Wait, did they officially divide each classification into two divisions? My area in 2A district 13 has been blown up. Now they're actually showing two different 2A district 13 groups. In the past there was only one 2A district 13 and they would assign division 1 or 2 based of of school population after the district playoff qualifiers are determined. Or did this change before and my dumbass just didn't notice it?
Yes. They "pre-divide" all classifications except 6A by large and small enrollments into two Divisions from the get-go. The first and second-place teams in each district go to the play-offs. (So District 3-5A sends 4 teams to the playoffs - 1 & 2 from Division I and 1 & 2 from Division II.) 6A remains undivided with the top 4 teams going to the playoffs.
At least in 5A (can't speak for the other ones), it's still top 4 in the district, regardless of classification. For example, 7-5A D2 was super-competitive at the top this year, and sent Lovejoy, Frisco, Liberty, and Denison even though they were all together in one group. In the link, you can see the W (winner), R (runners-up), T (third), and F (fourth) next to each distinction for the bracket. Football Playoff Brackets — University Interscholastic League (UIL) But there's also 7-5A D1, which I don't follow, and it sent Highland Park, Longview, Tyler, and McKinney North. Again, all from the same district. I think this tends to water down the first round, and create those crazy geographical mismatches in the semifinals every year. Wish there was a better way, but oh well. Hate to go back to only having 1 division, causing the lack of playoffs for basically 3/4ths of the state each year. Basketball is a little bit easier to maintain with just 1 division.
Playing everyone twice makes it easier to determine contenders vs. pretenders, I think. Geography is the other issue. Basketball teams are expected to play 2 a week, and travel on a school night needs to be a little easier than a Friday every other week.
I mean look at the weird shapes. Doesn't take much to swap out schools so they don't have to travel too far. just me scribbling reduced distance by 33% for two districts. but shoot...put lewisville/coppell with denton and mckinney/allen with plano and it does the same thing. whatever
When 5A was the largest classification, we had ELP; Angelo/Midland/Odessa? Abilene; Lubbock; Amarillo, Wichita Falls. Review 6A; there are only two districts West of I-35.
When I was in high school (mid 1970s), Canyon, Perryton, and Levelland were in the same 3A District. (Perryton and Levelland are 253 miles apart, so that made for a 506-mile round trip for the away team. Sucked to be them in those days.)
I get that was funny, but consider the band, drill team, cheerleaders, and everyone else who travels for a 300-mile round trip. Makes a lot more sense if it's a Friday night and not, say, a Tuesday at 2 pm. So, part of that was lobbying on behalf of PISD's new AD from a few years ago. Got them out of Allen's district in exchange for taking the "get around Lake Lewisville" disadvantageous travel routes (and a bunch of sob stories about kids transferring away to Allen and then playing against their friends the next year). We're about to see a boom of 6A schools north of Hwy 380, but it might not be until the 2026-27 realignment before all that comes to fruition. Can't stick anyone with Garland schools any longer as they're big enough for their own district. It'll be interesting to see if HP will stay in 6A. They basically created their own districts in 5A (and 4A before the switcheroo).
We are talking sports that the cheeleaders might accompany the basketball team. In track, every other Thursday we would travel 50 or 60 miles for workout with a different team and then go to a meet on Saturday. On the Thursdays we stayed home, Highland Park would come out to us. (These were the days that Highland Park had a "square" track.) Also for the Texas relays we would be gone from Wednesday to Sunday. All of us who wanted to go to college went to the schools that we wanted to go so we stayed on top of the academics. It is all about desire, both athletically and academically.
Absolutely insane. For that match-up they need to play at a neutral site that’s roughly halfway between the two … which I guess would be Plainview or Hale Center.
I don't think we're disagreeing about anything desire- and effort-related. I'm saying that football and basketball districts are the way they are to try to make it easier for community (i.e. parent-driven) travel. No one doubts that it takes time to compete in certain events. I had debaters who'd miss 30+ days of school before the state capped the field trip days. But if we're talking sports-related travel, it's easier to spread out football (including players, parents, band, drill, cheer, booster club(s), old-timers who attend road games, etc.) than it is basketball (smaller roster and therefore fewer supporters, maybe cheer goes with them but hardly anyone else, weeknight games, etc.).
Thursday night football games suck. Particularly if they are a long road trip (e.g., more than 100 miles)
