Dawson County High School Varsity Football Coach Jeff Lee has released the 2010 football schedule.

The changes to Region 8-AA altered the format of play for next season. The region contains 13 teams and will be split into two sub-regions.

Gone from Region 8-AA are Riverside Military Academy and Walnut Grove, who played a non-region schedule last season. Added are Hart County, 8-3, Elbert County, 7-4, Jackson County, 4-6, and East Hall, 1-9.

Dawson County will play in the North sub-region with Banks County, Fannin County, Union County, Rabun County and East Hall.

The Tigers are coming off a disappointing 1-9 season in 2009.

Dawson’s  side of the sub-region seems to favor the Tigers. The Tigers will have only two teams on their side of the region that recorded winning seasons last year. Fannin and Union were both 6-4 last season.

Rabun, Banks and East Hall all had losing records.

The South sub-region will consist of East Jackson, Jefferson, Hart County, Elbert County, Jackson County, Oglethorpe County and North Oconee.

Dawson will play one crossover game from the South sub-region. That game will be against Jefferson.

The state playoffs will be determined in the 10th week of the season.

The No. 1-seed in the North will play the No. 1-seed in the South sub-region for first and second place in Region 8-AA.

The No. 2-seed and No. 3-seed teams from each side will play for the third and fourth spots. The fourth and fifth place team will play each other in the final game of the season. Since there are an odd number of teams, the last place team in the South sub-region will play Athens Academy in the final game of the season.

“We like our schedule,” said Lee. “It should be very challenging for us.”