It's one of the most anticipated days in Texas high school football, and all sports for that matter: The announcement of University Interscholastic League's two-year reclassification and realignment, this one for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
The results go a long way to determine state championships, old and new rivalries and travel.
The reclassification and realignment was officially released a few moments ago on the
UIL website. The following are a few football-related highlights:
• District 11-6A will remain the "District of Doom" with state powers Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville. Additionally, Skyline joins the big three.
* Three-time defending state champion Westlake (Austin), winners of 40 straight game, remains in District 26-6A along with, among others, Lake Travis and Bowie (Austin).
• Perennial football state powers Carroll (Southlake) and Trinity
(Euless) are not back together again as projected. Carroll is in
District 4 and Trinity District 3 of 6A. The super powers with a
combined 11 state titles will now be separated for fifth and sixth seasons. Former Carroll assistant Aaron Lineweaver was named Trinity's new
head coach on Monday.
• Six-time state champion Highland Park moves from 5A to 6A (District 7) with other
Richardson ISD schools like it did three classifications before. The
Scots are the eighth-smallest 6A school in the state, according to the
Dallas Morning News.
• Allen, with an enrollment of 7,102, did not reunite with three mammoth Plano ISD schools, Plano East (5,514), Plano West (5,333) and Plano (4,694) — like it was last in 2018-2020. These are four of the five largest schools in the state, but again remained in separate districts — Allen in District 5-6A, while the Plano schools are District 6-6A.
• Argyle, which has piled up a 105-9 record in 4A the last eight seasons, including a 16-0 campaign in 2020, is moving up to District 3-5A2.
• Ten-time state champion Aledo, which owns the most state titles in Texas history, is moving from 5A-II to 5A-1 with an increase of enrollment to 2,090. It moves to District 3-5A1 along with another state power Ryan (Denton).
• Classification size for football works like this: 6A (2,225
enrollment-above: Divisions 1-2 divided once playoffs are announced),
5A-1 (1,925-2,224), 5A-2 (1,300-1,924), 4A-1 (880-1,229), 4A-2
(545-879), 3A-1 (360-544), 3A-2 (250-359), 2A-1 (164.5-249), 2A-2
(105-164.4), 1A-1 (59.5-104.9), 1A-2 (59.4-below).
DeSoto (left) and Duncanville (right), shown here in the 2021 6A-1 quarterfinals, will remain District 11 rivals over the next two seasons.
File photo by Eddie Kelly
