By Kevin Lonnquist
NTX Varsity Sports Columnist
How ironic that realignment day and Groundhog Day fall on the same day.
What’s the notable line from the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray?
“Well, it’s Groundhog Day…again!”
Well, it’s Realignment Day…again.
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, the University Interscholastic League unveils through its website where every Texas High School from Class 1A through Class 6A will be competing in athletics for the next two years.
This biannual ritual on the first Monday of February summons all the emotions from stakeholders. The most common is stress because of the unknown leading up to the release.
If you’ve been on Twitter or the internet reading the credible media sources, which put together these mock projections, then you will know it makes for interesting reading.
To their credit, the analysis is to be commended. Keep in mind, they are just guesses. Educational guesses, mind you. But guesses. Attempting to read the mind of the UIL is a challenge.
For some high schools, there will be relief. Everything they prayed for happened. For some, there will be some frustration. Still, they can find a way to make it work. For the others, there will be disbelief because their planning just imploded. They need to start over.
For the NTX Varsity Sports coverage area, coaches and athletic directors will gather either at the Region 11 Education Service Center in White Settlement or the Birdville Fine Arts and Athletics Complex in North Richland Hills.
Once the truth is known, the scene is chaotic. It’s an impromptu version of a daily session on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Moved to fill non-district schedules, coaches are scrambling to complete unexpected vacancies or tell verbal commitments they have been dropped because they can only play three non-district games instead of four.
As a refresher, below are the cutoff numbers for the classifications. As a second refresher, the numbers are for football. There are different realignment districts for the other sports except for 6A.
Here they are:
Class 6A: 2215 and higher
Class 5A Division I: 1870-2214
Class 5A Division II: 1305-1869
Class 4A Division I: 896-1304
Class 4A Division II: 550-896
Class 3A Division I: 367-549
Class 3A Division II: 246-366.9
Class 2A Division I: 175.6-245.9
Class 2A Division II: 105-175.5
Class 1A Division I: 57.6-104.9
Class 1A Division II: 57.5 and below
Some of the drama has been eliminated. Every school in Texas knows its classification destination. Of course, what it doesn’t know is who will be its partners. It could be districts made up of six, seven, eight and even sometimes nine schools.
All of this depends on the maps the UIL draws. Geography is the primary factor. Then travel is involved. West Texas schools catch the brunt of this. However, the difference is they know this is the way of doing business.
Athletic departments have budgets. That also plays a part. The tricky part comes with those single 6A or 5A schools sitting in a location that could go anywhere.
Remember, the UIL created a 5A Division I football district that included Highland Park, Cleburne and Tyler High. That district also included Lufkin before that school won its appeal to move elsewhere.
Some of the outcomes could be headscratchers. But there is a precedent. There are three notable stories to watch.
>Aledo and Granbury moving up to Class 6A: This is pretty much old news. It’s been a formality since Aledo turned in its snapshot enrollment of 2404 in late October. Granbury’s was close and then became official when the cutoff numbers were announced in December. Now it comes down to where the Bearcats and Pirates are going.
The most popular projection is these two staying together and being grouped with Weatherford, Crowley and North Crowley, Saginaw Boswell and three Mansfield schools between Mansfield, Lake Ridge and Legacy.
There’s another where they could be with Haltom and the Hurst-Euless-Bedford schools in LD Bell and Euless Trinity. Finally, the daunting projection has them going out West to join Midland, Midland Legacy, Odessa and Odessa High. If that happens, there’s a fair chance those two would look into appealing.
>Eagle Mountain moving up to 5A Division II: This school is in one of the fastest growing areas on the Western side of Tarrant County. Consider that when it opened in 2024, it was 4A Division II. With 1315 students, it moved up a full classification.
Eagle Mountain could be grouped with several Fort Worth ISD schools. A couple of candidates are O.D. Wyatt, South Hills, North Side and Poly. The Knights may also find themselves in a district with Grapevine, Colleyville Heritage and Argyle.
>Mildred moves back to 3A: Eagle athletics has been on this yo-yo experience. Two years ago, it dropped from 3A Division II to 2A Division I. Now, it’s moving back up. But if you track this the way your scribe has, Mildred athletics really has been competing as a 3A Division II school at the 2A level.
Now, this is going to be one of the smaller schools of this classification. It snuck in by nine students (255) but should be able to absorb the change. There’s only a 120-student difference between the ceiling and the floor.
The hourglass is running out of grains. Now, every school awaits its fate.
We’ll keep you posted on who is headed where on this site.
