High school football season in Georgia doesn't usually start until the last full week of August, but this week fans in Atlanta got a jump on the rest of the country. South Gwinnett and Lanier kicked off the 35th annual Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Wednesday at 5 p.m., a game organizers say is the first high school football game played anywhere in the nation this season. Grayson and North Gwinnett followed at 8 p.m. in a marquee matchup between two of Gwinnett County's most storied programs.
The early start wasn't a scheduling accident. The Georgia High School Association granted the classic special permission to begin four of its games on August 12 and 13, a full week ahead of the rest of the state, because Mercedes-Benz Stadium's summer calendar was reshuffled by 2026 FIFA World Cup hosting adjustments and the concert bookings that followed, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The result, the paper reports, is the earliest high school football kickoff in the history of the contiguous United States for the 2026 season, trailing only Hawaii nationwide. Atlanta News First, which is broadcasting all 11 games of this year's classic live and digitally on its apps and website, notes the event now spans five separate days between August 12 and August 21, spread across four venues: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Kell High School, Blessed Trinity High School and Georgia State's Center Parc Stadium.
A Rivalry Renewed on Opening Night
The Grayson-North Gwinnett game carries its own weight beyond the calendar quirk. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes the matchup pits Gwinnett County's two winningest programs since 2017 against each other for the first time since North Gwinnett's state championship playoff run that same year. Grayson enters the rematch having lost three straight to North Gwinnett and holding an all-time record of 1-3 against the program, per the same account.
Earlier in the evening, South Gwinnett and Lanier played what the AJC and Atlanta News First both describe as the first football game in the nation for the 2026 season. South Gwinnett has won both of the teams' previous meetings. The Journal-Constitution also details a personal thread connecting the two head coaches: South Gwinnett's Bryan Lamar and Lanier's Tyler Maloof both trace back to Tucker High School's 1998 team, where Lamar played senior defensive end and Maloof served as a ball boy under his father, longtime head coach Keith Maloof. South Gwinnett's offense is led by three-star quarterback and Kennesaw State commit CJ Peoples, who according to Sports Illustrated put up 905 passing yards, nine passing touchdowns and 417 rushing yards last season.
From a Two-Game Doubleheader to a Statewide Institution
The classic's roots trace back to 1992, when it launched as the Georgia Prep Classic with a two-game doubleheader at the Georgia Dome featuring Southwest DeKalb against Newnan and McEachern against Brookwood — the first football games ever played in that stadium, the Journal-Constitution reported in 2023. The event was renamed the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic that same year after Dave Hunter, the former Brookwood head coach who co-founded the showcase, retired. Hunter and co-founder Jimmy Dorsey had promised namesake Corky Kell, who died of lung cancer in 1995, that they would keep the tradition alive, according to Atlanta News First. This year's event also honors Kell's widow, Carole Kell, who stayed involved with the classic until her death last year at age 85.
Since 1992, the classic has played 197 football games featuring 79 different high schools, per Atlanta News First's reporting. This year's 208th and 209th games arrive Thursday, when Cambridge and Brookwood meet for the first time ever at 5 p.m., followed by Walton and Roswell — a rematch of last year's 30-28 Roswell win — at 8 p.m., both at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Cambridge-Brookwood game marks the classic's 200th all-time contest and Brookwood's 35th appearance in the event.
Nine New Schools and a First-Ever Meeting
This year's 22-team, 88-program field introduces nine schools to the classic for the first time: Lanier, South Gwinnett, Cambridge, Pebblebrook, Clarke Central, Centennial, Blessed Trinity, Decatur and Coffee. Several of the newcomers set up matchups with history attached. Pebblebrook and Clarke Central meet next Wednesday for the first time since 2006, while Centennial and Dunwoody square off the following day in their seventh all-time meeting. Blessed Trinity and Decatur will play for the first time since 2020, and Kell will face McEachern for the first time since 2021.
The classic wraps up on August 21 with three games at Georgia State's Center Parc Stadium: Hebron Christian against Carver-Atlanta at 2 p.m., Coffee against Parkview at 5 p.m., and West Forsyth against Houston County at 8 p.m. Hebron Christian enters as the two-time defending state champion, while Coffee, the 2024 state champion, will meet Parkview for the first time. West Forsyth, a Class 7A program, and Houston County, a Class 6A program, will also meet for the first time as the classic's game total climbs to 208.
New Playoff Math Raises the Stakes
Every game this month carries more weight than it once did. Starting with the 2026-2027 academic year, the GHSA is scrapping traditional region-finish playoff seeding in favor of a mathematical Post Season Ranking formula that weighs a team's own winning percentage at 35%, its opponents' winning percentage at 35%, and its opponents' opponents' winning percentage at 30%, according to Sports Illustrated. That means non-region showcase games like the Corky Kell classic now feed directly into playoff qualification math for every participating program.
The GHSA also restructured its classification system for 2026, relabeling divisions from 7A down to 1A and dropping 44 struggling programs down a class after they averaged just 3.1 wins in 2025, the Journal-Constitution reported. Organizers marked the classic's 35th anniversary with additions beyond the scoreboard as well, including a new marching band showcase and on-field ceremonies honoring former Corky Kell participants who went on to the NFL, according to the event's official schedule. Atlanta News First notes those honorees include Georgia High School Football Hall of Famers Jeff Francoeur, Matt Stinchcomb, Jon Stinchcomb, Quincy Carter, Rennie Curran and Reggie Brown, as well as 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who attended Collins Hill.
