***UIL Considering Radical Football Realignment Plan***

[KFDM COOP]

No. The big Districts would play big Districts and Small would play small.

[Guest Orangeboy]

Sounds fair to me, I actually enjoy getting to travel and go to some new towns every couple of years.  But having games close to home are also nice.

[KFDM COOP]

That's what me and Chris the owner of texashsfootball were talking about last night, i don't think folks would mind the travel (Small School teams) if they had a much better chance for the playoffs.

[bronco1]

Sounds fair to me, I actually enjoy getting to travel and go to some new towns every couple of years.  But having games close to home are also nice.

If only half the games are away, and half of those are far away. I am OK with it.

[AggiesAreWe]

That's what me and Chris the owner of texashsfootball were talking about last night, i don't think folks would mind the travel (Small School teams) if they had a much better chance for the playoffs.

I don't think it's a question of if fans would travel, but it's a question if school districts could afford all the extra travel. Case in point, Bronco1 has Chester with an enrollment of 60, traveling 120 miles to Sabine Pass, enrollment 100, for just a district game. Ya'll say the fans will not mind but they don't determine the schools budget. Traveling these kind of distances for playoff games is acceptable, but not for district games.

Another case is a school out in West Texas who for the last 20 years has decided to stay 5A when their enrollment is actually 3A. They did this based solely on finances because the nearest 3A district to them was 200 miles. They just couldn't afford it.

Like I said in my previous post, I am all for getting an even playing field, but I think it will be a logistical and financial nightmare for some schools.

You guys are looking at local schools and the prospects of the new districts they would be in, and for the most part, they are fair. But you have to consider statewide, where there are areas that are not as easy to adjust.

I commend the UIL for trying to make things more fair, but I also know that the UIL doesn't care too much about a school's finances too.

[AshlyHasBeen]

Basically it would be combining two area Districts. This might be what the next Districts could look like. This is Districts 21-4A through 24-4A. Maybe, possibly,???

Good job on these. Any ideas on the 5A District for West Brook and Memorial.

[bronco1]

Good job on these. Any ideas on the 5A District for West Brook and Memorial.

I will see if I can put that together.

[bronco1]

Possible 5A Districts

Northshore should have to play JUCO. ;D

[Tiger90]

This is dealing with more than just football right?  I can't imagine some of these schools having to drive a few hours on a school night for some sports.  I keep thinking of the jv and middle school games. 

[bronco1]

This is dealing with more than just football right?  I can't imagine some of these schools having to drive a few hours on a school night for some sports.  I keep thinking of the jv and middle school games. 

I would think the UIL would make some kind of considerations for travel times. I don't think middle schools would be affected by this but, sub-varsity levels would.

[Tiger90]

Usually sub varsity including m.s. have the same district schedules/teams.

I guess I just do not like the idea of a major overhaul.  There are a lot more sports affected than just football when considering major changes.

[TexasHSFootball]

this realignment plan being discussed would only be affected in football

[77]

JV and Freshman would sure have some late Thursday nights.

[3ABirdMan]

Look at it this way - We currently have 5 classifications ( A, AA, AAA, AAAA, AAAAA).  The new plan for football would give us 10 classifications.  That would mean the same number of championships that we currently have (with DI and DII) but with 25% more teams competing for them:

5 class. X 3 teams equal 15 vs 10 class X 2 teams  equal 20  (or something like that  :  )

[KFDM COOP]

UIL proposal could help 'the little guy'

Van Wade

The Orange Leader

Will there be mega-districts in for Texas high schools when the University Interscholastic League sets up a new realignment plan for the 2008-09 school year?

That’s the big question concerning area athletic directors this week after the UIL is looking to provide a more competitive balance in high school football.

The UIL redraws competitive districts every two years. A plan will be formally presented in June and it’s a plan that will divide all UIL football classifications into two divisions for football.

The split-division system would need approval from superintendents and coaches and could be in place for the 2008-09 calendar year.

In the past, the UIL has tried its best to prevent smaller schools from competing in the playoffs against opponents with much larger enrollments. It’s worked well for the most part but there still have been some discrepancies. Last season, the “small school†5A champion Cedar Hill actually had a larger enrollment than “big school†winner Southlake Carroll.

Under the new proposal, each class will be split into two, 16-district divisions before the start of the season.

“I think this plan has a lot of merit,†said UIL Director Charles Breithaupt. “There might be problems we haven’t seen or thought of. But it looks pretty solid at this point. It just makes more sense to put teams into the same division at the beginning of the year instead of the end.â€

The largest gap came in Class 3A as the last realignment had the 3A classification as schools with enrollments between 415 and 949 students. Class 4A was set at 950-1984.

Our local District 21-3A looked like this:

Silsbee 827; Jasper 819; West Orange-Stark 775; Bridge City 755; Hardin-Jefferson 706; Hamshire-Fannett 581; Orangefield 473 and Kirbyville 453.

The top four schools enrollment-wise combined to go 26-14 overall, 19-9 in 21-3A play while the bottom four went 17-23 overall, 9-19 in district play.

“The new plan would certainly equal the playing field as far as the playoffs are concerned,†said Orangefield Athletic Director Blake Morrison. “District 21-3A is by far one of the toughest if not the toughest district in the state. Our kids compete and compete hard but it’s not always easy when you have schools like Silsbee, Jasper, WO-S and Bridge City that have close to 400 more students than you have and lining up and playing them every week. You’re talking about schools that have more depth, in all sports, and I think that wears smaller schools down.â€

Long-time WO-S Athletic Director Dan Hooks feels everyone will be confused for quite some time.

“You just never know what’s going to happen until we all open those packets in 2008,†Hooks said. “There is still a lot of deep water to go through. The plan has to be passed by the superintendents along with the coaches. There is no telling what the UIL will do, it’s always a waiting game. It’s fun to sit around and try to figure out what will exactly happen.â€

Hooks feels like the two local 3A districts could shake down like this with WO-S, Bridge City, Silsbee, Jasper, H-J, Cleveland and Splendora forming one loop with Orangefield, H-F, Kirbyville, Shepherd, Tarkington, Coldspring and Liberty forming another.

“If it went down like that, our chances of possibly making the playoffs would definitely go up,†Morrison said. “The playing field would become much more equal. It gives all of those teams much more of an opportunity and it levels the playing field.â€

Just how much will it have an impact on schools’ travel budget?

“There will be a few longer district trips involved,†Hooks said. “Spendora and Cleveland is a little bit further for us but you’ll have to live with what ever decision comes down. To break it up into two different divisions may not be so bad. We’d see a lot more closer games in the playoffs, especially in those earlier rounds.â€

“As always, there are positives and negatives to any new plan,†Morrison said. “We would certainly have to travel some more. We would like to continue to stay close to home as far as non-district goes and maybe continue to play West Orange and Bridge City. Keeping games like that will certainly help at the gate and would help out on costs down the road.â€

District 22-4A is a little bit closer together enrollment-wise compared to 21-3A. The 2006 realignment shook down like this:

Beaumont Ozen 1,499; Port Neches-Groves 1,475; Nederland 1,471; Dayton 1,439; Vidor 1,425; Beaumont Central 1,407; Little Cypress-Mauriceville 1,170 and Lumberton 1,011.

There wasn’t much difference in overall records and district records comparing the top four biggest schools and the four smallest. The top four went 19-21 overall, 15-13 in district while the bottom four were 19-21 and 13-15.

So how many changes will be made as for as the local 4A loop goes?

“It’s one big mystery,†said LC-M AD Todd Moody. “There are all kinds of scenarios that could be involved.â€

Like what kind of scenarios?

“My perception and what we kinda got at the last district meeting is that there could be a 10 or 11 -team league,†said Moody. “That could mean that there will be no pre-district games and we’d maybe get teams like Crosby or Barbers Hill coming in. That would be the worst-case scenario because you always want to see how a team responds early in the season and it gives you time to work out the kinks and correct mistakes. To jump right into district to open the season would really be tough on everybody involved. It would be more like playing in a college conference.â€

What ever happens, schools will just have to deal with it.

“The UIL has been doing its best to help out smaller schools and it’s worked out great in some places and not in others,†Morrison said. “Any time you have something new, there are going to be people out there that want to reject it. We’re all going to have to take a long look at it and see if the positives outweigh the negatives.â€

What about other sports?

“I’d like to see what could happen in the other sports too,†Morrison said. “Look at girls basketball for instance. Our district was so awesome this year. I think six teams won about 20 games and three of those teams stayed at home. Then there are all the spring sports where we have kids bouncing around from baseball to track to golf all in the same week.â€

“Every two years, everyone feels some sort of impact,†Hooks said. “Until then, we’ll all be configurating, calculating and second-guessing everything. Looking at the big picture, there may be more positives than negatives and who knows, by 2008, we (WO-S) may be in the smaller district by then.â€

[bronco1]

Usually sub varsity including m.s. have the same district schedules/teams.

I guess I just do not like the idea of a major overhaul.  There are a lot more sports affected than just football when considering major changes.

Our middle school is not in the same District we are in, typically there are alot more Jr. Highs or Middle schools in an area so it is easy to find games for them.

[Guest Ozen]

Good job on these. Any ideas on the 5A District for West Brook and Memorial.

Talk about competition. 

[Bigdog]

That would help out LCM and Lumberton, not so much Vidor or Ozen.

[WOS87]

The problem with your projections is that you're assuming all the schools that are 5A would stay 5A.  There are currently 246 5A schools and 174 3A schools which is a difference of 72.

If the UIL were really going to divide each classification into Divison I and II from top to bottom (5A down through 1A) then why would there be a need to have 5A as large as it is currently? If you kept the number of schools in each classification like it is then 3A would have several 4-team districts in Regions I and IV with over 300 miles separating some schools. The UIL is going to have to push quite a few 5A schools down to 4A and quite a few 4A down to 3A to make all the classes equal in number. It makes more sense to just divide the approximately 1020 11-man programs that will be competing into 10 equal 102 team classes, which would put the enrollment cutoffs approximately as follows:

(using 2006 enrollment numbers)

5A-D1: (#1-102) 2589 - 5652 enrollment

5A-D2: (#103-204) 2150 - 2586 enrollment

4A-D1: (#205-306)  1717 - 2140 enrollment

4A-D2: (#307-408) 1221 - 1710 enrollment

3A-D1: (#409-510) 819 - 1200 enrollment

3A-D2: (#511-612) 492 - 809 enrollment

2A-D1: (#613-714) 330 - 490 enrollment

2A-D2: (#715-816) 233 - 329 enrollment

1A-D1: (#817-918)  166 - 233 enrollment

1A-D2: (#919-1020) <166 enrollment

This allows 16 districts in each classification to have somewhere between 6 and 7 teams per district on average.  You couldn't add or subtract too many from one class to another because 96 teams already is only 6 teams per district in a 16 district setup, and 80 teams moves you down to 5 teams per district. 

Another interesting thing about it is how the 3A-D2 largest-to-smallest ratio is STILL approaching 2. It's easy to see why there has been such a problem with parity in 3A looking at these numbers.  The 409th largest school has an enrollment of 1200 and just 200 spots down at 612th the enrollment plummets to 492.  The current members of District 3A-21 have such a large range in enrollments that the 8 teams are spread out between 3 different classifications in my system.

The respective breakdown of Southeast Texas teams using the above cutoffs would be:

5A-D1: Conroe, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Klein, Klein Collins, Klein Forest, Spring, Spring Westfield, Tomball, Cypress Creek, Cy-Fair, Cypress Falls, Cypress Ridge, Cypress Springs, Jersey Village, Langham Creek, Alief Elsik, Alief Hastings, Alief Taylor, Katy, Katy Cinco Ranch, Mayde Creek, Katy Taylor, Aldine, Aldine Eisenhower, Aldine MacArthur, Aldine Nimitz, Houston Sam Houston, Bellaire, Houston Lamar, Houston Westside, Baytown Sterling, Humble, Kingwood, Deer Park, North Shore, Pasadena Dobie, Ft Bend Austin, Ft Bend Kempner, Alvin, Brazoswood, Clear Brook, Galveston Ball, Clear Lake, Clear Creek, Pearland

5A-D2: Conroe Oak Ridge, College Park, Lufkin, Klein Oak, Katy Morton Ranch, Houston Memorial, Houston Northbrook, Spring Woods,  Houston Chavez, Houston Madison, Houston Milby, Houston Westbury, Baytown Lee, West Brook, Atascocita, Pt Arthur Memorial, La Porte, Pasadena, Pasadena Memorial, Pasadena Rayburn, South Houston,  Ft Bend Bush, Ft Bend Clements, Ft Bend Dulles, Ft Bend Hightower

4A-D1: Strake Jesuit, Houston Stratford, Channelview, Ft Bend Elkins, Ft Bend Marshall, Huntsville, Houston Austin, Houston Waltrip, Galena Park, Angleton, Dickinson, Friendswood, Richmond Foster, Lamar Consolidated, Rosenberg Terry

4A-D2: Ft Bend Willowridge, Brenham, Caney Creek, Livingston, Montgomery, Waller, Willis, Houston Davis, Houston Reagan, Houston Sharpstown, Houston Yates, Crosby, C.E. King, Beaumont Central, Beaumont Ozen, Dayton, Nederland, PN-G, Vidor, Santa Fe, Texas City, Bay City, Katy Seven Lakes

3A-D1: Houston Furr, Houston Jones, Houston Scarborough, Houston Sterling, Houston Wheatley, Houston Worthing, Houston Washington, Houston Forest Brook, Houston Smiley, Huffman, Barbers Hill, Lumberton, LC-M, Brazosport, La Marque, El Campo, Palestine, Jasper, Silsbee, Splendora, Stafford, West Columbia

3A-D2: Madisonville, Palestine Westwood, Carthage, Center, Diboll, Huntington, Rusk, Bridge City, Hamshire-Fannett, Hardin-Jefferson, WO-S, Cleveland, Tarkington, Coldspring, Liberty, Shepherd, Bellville, Caldwell, Giddings, La Grange, Navasota, Smithville, Needville, Sealy, Sweeny, Wharton

2A-D1: Crockett, Kirbyville, Orangefield, Brookshire, Columbus, Newton, Woodville, Anahuac, Buna, Hardin, Kountze, East Chambers, Hitchcock

2A-D2: Corrigan-Camden, Hemphill, San Augustine, Deweyville, Warren, Boling, Danbury, East Bernard, Van Vleck, Wallis Brazos

1A-D1: Shelbyville, Alto, Grapeland, Cross Roads, Colmesneil, Groveton, Lovelady, West Sabine, Hull-Daisetta, West Hardin

1A-D2: Cayuga, Cushing, Oakwood, Burkeville, Chester, Evadale, High Island, Sabine Pass

Of course this was made using the 2006 enrollments and there will be changes both up and down from the above but it does give an interesting picture of how it may look.

[KFDM COOP]

Very good analysis!!

[sportsfan07]

I have to say i dont like this plan. First off, for the schools that are in the middle will have to either play in the big division(And possibly lose) or play in the small division(And probably win). This will still be an unfair system. Second off, you will lose some rivaleries that have been tradition for years. Thirdly, the money and travel would be more. And last but not least, why make a change. It is working fine the way it is. Hardin-Jefferson is a middle of the road school and they won state this year in bball. They had to go up against some of the bigger 3A schools and took them out. Im for keeping the same system. You ever hear of the saying, "If it's not broke, don't fix it!"

[KFDM COOP]

To most it's broke!  8)

[bronco1]

Very good analysis!!

I agree, exhaustive. Great job.

[KFDM COOP]

The UIL if this passes this Summer will probably change all the numbers from 6 man to 5A.

[MrUmp1]

I looked up the defintion of common sense in the dictionary and nowhere did I find the name UIL in it. Just a little kidding I know that they really do try to do the best with the alignments. There is no way that every school is going to like whatever the UIL comes up with. It's the nature of the beast. If they can come up with a plan that is the best for the majority of the schools then that will have to do. What's good in SE Texas may not be as good in West Texas.