to grow into the player that Stricklin thought Condon could be.
While that is the plan, Stricklin saw that Condon was special and had told other college coaches that possibly the best hitter on his roster was a redshirt.
Condon took the redshirt in stride and gained 15-20 pounds of muscle, and seeing college pitching made it click at the plate.
If Condon wasn’t special enough, or as one scout called him “a unicorn,” he had to deal with another bit of adversity after 2023 when Stricklin (the coach that took a chance on him) was let go from UGA.
In the new age of college sports of NIL and transfer portal, Condon proved he’s a “unicorn” off the field too with an incredibly infrequent take on the portal opportunity.
“It was never a real possibility that I wanted to get in the portal and go anywhere else,” Condon told ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
“Whether it was this coaching staff or not, the university was the only place that gave me a chance out of high school. It was the university that had given me all the time and resources and put so much into my development. I couldn’t turn my back on that.”
No matter if you’re a fan of the Dawgs, or just of college baseball, you can’t help but root for Charlie Condon, and marvel at the historic season.
As great as his on-the-field presence is, the off-the field factor helps Condon’s draft stock just as much.
Atlanta Hockey…Take 3?
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
October is a great time for sports fans in the state of Georgia.
On any given night, you could have the first pitch for another Atlanta Braves Postseason run, or tipoff for an early season Atlanta Hawks game. Maybe you’re heading to the Benz for an Atlanta United match.
When the weekends roll around, you might be “Between the Hedges,” filing into Bobby Dodd Stadium, or tailgating at Allen E. Paulson getting ready for boot meet ball for your college football Saturday.
Then get to Sunday afternoon to see Kirk Cousins (or maybe Michael Penix Jr….. That’s a whole other story) taking snaps for the Falcons. So, what is Georgia Sports missing? A Puck drop?
Back in March, Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment officially announced they requested the NHL Commissioner and Board of Governors to commence a new expansion process to bring an NHL franchise back to Atlanta.
Alpharetta Sports & Entertainment is fronted by former NHL player and current Turner Sports analyst Anson Carter.
Carter has been extremely outspoken about the NHL making the return to Atlanta for what would be the third time in a number of years and has had multiple conversations with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman about the possibility of expansion.
The potential ownership group has planned construction of 18,000-seat arena around North Point Mall in Alpharetta and plans expand the surrounding area into a commercial mini-metropolis much like the Battery Atlanta is around Truist Park.
The location has been one of the main selling points to the NHL as to why the two previous franchises didn’t succeed in the metro-Atlanta area.
Carter and the other potential owners believe that headquartering the franchise in Alpharetta helps solve the issues that stood most recently at Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena). This is the same idea that the Braves are now thriving with in Cobb County and developing the Battery and surrounding area.
Atlanta hockey has seen two previous renditions with the Atlanta Flames from 1972-1980 before being re-located to Calgary.
Take two saw the Atlanta Thrashers call (then) Philips Arena home from 1999-2011 before being moved to Winnipeg to become the Winnipeg Jets.
The NHL has only added four expansion teams since the Atlanta Thrashers were created in 1999. The next season in 2000, the NHL expanded to thirty teams with the addition of the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild.
It would be 16 years before the next new NHL franchise. The league would add one more team to get to thirty-one total teams with the 2016 expansion franchise of the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Knights proved to be a success with the Stanley Cup Championship coming in their first year of existence (2017-18 season).
Most recently the NHL became a 32-team outfit with the addition of the Seattle Kraken beginning in the 2021-22 season.
Although the NHL has said that currently they have no plans for expansion, there are many that are optimistic that the Atlanta area would be on the top of the list to get an expansion franchise.
The construction of the new arena around North Point is expected to be ready for potential play for the 2027-28 season, and now it’s just a waiting game.
Personally, I would love to dust off the old Atlanta Thrashers sweater, and head back to “Blueland”!
Reckless Driving
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The off-season for two consecutive seasons has been filled with much of the same that everyone around the country in today’s college football.
Transfer portal additions/subtractions, NIL meetings, spring football, but one thing that has been more prevalent than any team across the college football landscape in the public eye has been the off-field issues and more specifically run-ins with law enforcement on traffic related issues at the University of Georgia.
Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has been under scrutiny especially the last two years because dozens of citations and arrests due to speeding, reckless driving, DUI, and other serious traffic offenses.
The latest of these came in late March when star transfer running back Trevor Etienne was arrested on four misdemeanor charges including DUI and reckless driving.
Etienne transferred to Athens after spending two seasons at SEC rival Florida. In his two campaigns with the Gators, Etienne rushed for 1,472 yards and scored 15 total touchdowns and was expected to be a key piece along with quarterback Graham Mertz before Etienne entered the transfer portal.
The addition of Etienne to the running back room for the Bulldogs made perfect sense after Georgia lost their top two rushers from a year ago as Daijun Edwards and Kendall Milton take their talents to the NFL.
According to the UGA Athletic Department policy, Etienne will at minimum miss 10% of the 2024 season (equates to at least one game), if found guilty of the DUI charge.
Etienne was also charged with speeding and reckless driving for traveling between 80 to 90-mph in a 50-mph zone while also crossing the double yellow line to pass cars on two occasions.
Head Coach Kirby Smart has only commented that the team and athletic department will let the legal actions run its course before officially announcing if there will be or the length of the suspension of Etienne.
While Georgia has been hammered by the media and outside noise, most don’t focus on the steps that Athletic Director Josh Brooks and others in the athletic department have done to help aid the situation.
In an interview with ESPN, Sophomore offensive lineman Earnest Greene III said there have been numerous programs put into place ranging from conversations with local police officers, AD Josh Brooks, and Head Coach Kirby Smart about the dangers of drinking and driving.
Greene also said, “it’s on us” and went on to say that Smart has stressed the importance of the players taking ownership of the team and policing themselves.
Like most situations in college sports nowadays, there seems to be two drastically different sides, then the truth falls somewhere in the middle.
On one side, it seems like there is an inordinate number of arrests for speeding, DUI, and other serious traffic violations within the Georgia Football program.
On the other hand, there is only so much Josh Brooks and Kirby Smart can do to control 18–25-year-olds, also the Athens local law enforcement has earned the reputation of being somewhat stricter than most college towns.
Again, my two cents, I think it falls in the middle. Is there an issue for Georgia Football with the behaviors of SOME student-athletes? Sure, I don’t know that anyone would dispute that.
But I also think it easily gets overblown for a couple of reasons. Yes, there have been somewhere between 14-18 players involved in an incident like this, but I don’t think it’s unique to Georgia.
The Bulldogs are just the ones that are 1. Published about, and 2. Talked about because of the rise of Georgia Football.
So, and this coming from someone that’s not a die-hard Georgia fan, sure there is an issue that needs to be addressed and is being addressed by the athletic department and Georgia Football, but it also gets blown out of proportion due to a number of factors around Athens.
The More Things Change
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
New Regions…. Again!
Just when the new regions that were set prior to the 2022 season started to feel comfortable, it’s time to adjust to brand new regions beginning in the fall of 2024, and in some cases, vastly different.
In early November 2023, the GHSA released the new classifications that would take effect in July 2024.
The most notable change was eliminating the 7A classification, which would compile the 457 GHSA Member Schools into one fewer classification.
In the following few weeks, the GHSA committee would finalize the new region alignment, and the flurry began of what that looks like for the 2024 football season, especially around South Georgia.
So, who does realignment affect the most? Let’s dive into a few teams that are the most affected (good or bad) by the new look GHSA.
Southeast Bulloch
Arguably one of the most drastic differences will come from Brooklet as the Yellow Jackets of SEB move not only into a vastly different region, but a whole new classification. The past 2 years, SEB competed in region 3 of the 4A Classification which turned out to be one of the most difficult regions in the state with the likes of Benedictine, Wayne County, Burke County, New Hampstead, and Islands. With the step down in classification to the 3A level for 2024-2026, the new region 3-3A is also the second largest region in all classifications with ten teams. Because of the crowded region, everyone in region 3-3A will play nine Region games, and only one non-region contest. A couple old region rivalries will be renewed because of the classification for the Jackets, adding Liberty County, Calvary Day School, and Groves back as region foes.
Tift County
No bones about it, Tift County is heading into a bear of a region. Five of the six members in the new Region 1 of the 6A class were the entirety of region 1 of the since departed 7A in 2022-23. Tift County stays a 6A school where they have been the last few years but are essentially thrown into a full 7A region with Colquitt County, Valdosta, Camden County, Richmond Hill, and Lowndes. Those five were part of an incredibly competitive region and are historically some of the best football programs in South Georgia. Tift did face Colquitt County last year as a non-region opponent, but it didn’t go the Blue Devils’ way with a 40-2 win for the Packers.
Statesboro
Statesboro High will enter year two under former Georgia Southern Eagle, now Blue Devil Head Coach Matt Dobson with the same region name as they played in for the past 2 years of region 1 of 5A, but it’s a much different look than it has in the past. Because of the reclassification, Effingham and South Effingham drop from 6A down to 5A and bring a huge addition to the depth of the region. Coffee County and Ware County that had run that region the last few years do depart (Coffee placed in Region 2 of 5A, and Ware County drops to 4A), but the addition of the two Effingham schools along with Glynn Academy, Brunswick and Evans will prove to be a huge test for SHS.
These are just three scenarios where the new classifications and regions impact greatly how the 2024 season plays out, but I have a sneaky suspicion that (at least for the next two athletic years) there will be a region that turns out just how the GHSA envisioned and becomes a new highly competitive region. Below are the new look regions in South Georgia:
1-AAAAAA (6)
Camden County
Colquitt County
Lowndes
Richmond Hill
Tift County
Valdosta
1-AAAAA (9)
Bradwell Institute
Brunswick
Effingham County
Evans
Glynn Academy
Greenbrier
Lakeside, Evans
South Effingham
Statesboro
2-AAAAA (6)
Coffee
Houston County
Lee County
Northside, Warner Robins
Thomas County Central
Veterans
1-AAAA (6)
Benedictine
New Hampstead
Perry
Ware County
Warner Robins
Wayne County
1-AAA (6)
Bainbridge
Cairo
Dougherty
Monroe
Peach County
Westover
2-AAA (9)
Fayette County
LaGrange
Mary Persons
Sandy Creek
Spalding
Trinity Christian
Troup County
Upson-Lee
Whitewater
3-AAA (10)
Beach
Calvary Day School
Groves
Islands
Jenkins
Johnson, Savannah
Liberty County
Long County
Southeast Bulloch
Windsor Forest
3-AA (6)
Appling County
Cook
Crisp County
Pierce County
Savannah Arts Academy*
Tattnall County
1-A Division I (7)
Bacon County
Berrien
Brantley County
Fitzgerald
Jeff Davis
Thomasville
Worth County
3-A Division I (7)
Savannah Christian
Savannah Country Day
St. Vincent’s Academy*
Swainsboro
Toombs County
Vidalia
Woodville-Tompkins*
2-A Division II (8)
Atkinson County*
Brooks County
Charlton County
Clinch County
Echols County*
Irwin County
Lanier County
Turner County
3-A Division II (12)
Bryan County
Claxton
Emanuel County Institute
Jenkins County
McIntosh County Academy
Metter
Portal
Savannah
Savannah Classical*
Savannah Early College*
Screven County
Steam Academy*
Azaleas In Bloom
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The azaleas are in full bloom. The towering pine and flowering dogwood trees are in pristine condition. That can only mean one thing…it’s time for the golf world to flock to Augusta, Ga for the 2024 Masters.
The 88th playing of the Masters Tournament officially gets underway Thursday April 11th and will hand out the coveted green jacket on Sunday at the conclusion of the final round for a “tradition unlike any other.”
The Masters is always the first of the four Major Championships in the golf world and is slated for the first full week in April each year.
The tournament that began in 1934 is considerably smaller (in terms of number of participants) than the other three championships because it’s an invitational event held by the Augusta National Golf Course.
There are 20 ways that a player can be invited to participate in the exclusive Masters Tournament. Any former Masters Champion has a lifetime invitation back to Augusta. Similarly, any champion of the other three major championships in the previous five years gets an automatic invitation to the field. Although 20 ways to qualify for the Masters may seem like a lot of ways to get in the field, it’s an elusive ticket.
Nineteen former Masters champions are expected to compete for the crown again in 2024 including Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, and 2023 champion Jon Rahm.
The 2020 Masters Champion Dustin Johnson set the Masters record with a -20 final card to win the only masters to not be played in April (had to be moved to November because of COVID-19).
Other former Masters Champions expected to be in the field for the 88th playing are Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, and 2021 Champion Hideki Matsuyama.
Others that get in the field because of winning one of the other three major championships in the last five years include U.S. Open Champions Wyndham Clark, Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Gary Woodland. British Open Champions Brian Harman, Cam Smith, Collin Morikawa, and Shane Lowry will also tee it up in Augusta.
Finally, PGA Championship winners Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas are expected to be in the field come April.
With less than 50 others that meet one of the 20 criteria to enter the tournament, some familiar names just make the cut.
Patrick Cantlay and Tommy Fleetwood enter the eligibility with the 18th criteria point of qualifying for the 2023 Tour Championship.
Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler come into the mix with the 17th criteria checked of “Individual winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from the 2023 Masters to the 2024 Masters (including fall 2023)”.
Other notable names include Rory McIlroy and Neal Shipley for various check marks.
After all the minutia to set the field, the whole golf world (and many outside the golf community) will flock to the small corner of Eastern Georgia called Augusta either by physically going down Bobby Jones Expressway, or via the televisions, computer screens, or courtesy of Westwood One Sports Radio.
However, if you take in the Masters tournament, it’s special, and it’s a big day on Sunday when you hear Jim Nantz sets the scene poetically in his 39th Masters for CBS along with his colleague Verne Lundquist who announced that the 2024 Masters will be his 40th and final Masters.
Just remember to tune in early on Sunday to hear Nantz describe the pink azaleas and beautifully sun-soaked skies and so on “….AT THE MASTERS.”
