ROUND ROCK — A drastic change is coming to the postseason formats for various UIL sports starting next school year.
A proposal to restructure the basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball and baseball playoffs by splitting each classification into two divisions was approved on Tuesday at the June meeting of the UIL Legislative Council. The playoff structure in these sports will resemble the 6A football postseason format, which splits qualifying teams into two divisions based on enrollment and crowns two champions in each classification. Class 1A volleyball, softball and baseball will not be affected.
State tournaments, which have historically included semifinals and finals and often back-to-back games, could be limited to just championship matches under this new format. Draft proposals The Dallas Morning News obtained in May through a public records request also indicate the move could decrease the number of playoff games, possibly eliminating the regional quarterfinal round in basketball and soccer and the area round in volleyball, softball and baseball.
UIL officials have said they believe the two-division format across team sports beyond football will promote competitive equity across the state and increase opportunities for member schools to win state championships.
In practice, the new format should mean that there are smaller gaps in enrollment size between playoff opponents.
The UIL has considered this format since the 1990-91 school year, when the agency created two divisions in Class 5A football only, UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison told The News on Tuesday after the proposal passed. Class 6A did not exist until the 2014-15 school year, so Class 5A was the UIL’s highest classification at that time.
“Ever since then, every other sport has wanted the same thing,” Harrison said. “And every other conference has wanted it. It started in 5A and then grew its way down.”
Under the football postseason format, teams in Classes 1A through 5A are assigned to Division I or Division II athletic districts each reclassification and realignment cycle. Schools with either distinction compete in districts only with other teams in their same predetermined division. Class 6A teams aren’t assigned a division until the playoff qualifiers are decided, so a 6A school could go Division I one year in the postseason and Division II the next.
The new playoff formats for basketball, volleyball, baseball and soccer will mirror the 6A system for now to not disrupt the current alignment structure or add any additional travel for district play. The 2024-26 UIL realignment cycle begins this upcoming school year.
“This is not the only option we analyzed. We put five or six or seven options on the table and as soon as we released alignment, I identified multiple split conferences and everything, which is different from what we just did. A [Class ]7A. All kinds of things,” Harrison said. “We tried to chase each of those individually down the trail until we found a definitive reason why it was not going to work at this time. And we hit that on all of those other options except this.”
Harrison added: “The one stumbling block to this was ‘But next year? That seems a little fast.’ Ok, tell me why we can’t do it next year and we won’t. The more we started working on it, the more we realized we can do it. It’s what people have been asking for, this is the option to go with and it’s only Step 1.”
Ahead of the vote, some Dallas-area coaches said they would support the change and wondered why only football had two championship brackets. Harrison said Tuesday that when the split conference model in the football postseason started, the numbers suggested that enrollment affected football more than any other sport.
“All sports are impacted by enrollment, but football is impacted significantly more than others because it’s a numbers game,” Harrison said. “Basketball is going to be impacted a little bit less than baseball and softball. [Basketball] takes five players at a time. [Baseball and softball] takes nine. Football takes 22.”
Scheduling for non-football sports was also a roadblock, Harrison said. Football games are once a week, typically around the weekend, while a sport such as basketball plays games twice a week, often on school nights.
Johnnie Carter, executive director of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, said during the public hearing portion of Tuesday’s meeting that the organization was advocating for more state championships in basketball.
Before the vote, some coaches said the new format would water down the competition, while others said they hadn’t heard much about the proposal, which didn’t appear on the UIL website until last week after The News received the documents.
“I would strongly encourage them to engage with us or engage with any of the coaches associations, available for their support,” Harrison said in response to those who feel wary of the changes. “This was discussed ad nauseam with the [various coaching associations]. Extensively with those organizations. So if they’re not engaged with those organizations, those organizations aren’t hearing your voice and aren’t able to share [your] voice with us.”
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