New region classifications and alignments have been made official by the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Newton has moved up to the newly created Class AAAAAAA (Region 8), Alcovy will stay in Class AAAAAA (Region 3) and Eastside will remain in Region 4-AAAA.

Dec. 7 was the deadline for schools to appeal their region placement and on Jan. 13 the GHSA will make the reclassification official.

Winning the region just got a lot tougher for the Rams in every sport, but especially in football. Powerhouses Grayson and Archer are in the fold now along with South Gwinnett, Shiloh and long-time county rival Rockdale.

For Alcovy, Tucker and Lovejoy are no longer the teams to beat as the Tigers welcome Evans, Greenbrier, Grovetown, Lakeside (Evans) and Heritage (Conyers) to the 3-AAAAAA.

Eastside will stay in 4-AAAA with Henry County, Druid Hills, Luella, North Clayton, Salem (Conyers) and Woodward Academy. Eastside’s region no longer has two different halves and the Eagles opportunity to get into the playoffs should increase.

If the current realignment is ratified on Jan 13. this is how the regions will shake out and it’ll be interesting to see how each team competes in its respective region over the next two years.