And you thought Kentucky football was fouled up…
Believe it or not, things could be worse. Sure, fans are still up in arms about the continued success of private schools. And yes, going from four classes to six and ordering championship trophies by the case is still the craziest idea to come down the pike in a while.
But while changing planes in Atlanta during a holiday vacation, I discovered a mess in Georgia that trumped all of that. The Georgia High School Association crowns five state champions, and two of its title games last month ended in ties. Charlton County and Dublin played to a 13-13 draw in Class AA, and Peachtree Ridge and Roswell tied at 14-all in the Class AAAAA game.
The two teams in each game were declared co-champions because even though regular-season and playoff games in Georgia are decided by an overtime format similar to that used in Kentucky, the lone exception to the rule is a state championship game.
There had been ties before, although it had happened only once in the previous 16 years. But Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Curtis Bunn wrote that these two ties reveal just how ridiculous this rule is.
Incidentally, the one and only Kentucky state championship game to end in a tie was the 1971 Class AAA final — before the KHSAA adopted the NFHS tie-breaker method, in which Flaget and Thomas Jefferson played to a 7-7 draw.
