ATLANTA - The GHSA officially released the 2016 High 5 football schedule and now August can't get here fast enough.
Just looking over the schedule, a few games popped out at me. First, the Corky Kell Classic has grown and now will include great matchups in Macon, at McEachern and the Georgia Dome. As has become custom with those games, we will get to see potential playoff matchups and the tops from different classifications facing off against one another.
Beyond the Corky Kell, here are a few games to look forward to.
September 2nd - Cartersville at Calhoun - A pair of traditional north Georgia powers have historically played one another a lot, just not since 2009. Cartersville is the defending 4A champ and bring back a ton of talent, while Hal Lamb's bunch at Calhoun won it all most recently back in 2014.
Also on September 2nd, defending 5A champion Allatoona will take on Sandy Creek. Solid out of region scheduling early and can't wait to see Gary Varner and Chip Walker lock horns.
September 9th - Colquitt Co. at Roswell. Rematch of last year's 6A state championship game. Traveling to Atlanta never seems to be a problem for Rush Propst's teams. Expect the buses to roll in Thursday and the entire town of Moultrie to be right behind.
This season the GHSA moves to 7 different classifications and the new "Big 48" teams in Class 7A mean that most regions are a little thinner and that allows for some fun out of region scheduling. Grayson for example has scheduled four games against out of state opponents. That includes powerhouses such as IMG Academy from Florida and Alabama's Hoover High. Now they just need a coach!
The reclassification also comes with new regions and thus new rivalries. Marist and Blessed Trinity now find themselves in region 7-AAAA together. The two private school powers have never played.
I am also happy to see Oconee County and North Oconee back in the same region again. North Oconee won the only two times they have played in football (2012 &2013) but coach Travis Noland seems to have the Warriors trending in the right direction.
Stephenson and Tucker are also back together for the first time since '12-'13. They face-off on the last Friday of the regular season. It has all the makings of a live broadcast GPB classic (don't know their schedule yet, just speculating).
What games or rivalries are you looking forward to? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook