5A Realignment Thoughts

Little Southwest Conference back together:
After a two-year hiatus, the Little Southwest Conference is back in business. The six-team grouping of Odessa, Odessa Permian, Midland, Midland Lee, Abilene and Abilene Cooper (which moves up from 4A) throws a little fuel on the fire out west, especially with Abilene having just won the 5A DII state finals a few weeks back. People who campaign that West Texas football was a little dead recently don't have much of a leg to stand on anymore, and congrats out to the UIL for finding a way to make this work without falling back on the 10-school mega district that four of the six played a role in for the last realignment.

Midlothian up:
Fresh on the heels of a painful 1-9 season, Midlothian is moving up to Class 5A for the first time in its history. Midlothian is now one of the few schools that can claim a stint at every 11-man level in the state: It was a 1A school from 1960 to 1967, a 2A school from '68 to '79, a 3A school from '80 until '85, and a 4A school until the present. This is one of the toughest moves in the state -- Midlothian has finished a season above .500 only five times since it moved up to Class 4A in 1986, and now it's stuck with Cedar Hill, Duncanville and South Grand Prairie.