Georgia Changes State Title Game Tiebreaker Rule

[FormerWildcat]

Well, after last year's fiasco of having a couple of state championship games end in a tie, the Georgia High School Association has changed their rules to utilize the same tiebreaker procedure for the state title games as the regular season. Duh, talk about the no-brainer of the century.

Another item of interest is that all of the state title games will be played in the Georgia Dome starting next season.

The less noticed item is probably the one about schools having to pay for the GHSA's legal fees, in the event a school decides to take legal action against the GHSA, or if the GHSA initiates an investigation against a school & the school is found guilty of a violation. I wonder how other state high school athletic associations handle that.

GHSA: Regular season tiebreakers OK for title games

By JEFF HAWS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/27/07

Forsyth — The GHSA passed a proposal to use the same tiebreaker method in the state championship football game that they use during the regular season — giving each team the ball on its opponent's 15-yard line and playing alternating possessions.

The proposal was recommended by the football committee and was passed without discussion.

Also in football, the committee voted to deny the proposal to set the minimum capacity for state title games at 8,000 seats, citing the move to the Georgia Dome next year. They also voted to count each theatre-style seat — one with a back and arm rests — as one seat regardless of its width.

The football calendar also was set for the next three years. It will include three days of practice in shorts, helmets and shoulder pads, 17 days of full practice, 11 weeks for the regular season and five weeks of playoff games.

In other legislation:

• School systems initiating litigation against the GHSA will now be responsible for the organization's legal fees, and schools that are investigated and found guilty of a violation will be assessed the cost of the investigation. Both votes were unanimous. The maximum fine for a school found breaking rules was increased from $1,000 to $2,500.

• A proposal to limit baseball playoffs to the spring school calendar was tabled by the baseball committee until the spring meeting. Some state championships in baseball have been decided during the second week of June, several weeks after the end of school.

• The GHSA executive director and the marketing director were authorized to negotiate "Official Ball of the GHSA" contracts, in effect from 2008-2013.

http://www.ajc.com/highschool/content/sports/highschool/stories/2007/08/27/ties_0827.html