PSR projections set up pivotal Friday for Bartow County teams

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November 3, 2026

Charles Wilson / BartowSportsZone.com

Cartersville can secure the No. 1 spot in Class 5A, while Cass has a chance to earn a top-four spot; Adairsville faces a potential postseason seeding swing against Calhoun.

The final Friday night of the 2026 Georgia high school football regular season brings significant postseason implications for three Bartow County teams in Class 5A and 4A.

Projected outcomes using the Georgia High School Association’s new Postseason Rankings (PSR) formula suggest that Cartersville can finish the regular season as the No. 1 team in Class 5A with a victory at Woodland, while Cass could secure a top-four position with a home win over Dalton. Meanwhile, in Class 4A, Adairsville’s matchup with Calhoun could significantly affect the Tigers’ projected playoff position.

The projections show potential final rankings based on Friday’s outcomes. They are not official final standings, and results from other games across the state could affect the teams' positions.

Cartersville controls its own path to No. 1

Cartersville enters Friday’s road game against Woodland ranked No. 1 in both the polls and the Class 5A PSR. The Purple Hurricanes can preserve that position by defeating the Wildcats.

Projections show a Cartersville loss could drop the Hurricanes to No. 2 or No. 3 in the final PSR rankings, depending on results and calculations involving other teams. Woodland, meanwhile, faces a difficult path to the postseason. Even an upset of Cartersville is projected to not be enough for the Wildcats to reach the top 32 in Class 5A, according to the projections. The Wildcats enter Friday's season finale in the No. 46 position.

The contrast shows the different stakes for the two teams entering the final game: Cartersville is protecting its top position in the classification, while Woodland cannot climb into playoff qualification range with a win.

Cass-Dalton winner positioned for higher seed

Cass hosts region rival Dalton in another important Class 5A matchup, with the outcome projected to determine which team has the better position heading into the playoffs. The Colonels enter Friday's game in the No. 4 position, while Dalton enters at No. 5.

A Cass victory would put the Colonels in the projected No. 3-to-No. 4 range. Dalton would be projected to finish between No. 7 and No. 10.

A Dalton win would change those projections considerably. The Catamounts would move into the projected No. 4-to-No. 6 range, while Cass would be projected to finish between No. 5 and No. 7.

The projections give both teams a potential path to a higher seed, but a Cass victory would provide the Colonels the clearest opportunity to finish among the classification’s top four teams.

With playoff seeding at stake, Friday’s contest could carry consequences beyond the result itself. A higher ranking can influence a team’s postseason path and potential home-field opportunities for multiple rounds.

Adairsville faces a wide range of possibilities

Adairsville’s Class 4A matchup with Calhoun also could produce a notable shift in the final PSR standings. Adairsville is currently No. 19, and Calhoun sits at No. 13.

If the Tigers defeat Calhoun, Adairsville is projected to finish between No. 14 and No. 19. Calhoun is projected to finish between No. 8 and No. 11.

A Calhoun victory would push Adairsville’s projected finish to the No. 19-to-No. 24 range, while Calhoun would be projected between No. 12 and No. 18.

The projections show how important the head-to-head result is for both programs. An Adairsville win could improve the Tigers’ final position, while a Calhoun victory could drop them several places in the Class 4A rankings.

How the GHSA formula works

The 2026 season marks the introduction of the GHSA’s Postseason Rankings formula for determining playoff qualification and seeding across the state’s eight classifications.

Rather than relying solely on a team’s win-loss record or a selection committee’s subjective evaluation, the formula combines three components:

35% — Winning percentage: How successfully a team has performed in its own games.
35% — Opponents’ winning percentage: How well the teams on its schedule have performed against other opponents.
30% — Opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage: An additional measure of the strength of the teams faced by a team’s opponents.

The formula gives substantial weight to strength of schedule. A team’s own record accounts for 35% of its rating, while the two schedule-strength components account for the remaining 65%.

Unlike some computer rankings, the GHSA formula does not reward teams for winning by larger margins. A one-point victory and a 30-point victory count equally as wins, and home and away wins receive the same value.

For example, the Sagarin College Football ratings include a point differential and home-site component. The GHSA PSR does not include those. If you are looking for a college football rating system that is closest to the GHSA's, it is the Comparative Performance Index. The difference, however, is that the CPI multiplies the three components used by GHSA rather than using a fixed percentage for each component. College football's Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) is also similar in some ways, using a traditional formula-based ranking approach, but it has additional components.

All of this means Friday’s outcomes will matter, but so will opponents' performance on each team’s schedule and the teams those opponents have faced.

The final regular-season results will determine the final calculations, with the official rankings providing the final picture of where each team stands when the playoff field is set by the end of the weekend.

The state playoffs begin on Friday, November 13. The top 16 seeds will host first-round games, but keep in mind that all region champions—regardless of their PSR—are guaranteed a first-round home game. All other teams in the PSR fill out the remainder of the bracket.