It's reclassification 'chaos' as Football Fridays in Georgia returns

Caption

Milton is one of several teams that face fierce new competition thanks to reclassification of schools for the 2024-2025 year.

Credit: GPB Sports

Peter Biello: As we've heard, the Georgia high school football season is upon us. Tonight you can watch Buford and Milton square off to kick off our season of televised high school football games on GPB-TV at 7:30 p.m. And that also means we'll have more of the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast hosted by Hannah Gooden and Jon Nelson. And Jon Nelson is with me now. Hey, Jon, welcome to the program.  

Jon Nelson: Good to be with you, my friend.   

Peter Biello:  So what's different this year?  

Jon Nelson:  Biggest thing is reclassification. And in the state of Georgia, 7A is no longer the highest classification. They've compressed. And now we're back to 6A being the highest classification. So what that means is you have a lot of schools, that were in a higher classification, they are now in lower numbers. But that also means that you have a lot of regions around the state that have highly competitive teams — Top 10 teams that were in their old classifications — they're now all grouped together. And so you now have chaos in all of these regions with all this high competition, and it's almost going to be like survival of the fittest trying to get out to make the playoffs.  

Peter Biello: So is chaos good in this sense? Do people look forward to this kind of thing?  

Jon Nelson: Oh, I think — I think that if you want to be tested, I think that you do because you have — you have regions that will have just insane region matchups across the board. You've got a region that's got Gainesville, Milton and Roswell. You've got a region in South Georgia that has Benedict and Warner Robins, Ware, Wayne, Veterans and Thomas County Central. Literally you've got state — and Perry! So, so you have like three state champs in like one region. And now only one of you can make it out. It's like Thunderdome all of a sudden.  

Peter Biello:  Thunderdome. Okay. Well what about players and their name, image, likeness rights. How does that come into play?  

Jon Nelson: Still pretty much the same, but the GHSA changed, one of their guideposts, where you cannot interact with the NIL club as — as a part of your looking for name, image, and likeness if you are an athlete. So basically that was the only change. It is now a part of the bylaws that you cannot go through NIL club, but you can still pursue on your own as normal.  

Peter Biello:  So to — for those who aren't following this closely, it's — this isn't the first year that high school students can pursue name-image-likeness deals. They just have new rules about, I guess, not leveraging their team.  

Jon Nelson: Yeah. And so you cannot wear logos. You can't say that, you know, I can't be, you know, "Jon Nelson, from Lakeside,-DeKalb," you know, the Lakeside-DeKalb Vikings and wear Lakeside-DeKalb purple and gold. It has to be "I'm Jon Nelson, star quarterback in Georgia high school football," something like that.  

Peter Biello: Okay, well, today marks the first of your weekly drops of the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast. What can fans of the podcast look forward to hearing from you and Hannah in the coming weeks?  

Jon Nelson: If I have it my way. It's chaos,

Peter Biello: Chaos? More chaos?

Jon Nelson: Yeah, it's like I said, it's Thunderdome every week now, and especially in the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast. This week, we caught up with the Football Fridays in Georgia All Stars, a lot of our media friends from around the state, to get their perspectives on everything in their regions of the state. To figure out, "okay, how does chaos apply to you now with reclassification? And who do you think's going to make it out? Who's going to be a surprise?" And so it's a rapid fire, our most "fastest-paced" hour — to speak English "very goodly" — here, you know, on the — on the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast. So please like and subscribe.  

Peter Biello:  Awesome. Well, when I hear chaos, I hear both sides of it, right? I hear, okay, competition's a little bit fiercer. And then I hear those who lose going, "Ahhh, if it weren't for reclassification—!"  

Jon Nelson: Rarrr! I didn't get a "Rarrr!" out of you for this. I know, but that'd be — you're going to have some absolutely insane competitions. And for those of us that cover it, it's going to be great! For the coaches and the fans, they're going to be pulling their hair out because, "okay, are we a three seed or four seed? Do we make it on the road? What are we doing? Ahhhh!" You're going to have one of those.  

Peter Biello: Wow. Okay. Well looking forward to the discussion on the podcast. And always glad to have you in the studio, John.  

Jon Nelson: Anytime, my friend.  

Peter Biello: That's Jon Nelson, award-winning journalist who's been covering high school athletics for Georgia Public Broadcasting. He's also co-host of the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast. Buford travels to play Milton tonight at the Eagle's Nest and kickoff on GPB-TV is at 7:30 p.m. this evening.