8-AA: Athens Academy, Banks County, Commerce, Oglethorpe County, Prince Avenue Christian, Providence Christian, Rabun County
Oglethorpe County High School athletics will enter the 2026-27 school year under a new Georgia High School Association region alignment and playoff structure, a shift that looks significant on paper but will feel familiar in practice for many of the school’s programs.
This fall, the GHSA approved realignment changes for the next two years, eliminating the split between Class A Division I and Class A Division II and returning to a straight classification system from Class A through 7A. Schools with higher enrollment that previously competed in Class A Division I (including OCHS) will compete in Class AA.
While the label has changed to Region 8-AA, the makeup of the Patriots’ region remains largely intact.
“Everybody that we were with is switching to the same region, except for one team,” OCHS co-athletic director and football coach Michael Holland said. “It’s essentially the same thing, just adding a new team and slapping a different label on it.”
From a football standpoint, the Patriots will see only minor movement.
Elbert County has moved to 8-AAA and Prince Avenue Christian joins the region. Banks County will play a non-region football schedule, though it remains a familiar opponent in other sports.
Most of the region’s core opponents — Commerce, Rabun County, Providence Christian and Athens Academy — remain unchanged.
Prince Avenue’s arrival adds another competitive program to the mix, Holland said, but it doesn’t dramatically alter expectations.
“Elbert was a good team, too,” he said. “For us, it should be pretty much the same.”
Regarding basketball, boys coach Carlos Strong echoed that sentiment, noting that Oglethorpe County has already adjusted to region expansion in recent years.
“When I got here, they changed it and put all these teams together,” Strong said. “I’m fine with that. You still have to compete.”
Strong said the region alignment itself is less concerning than broader enrollment balance, but added that scheduling and travel are realities programs already manage.
“I don’t think it changes everything,” he said. “It’s just one more travel date.”
The most notable shift comes in the GHSA’s new playoff qualification system, which will apply to all classifications beginning next season.
Under that format, only region champions receive automatic playoff berths. All other teams will qualify and be seeded based on their power rating, with the top 32 teams in each classification earning postseason spots.
Region champions will be seeded first, followed by the remaining teams in order, creating first-round matchups such as No. 1 vs. No. 32, No. 2 vs. No. 31, and so on.
Holland said the change has both positives and drawbacks.
That system was used in Class A Division I this year, giving OCHS the 22nd seed for the playoffs.
“One of the bad things is you could end up playing a region opponent in the first round,” he said. “That’s not always as fun. You’d like to play somebody new.”
That happened to the Patriots, who were paired with Elbert County in the first round of the playoffs in a rematch of a regular-season game. OCHS lost both games.
At the same time, he believes the system is designed to reward performance across the entire season.
“If you’re just trying to get the best teams in the later rounds, that’s probably the way to do it,” Holland said.
Strong took a more practical view of the postseason changes, emphasizing that preparation matters more than format.
“Regardless of how you get in, you’ve still got to play 32 minutes of basketball,” he said. “That’s all that really matters.”