UIL Realignment to be Released on Thursday

The will soon be changes on the high school sports scene when the UIL announces the 2018-2020 realignments at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Richland, Prosper, Mansfield Lake Ridge and Mansfield Summit are making the jump to Class 6A, while no area schools are dropping to Class 5A.

Now the question is where do they go?

There’s a feeling that Lake Ridge and Summit could end up in District 6 with Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Mansfield and Waxahachie. And there’s the possibility that Prosper shows up in District 5, a district that also includes Allen.

The thing to remember is the entire Lone Star State is connected. So what happens in areas such as Houston or Waco can have an impact on schools in North Texas and vice versa. For example, Waco University possibly being moved to District 3 means a longer road trip for other teams such as Arlington Seguin and Midlothian.

Sticking with District 6, another option could be Waco High and Waco Midway jumping on board. However, this sounds unlikely due to the teams moving up from 5A, such as Lake Ridge and Summit. But think how crazy that district would be with those two Waco schools in the mix.

The new alignments are established by enrollment figures submitted to the UIL by member schools in October. This serves as the football and basketball districts for the next two school years.

The conference cutoff numbers have been released prior to the full realignment.  These numbers provide the range of enrollment for each of the six conferences, including the divisional cutoffs for football.

Conference Cutoffs

6A           2190 and above    253 schools (Basketball); 252 schools (Football)

5A           1150 - 2189           254 schools (Basketball); 253 schools (Football)

4A           505 - 1149             191 schools (Basketball); 183 schools (Football)

3A           225 - 504               232 schools (Basketball); 211 schools (Football)

2A           105 - 224               198 schools (Basketball); 187 schools (Football)

1A           104.9 and below    211 schools (Basketball); 142 schools (Football)

1A - 5A Football Division I and Division II Numbers

5A Division I          1840 - 2189           126 schools

5A Division II         1150 - 1839           127 schools

4A Division I          790 - 1149             93 schools

4A Division II         505 - 789               90 schools

3A Division I          335 - 504               106 schools

3A Division II         225 - 334               105 schools

2A Division I          161.5 - 224            94 schools

2A Division II         105 - 161.4            93 schools

1A Division I          55.5 - 104.9           73 schools

1A Division II         55 and below         69 schools