Well it’s realignment time. Every two years the Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) reorganizes high school sports into Classes, Regions, and Districts. While you never know what District the UIL will place your school into, the process itself is really not mysterious. Two years ago I conducted a long telephone interview with Dr. Jamey Harrison, Deputy Director of the UIL, and the person in charge of realignment. I then wrote a story explaining how realignment works, which you can read by clicking here.
One week ago, on December 8, the UIL announced the new cut-off numbers for the six classifications and the two divisions within each classification. Brownwood has played in Class 4A Division 1 for many years, but this year there was speculation that we might drop down to Division 2, which contains the smaller schools in 4A. That was because the enrollment number that Brownwood submitted (960) was 48 fewer students than we had during the last realignment two years ago. As it turned out, Brownwood will stay in Division 1, but just barely. The dividing line between Division 1 and Division 2 is 957, just three students less than our enrollment. The top end of Division 1 is 1,314 students. So Brownwood will be one of the smallest schools in the state in Class 4A Division 1, and may be playing schools with as many as 350 more students than we have. Oh well.
So now the guessing game begins as to which District we will be in. There are a number of “mock” realignments out there, and here is mine. I have looked at all the schools in Class 4A Division 1, and I believe there are two possible Districts we might be assigned to. Well, maybe three.
First, a little background. Currently Brownwood plays in Region One, which includes four Districts (as all Regions do), and each District currently has five teams. District 2 includes Brownwood, Lubbock Estacado, Andrews, Big Spring, and San Angelo Lake View. Lubbock Estacado is moving down to 4A Division 2. West of us in District 1 there are four El Paso high schools (E.P. Austin, Bowie, Irvin, Riverside) plus San Elizario, which is just outside of El Paso. But, another El Paso high school, Ysleta, is moving down from Class 5A to 4A. Also, there are four high schools in west Texas whose enrollment would assign them to 4A Division 2, but have opted up to Division One: Fabens, Clint, Clint Mountain View (all of whom are near El Paso) and Pecos. District 3 in the Panhandle currently includes Dumas, Pampa, Hereford, Canyon, and Canyon Randall. But Canyon West Plains is moving up from 4A Division 2 to 4A Division 1. District 4 includes Decatur, Springtown, Wichita Falls, Burkburnett, and Mineral Wells. Wichita Falls High is closing (and will be replaced with a new 5A high school), while Burkburnett and Mineral Wells are moving down to 4A Division 2.
So here are my guesses:
Scenario 1:
With the new El Paso high school moving down from 5A, and the four schools opting up from 4A Division 2 to Division 1, there are now ten West Texas high schools out there in 4A Division 1. So in this scenario, they create two Districts in West Texas, with five teams each: District 1 will contain the five El Paso high schools (EP Austin, Bowie, Irvin, Riverside, and Ysleta). District 2 will include the four schools near El Paso (San Elizario, Fabens, Clint, and Clint Mountain View) plus Pecos. District 3 in the Panhandle would have six schools, the current five (Dumas, Pampa, Hereford, Canyon, Canyon Randall) plus the new school Canyon West Plains. That would move Brownwood to District 4, with only four teams: Brownwood, Andrews, Big Spring, San Angelo Lake View.
In my interview with Dr. Harrison of the UIL, he said that they don’t like four-team districts, and they don’t like nine- and ten-team districts, but sometimes they are unavoidable. So that would argue against this scenario, with our district having only four teams. But there are a few. Currently District 1-3A (Division 2) has only four teams (Crane, Alpine, Tornillo, and Odessa Compass). So it is possible. Interesting side note, in that district of four, with only three district opponents, they go through District twice, playing each other two times each year, as everyone does in basketball, softball, etc.
Scenario 1-A:
Same as above, except add Stephenville to our District 4. There are a number of speculators predicting this. And it could be. But Dr. Harrison told me the biggest factor they consider is simply geography. They try to keep teams in a district as close to each other as possible. Stephenville to Big Spring is about 200 miles, and to Andrews is about 250 miles. That’s about the same as Brownwood to Houston. I can’t see the UIL making Stephenville travel that far, when there are plenty of 4A (1) schools nearby. But you never know. It could happen.
Scenario 2:
In this scenario, there is one nine-team district in West Texas: the five El Paso schools plus San Elizario, Fabens, Clint, and Clint Mountain View. Pecos would be in District 2 with Andrews, Big Spring, and San Angelo Lake View. But now you have two problems, a nine-team district and a four-team district. The UIL does not like either of those. District 3 in the Panhandle would be the same as above. And this scenario puts Brownwood in District 4 (still Region 1), a seven-team district along with Decatur, Springtown, Stephenville, Alvarado, Kennedale, and Waxahachie Life.
The background on this District 4 is this: the current District 4 is losing three teams, as mentioned above (Wichita Falls, Burkburnett, and Mineral Wells). That leaves only Decatur and Springtown. The current District 5 (in Region 2) has Stephenville, Alvarado, Waxahachie Life, Waco La Vega, and China Spring. But La Vega and China Spring are moving down to Division 2. That leaves District 4 with only two teams and District 5 with three teams, so you merge them together and add in Brownwood and Kennedale.
That would be a very tough District. Here are this year’s win-loss records for those teams: Decatur 10-5, Springtown, 9-4, Stephenville 11-3, Kennedale 7-4, Alvarado 7-5, Waxahachie Life 2-8.
Update to story, Scenario 2-A:
A variation on Scenario 2 has just occurred to me. This Scenario 2-A would have all the same 26 teams in Region 1 as described above in Scenario 2, but Brownwood would be in District 2 with Andrews, Big Spring, San Angelo Lake View, and Pecos. That would solve the four-team district problem in District 2, making it a five-team district. And District 4 now would have six teams: Decatur, Springtown, Stephenville, Alvarado, Kennedale, and Waxahachie Life. So the number of teams in each district is more balanced. The problem here again is travel distance. Brownwood to Pecos is about 250 miles, more than Brownwood to Lubbock and about the same as Brownwood to Houston. So it’s the same problem as in Scenario 1-A above, with Stephenville having to travel 250 miles to Andrews. I just don’t think the UIL will put two teams 250 miles apart in the same district. But you never know.
In the new alignment Class 4A Division 1 will have 106 schools. If you divide them evenly into the four Regions, that would be 26.5 schools per region. So that would argue for Scenario 2, which would have 26 teams in Region One, whereas Scenario 1 has only 20 teams in Region One. However, currently Region One has only 20 teams, so that is still possible also.
I believe it may come down to what happens in the other Regions 2, 3, and 4. Region 2 is northeast Texas, which includes the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Region 3 is southeast Texas, which includes the Houston area. Region 4 is south Texas, which generally includes Austin, San Antonio, and all the way down to Brownsville. So there are plenty of schools in each of those regions. If they can work out the Districts in those three Regions in a neat and tidy manner, without too many nine- and ten-team districts, then I think they keep Stephenville, Decatur, etc. in Region 2 (those towns are much closer to DFW than to West Texas, after all), and my Scenario 1 will happen. But if the districts are too crowded in those other Regions, then they might have to push some teams west into Region 1, and that’s where my Scenario 2 will occur.
But, you never know. The UIL does what the UIL does, and it is very hard to predict. From my interview with Dr. Harrison two years ago, I do believe the UIL tries their best to be as fair and reasonable as possible. So we’ll see. The new districts will be announced on February 1, 2024. Stay tuned!