New region, schedule format present daunting challenge for BCA football

Bethlehem Christian Academy’s switch to a new region for the next two school years, a shrinking playoff field and the GISA’s format to determine that field could make things for challenging for the Knight football program.
The GISA finalized its classifications and regions for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years last week, and BCA is set to move from Region 1-AAA to Region 4-AAA. The five-team “home” region for all sports except football and volleyball includes BCA, Augusta Prep, Westminster Academy of Augusta, John Milledge Academy and Loganville Christian Academy.
In football, though, the Knights will be in just a four-team region, joining Augusta Prep, John Milledge and Westminster.
The Knights’ volleyball region will include Augusta Prep, Gatewood Academy, Loganville Christian and Monsignor Donovan. There is only one classification for volleyball in GISA.
In recent years, the GISA has had a 16-team playoff field for football, but that is changing to a 12-team field. The top two teams from each of the four regions will secure eight of the playoff berths. The remaining four spots will be determined by pairing the regions against each other in “crossover” play and taking the four top-performing teams out of those matchups — two from each crossover group.
In BCA’s case, the Knights and their Region 4 counterparts will face all five teams from Region 2 during the regular season. Region 2 includes Bulloch Academy, Frederica Academy, Pinewood Christian, Trinity Christian-Dublin, and Westfield.
See more in the Jan. 3 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.