Winds of change

The University Interscholastic League’s biennial realignment has a well-earned reputation as the best-kept secret in Texas.

Which is why it’s more than a little surprising that the governing body for Texas high school athletics has openly discussed a plan for the upcoming alignment period that would drastically alter the football landscape.

At issue is a plan that would separate each class into Division I and Division II by districts. Each division would have 16 districts.

The plan came about in 2006 after Wylie, with an average daily membership of 2,247.5, was placed in District 9-5A with four of the state’s eight largest schools — Plano East (5,652), Plano (5,122), Allen (4,629.5) and Plano West (4,156.5).

The UIL has been studying the idea since and took the unusual step of publicizing it over the summer.

In an interview with the Temple Daily Telegram conducted last month at the Texas High School Coaches Association’s annual convention, UIL athletic director Charles Breithaupt said the plan would apply to football only with alignment for other sports being done much as it is now.

“This is a football-only proposal, because statistics prove that schools at the smaller end of the enrollment range tend to not fare as well in football as in other team sports,” Breithaupt said. “Football has been a numbers game for as long as we can remember.

“The change would work for football, because there’s no double round-robin schedule that creates the need for Tuesday night games like the other sports do.”

No action would be taken before the UIL legislative council meets in October, just about the time schools report enrollment numbers for the upcoming realignment.

That data will determine the viability of the plan.

“We’re looking at it now and the legislative council in October can decide whether to implement it now, scrap it altogether or wait and maybe implement it for the 2010-2012 realignment,” Breithaupt told the Temple paper. “All we can do right now is study every possible angle, and our study is based on the enrollment numbers from the last realignment because that’s all we have.”

UIL staff presented possible scenarios at coaching schools based on current enrollment numbers, basically splitting each class in the middle.

“There wasn’t a whole lot said about it other than taking a straw poll,” Permian coach Darren Allman said. “Interestingly enough, about 99 percent of the people raised their hands in favor of it. That’s kind of an indication to me that there’s a pretty solid chance it will happen.

“They’ve been talking about it a lot. I think there’s a couple of plans on the table. Both of them involve the Division I-Division II districts. I think it’s West Texas right now that’s screwing everything up to try to logistically be able to do it.”

Odessa High coach Ron King said he doesn’t favor the plan, saying other factors should be taken into consideration.

“I guess their reason is enrollment, but you can’t really base a lot of schools on their enrollment,” he said. “It also depends on participation and different socio-economic backgrounds at each school.

“I don’t really feel that’s fair. I think there are some schools out there that can compete at any level.”

King added that the move would likely bring an end to the grouping of Odessa, Midland and Abilene schools, who have competed together for more than 40 years.

“As long as I’ve been in this district, I’d hate to see us lose the Abilene schools and break up the Little Southwest Conference,” said King, who has been on staffs at Permian, Abilene Cooper and OHS. “It was kind of bad when they took San Angelo out of here.

“I’d like to see them maybe bring that district back, but the way things are now — and I understand the population scenarios are dwindling in some areas — it’s really disappointing.”

While 5A coaches tended to favor the idea, the plan drew mixed reaction from smaller schools.

“When we voted, our region was pretty split but it was really probably leaning more toward keeping it the way it was,” McCamey coach Jay McWilliams said. “It wasn’t that big of a difference.

“The people that I talked to that you might say are kind of in the know, I’m hearing that it’s going to happen. I’m hearing that it’s just a matter of time and they’ve already started playing around with the numbers.”

MANY QUESTIONS

As it studies the plan, the UIL must also determine if many of its long-held guidelines for realignment will still be applicable.

The current Class 5A range of 220 to 245 schools and other policies could also face review, but “it hasn’t gotten to that point, yet,” UIL athletic coordinator Peter Contreras said.

The number of new schools opening around the state will also have an impact.

“That’s always a domino effect,” Contreras said. “But as far as will there be a higher number of schools in 5A than last time out, we won’t really know until we see the numbers.”

Another matter is whether to continue allowing schools to play up in a division larger than their enrollment would dictate.

There are currently six schools of 4A size playing in 5A — four of them in District 29-5A, composed of schools from Laredo and Eagle Pass — while three Houston schools with 3A numbers compete in 4A.

El Paso-area schools Anthony and Tornillo, both of which project to be in Class 2A Division II, play in a 3A district that could see four schools go Division I.

Schools now may petition to play one classification larger than their enrollment. Kim Rogers, the UIL’s director of public information, said several factors must be considered in such cases.

“We don’t know for sure that that’s even going to be an option for schools, especially for schools with multiple high schools in their district,” she said. “Those are the ones that are given the option to opt up.

“Because it’s so preliminary at this point, it’s just the findings of what would have happened with the 2005 numbers. It’s still too early to actually answer that question.”

Also playing into the mix will be how many small schools continue to compete at the 11-man level, move to six-man (six schools, including Rankin, did so in the last realignment) or drop the sport.

In May, Karnack, which played 11-man with an ADM of 76, announced it was discontinuing its program. The decision leaves District 19-1A with four teams this season.

The one point that is clear is all ramifications be considered before any decision is made.

“There’s still a lot of discussion with our superintendents on the legislative council that needs to happen before this even goes any further,” Rogers said. “All the questions are good and they’re all valid questions, we just don’t necessarily have the answers to them right now.”

THE STATUS QUO

Under the current setup, playoff teams are placed in divisions based on their enrollment number in comparison to the other qualifiers from their respective districts. That led to Class 5A having smaller schools playing in the Division I state finals than those that met for the Division II crown.

Southlake Carroll, with an average daily membership of 2,408, beat Austin Westlake (2,356.5) in the Division I championship game. In Division II, Cedar Hill (2,448.5) beat Houston Cypress Falls (3,350). Under the proposed plan, all four of those schools would be in Division II.

In Class 4A, Division II finalist Waco (1,826) was larger than Division I champion San Antonio Alamo Heights (1,425).

The current system also makes it possible for Allen, the fifth-largest school in the state, to be placed in the Division II bracket should Plano East and Plano both qualify.

The proposed plan calls for the same number of playoff teams, but there would be some changes in how the postseason works.

Class 5A schools would continue to qualify four teams per district for two 64-team brackets. A team could play two district opponents in the first four rounds.

Class 4A through 1A would continue to advance three teams per district for two 48-team brackets in each class. District champions would receive a bye in the first round and avoid meeting another district winner until the third round, something area coaches find to their liking.

“I really like the idea because it makes district championships come back into play more,” Monahans coach Mickey Owens said. “Lately, if you were big, if you were going to the playoffs you knew you were big. Who cared who won it?”

McCamey’s McWilliams offered a similar sentiment.

“We’ve been district champions the last three years and the last two we’ve played Seagraves,” he said. “Guess what? They won their district. So right off the bat there was no advantage to winning district.”

BREAKING IT DOWN

The UIL lists 1,135 schools as playing football this school year, 1,018 of which compete in 11-man.

The plan of simply splitting each class in two would require the least amount of change in 5A, where several districts are composed almost entirely of schools that would go in the same division.

District 3-5A would lose Cooper, which could go 4A no matter what plan is adopted, while Abilene High is likely bound for Division II. Meanwhile, San Angelo Central is the only 2-5A member that would go Division I, putting the Bobcats back with Midland and Odessa schools.

“We would certainly hope that our district stays intact,” Allman said. “We’d like to keep everybody and add San Angelo, but who knows how that may turn out? We might be able to pick up San Angelo and hopefully we won’t lose Abilene Cooper, but that may be inevitable.”

As Allman noted, geography becomes a problem in West Texas. It really comes into play in the smaller classes, where splitting the current classes would leave six schools west of Sweetwater in Class 3A Division II — Greenwood, Lamesa, Brownfield, Perryton, Dalhart and Clint.

In his interview with the Temple paper, Breithaupt said the UIL has a goal of increasing the number of 3A schools in an effort to avoid having four- and five-team districts.

“Those are horrible,” Breithaupt said. “We thought it would work because it worked in 5A, but it didn’t in 3A. That Central Texas district (18-3A with Cameron Yoe, Rockdale, Hutto, Taylor, Liberty Hill) has been a monumental disaster for those guys trying to find games.

“We’re going to try everything we can to have at least six schools in a district, unless we have 200 or more miles between schools.”

Having at least six teams per district would require each division to have a minimum of 96 schools, while having eight teams per district would require 128.

Another problem area is South Texas. The Rio Grande Valley projects to have five Class 5A Division I schools with Corpus Christi King being the next closest. If the Laredo-Eagle Pass district is split up, schools could be placed in districts with members from San Antonio, the Corpus Christi area or the Valley.

Wink coach Max McGehee, who spent 14 years at Laredo Cigarroa before returning to his hometown in 2003, said it’s pretty much the same scenario West Texas schools would face.

“You’re going to travel to play your nondistrict games,” he said. “You just don’t have any choice. It’s 150 miles to San Antonio, it’s 150 miles to Corpus, it’s 150 miles to the Valley. You’re traveling 150 miles to play your nondistrict games right now.”

Some problems could be alleviated — and others created — by evenly distributing teams over the number of divisions. Splitting the state into 12 more-or-less equal divisions would give each an average of 94.58 schools, almost filling Breithaupt’s goal of at least six teams per district.

The flaw with this plan is it does not take into consideration the number of smaller schools playing 11-man football, with nearly 60 having ADMs that would fall below the cutoff for six-man.

If six-man is taken out of the equation and the 11-man schools are spread over 10 divisions, that would put roughly 102 schools in each division.

A problem with both of those methods is the disparity created between the top and bottom of Class 3A. The UIL currently aims for the top end of a classification to be roughly twice the size of the bottom, which would be a factor when divisions are combined and realigned for other sports. Either above plan would require a gap of at least 700 between biggest and smallest, putting the bottom of 3A closer to a third the size of the top.