Mercedes-Benz Stadium ended up hosting only two GHSA state championship football games last Friday.

          But more people are likely to see in-person the remaining six title games this Friday.

          Only the Class A private and Class AAA games were able to be played at MBS because of a winter weather that proved stronger than meteorologists predicted. The GHSA chose safety on Friday when it postponed the second two games and Saturday’s first game. The decision to postpone the rest of the schedule came Saturday morning, although the weather wasn’t nearly as bad.

          So now, South Georgia high school fans have two state title options if their team isn’t involved, as will fans near the meetings of the Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina borders.

          And so will those in Central Georgia.

          Warner Robins was the winner of the coin clip, and hosts Rome at the normal Friday night kickoff time of 7:30 p.m., same time as the other six games.

          The GHSA said that all ticket stubs and tickets from the weekend at MBS will be good at the high school locations. There has been announcement which game Georgia Public Broadcasting will carry, but all games will be available streaming on NFHSnetwork.com.

          The change means that Hapeville Charter will go from 15 minutes away to 130 miles away to Rabun County in Class A public.

          Convenience in travel improved drastically for the teams in 6A, 4A and A Public, all of whom are region rivals. It went the other direction for Classes 7A and 5A, moreso the latter.

          Blessed Trinity and Marist are less than 15 miles apart, but have played only twice, the past two years as Region 7-AAAA opponents, with the games split and decided by a total of three points.

          Irwin County will host Clinch County, with less than 60 miles separating the teams that have played 42 times, and will play twice this season, having played a Region 2-A game in September.

          Coffee and Lee County are Region 1-6A rivals who are about 85 minutes apart. The dueling Trojans have only six meetings between them, and became region mates in 2016.

          Colquitt County in 7A doesn’t have too much more of a drive, going to North Gwinnett in Suwanee, a little more than 30 miles from Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

          But it’s still a ride of about 3-1/2 hours for the Packers.

          That’s about 40 minutes worse than Rome’s ride to Warner Robins and McConnell-Talbert Stadium. The Wolves know the route, having played Northside in the quarterfinals in 2007 and 2005, and the Demons in the 2004 quarterfinals.