Recapping all the chaos for every 11-man classification following UIL realignment

In what may have been the wildest UIL Realignment Day ever, we are left to analyze and dissect the aftermath of the new districts that the UIL has set the course for in the next two years. We’ll have plenty to chew on the next few days (and weeks), but here are some highlights from each of the UIL’s 11-man classifications. Class 6A We start out in West Texas where as was rumored, the Little SWC is just a six-team district, and that sends Abilene and San Angelo Central into a DFW area district. The biggest takeaway here is San Angelo and Abilene will pass through the FWISD 6A teams on the way to Northeast Tarrant County to play Euless Trinity and Hurst Bell. There’s no great travel option for San Angelo in 6A, but this was one of the worst case scenarios from a travel standpoint (although Trinity at San Angelo will be fun from a fan's perspective). Looking right next door in District 4-6A, another worst-case scenario came to light as Fort Worth YMLA and Fort Worth Trimble Tech are not only aligned in Class 6A, but they are in with Arlington ISD. FWISD wanted to appeal those two down to a lower classification and from all indications the 6A district was willing to let those two out, but there was no 5A or 4A district willing to accept those two teams so it appears that — barring a hail mary appeal in March — they will remain in what is a nine-team district. Duncanville moves out of a traditional alignment with rivals DeSoto and Cedar Hill into an alignment with Dallas ISD and Richardson ISD, which without question is a surprise. In Central Texas, the UIL aligned nine of the 10 teams in the I-35 corridor into 12-6A with only Bryan moving over to the Houston area, where they will be paired in 14-6A with Tomball Memorial and seven Cy Fair ISD schools. Speaking of Cy Fair ISD, the impossible (or what we thought was impossible) happened as the remaining five Cy Fair ISD programs were moved into 17-6A with Spring Branch ISD. That means the 12 Cy Fair football programs are actually in two separate regions and it’s possible in any sport we could have an all Cy Fair ISD state title game! As expected, the Austin area lost a district and the UIL gave the extra district to the DFW area who now has nine 6A districts. One of the big losers in this alignment is probably San Marcos, who has seen some success in 14-6A the past two years but now moves south into a San Antonio-area district with powerful Cibolo Steele and Converse Judson. The final big takeaway is down in the Rio Grande Valley. The 21 teams in three districts weren’t aligned into three, seven-team districts. Instead, the alignment was an eight-team district, a seven-team district and then a six-team district in 32-6A. The six teams in 32-6A are having to find five non-district games and that’s certainly not an easy proposition. Class 5A Division I The first takeaway is that overall, there were 15 schools who chose to opt up to Division I to Division II which artificially inflated the division breaks. In Region I, Abilene Cooper was a swing school that could go east into a DFW district, but the UIL decided to move them out west into District 2-6A with the Lubbock and Amarillo schools. In Region II, Dallas ISD is going to have their hands full with Highland Park, Lancaster and the two Mansfield ISD schools in 6-5A Division I. Travel will certainly be an issue in 7-5A Division I with Texarkana Texas and Tyler John Tyler moving into a DFW district. The most notable item in Region III has to be Austin ISD (along with Seguin and Dripping Springs) moving into Region III, where traditionally they were pushed into Region IV. In Region IV, as expected, the Rio Grande Valley got a 10-team district on 16-4A Division I. We’ll see if that district decides to move to a zone play concept or do they play straight through with just one non-district game. Class 5A Division II We thought things would get wild in Region I, and they certainly did as the UIL sent Wichita Falls and Wichita Falls Rider out west into 3-5A Division II with Abilene Wylie, Plainview, Lubbock Cooper and Canyon. The big curveball here was Aledo, who is the farthest west DFW school in Division II getting moved over to Region II, where they will drive through Fort Worth for many of their games. Fort Worth ISD’s district (plus Justin Northwest) moves into Region I, making that region WIDE open for the taking. Aledo’s move to Region II was surprising, but I wasn’t too surprised they were placed in a nine-team district as that was predicted in our DCTF Mock. Red Oak is a massive winner as well as not only are they Division II, but they are paired with the Dallas ISD schools in 6-5A Division II which all present winnable games with the exception of maybe a tough contest with South Oak Cliff. The East Texas 5A district remains in Region III, but with some of the fringe DFW schools moving to District 8-5A Division II, it’s now a true eight-team East Texas affair in 9-5A Division II. Manvel, who is in Division II (primarily due to all the opt ups), gets aligned with the Houston ISD and Fort Bend ISD 5A Division II programs which is a bit of a surprise. The biggest eye opener in Region IV is San Antonio area schools Southside and Somerset are aligned in 15-4A Division II with more Corpus Christi area programs. Class 4A Division I What’s really surprising to start is Region I, where an incredible 16 of the 18 teams in this Region will make the playoffs. There may not be a region that’s more wide open when it comes to who could potentially advance to the state semifinals. The story in Region II is powers from Region I and Region IV moving in as Brownwood and Stephenville from Region I, join China Spring and Waco LaVega in a POWER packed District 5-4A Division I. Another big surprise is in 7-4A Division I, where Argyle and Sanger (as predicted by DCTF) move east into a district with Celina, Melissa and the two Paris schools. This just adds to the power already in Region II with Kennedale in 6-4A Division I, as well. In a bit of surprise move, some DFW teams move out to Region III with Midlothian Heritage leading the contingent in 9-4A Division I. They’ll have some brutal bi-district matchups with the powerful East Texas group in 10-4A Division I led by Carthage. In Region IV the district highlighted by Bay City and El Campo moves into Region IV from Region III with the departure of the Waco area powers. Liberty Hill remains in Region IV along with Burnet, but they move south into the San Antonio area in District 14-4A Division I. Class 4A Division II One oddity I found in this district was District 1-4A Division II features a seven-team district, but 2-4A Division II is just a five-team loop. Would it make more sense to move Snyder to 2-4A Division II to balance out the two districts? Nothing jumps off the page in Region II except for Madisonville moving over into 8-4A Division II to make an already tough group with Mexia, Fairfield, Waco Connally and Salado that much tougher. Biggest surprise in Region III is Sweeny and Wharton moving in from Region IV and into a 11-4A Division II with the Houston ISD schools and LaMarque. Unlike in Division I, the four-team districts are few and far between with only 16-4A Division II having a four-team district, which in turn guarantees long struggling Progreso will be in the playoffs the next two years. They haven’t made the playoffs since 1990. 13-4A Division II appears to be quite the gauntlet with Cuero, Wimberley and Geronimo Navarro in a brutal grouping. Class 3A Division I There wasn’t too much that caught my eye in Region I. Bushland, who made the regional finals as a 4A Division II program last year, dropping down will add some firepower along with Brock and Wall. Region II also saw some additions with Gladewater, Atlanta and Bonham all dropping down from 4A Division II. Grandview, Teague and West remain in Region III, but Kemp and Malakoff make the move over to Region II with Dallas area schools. The remainder of Region III is still a gauntlet with Cameron Yoe and Rockdale headlining 10-3A Division I, and the ultra deep Districts 11 and 12-3A Division I. In Region IV, Boling — up from Division II — brings some depth to 13-3A Division II, but 14-3A Division II is the group to watch with last year’s regional finalists Yoakum and Goliad being joined by Edna and Hallettsville. Talk about a loaded group!! Class 3A Division II What jumps off the page here is the four-team grouping in 1-3A Division II. Anthony is a travel issue regardless of where they go, but asking them to find seven non-district games is going to be TOUGH. There are eight teams in 4-3A Division II, would it have made sense to send the two San Angelo schools (Grape Creek and TLC) over to 1-3A Division II for another six-team pairing? There’s nothing out in Region II that stands out. We thought there was a chance Childress could move out of a panhandle district and into a Wichita Falls area grouping, but the Bobcats remain trekking north. Region III and IV were fairly quiet, except that we saw Sonora move from Region I all the way over to Region IV. Travel inside of 13-3A Division II won’t be too bad, but there will be some longer playoff trips starting in bi-district with more teams along the coast, south of the Houston area. Class 2A Division I The big news in Region I and Region II is that defending state champion Mart is dropping down to Division II, opening the door for teams like Post, Cawford, DeLeon and Bosqueville to compete for a possible spot in the state title game. I thought there might be a chance Mason moves out of Region IV and potentially into Region I, but the Punchers remained in Region IV where they could be on another collision course with Refugio, who actually moved down to 16-2A Division I. Of note, Refugio and Shiner, who have been rivals in 15-2A Division I, are now split as Shiner remained in 15-2A with Refugio moving south. Class 2A Division II Things got a little weird in Division II in 2A with some powerful teams dropping down and some teams moving into some new regions. We start in Region I where Stratford, the Region I champion in Division I, is the headliner dropping down to Division II. They aren’t in their usual spot in District 1 however, instead they are in District 3. In a surprise move, we’ve got teams from the Panhandle in Region II as Memphis, Shamrock and perennial power Wellington move to District 5-2A Division II. They’ll be joined in Region II by always dangerous Albany. Region III is absolutely loaded as there are not one but two defending state champions highlighting things as defending Division II champion Muenster moves from Region II and defending Division I champion Mart comes in after moving down from Division I. Notable in Region IV is that Bremond moves back to Region IV after a two-year run in Region III.

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