SAN ANTONIO - - Scott Surratt owns November and December football, with a career 80–8 record in the playoffs and 10 state championships. He loves these win-or-go-home games, but there’s nothing he despises more than negotiating where to play them.

In classes 6A and 5A, the bi-district round of the playoffs is played at the home field of the higher seed (Nos. 1 or 2). But in classes 4A and below, all games are played at a neutral site. Surratt is one of several coaches who’ve told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football they’re in favor of all classifications granting the higher seed home field advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

“I’m not saying this arrogantly, but when you play as many (playoff games) as us, and I’m the AD that has to get the fields, that’s what I hate the most,” Surratt said. “So if I didn’t have to get one Week One, that would be awesome.”

UIL Executive Director Jamey Harrison said Sunday that the UIL has ongoing discussions about home-field advantage for classes 4A and below in bi-district. But as you go down the classifications, the locations of schools are far more spread out, which could create an unfair advantage.

“If a school is having to drive six hours to play a first-round football game, the cost associated with that is unreasonable,” Harrison said. “It’s one thing to get a home-field advantage. It’s another thing to get a home-field advantage, plus a ‘six-hour travel on the other team’ advantage.”

Harrison says the UIL is continuing to discuss a proposal from its last council meeting, which called for a “safety hatch” location if 6A and 5A teams are located far enough away to require unreasonable travel. This proposal could catch on in lower classifications as well and provide a pathway to a home-field advantage clause.

“I think we will see it happen as soon as we can get some commonsense language in there that says, ‘You’re going to have home-field advantage unless it does not make common sense. And at that point, we’ll revert back to a neutral site,’” Harrison said.

When asked for comment, THSCA Assistant Executive Director Glen West said that the association has no firm stance and instead will advocate for whatever the majority of coaches want.

As it stands, districts in classes 4A and below can opt for blanket home-field advantage. District 9-4A DI and District 10-4A DI were one example.

“For our two districts, it’s worked out really well,” Kilgore head coach Clint Fuller said. “Because it’s the Beaumont area to East Texas, and it’s really difficult to find stadiums between here and in Houston.”

But some coaches, like Canyon West Plains’ Adam Cummings, believe home-field advantage in the first round should be a rule written in stone. Cummings has played as both the higher and lower playoff seed throughout his career. He says the higher seed should be rewarded for finishing higher in the district standings.

“To me, if you’ve won that higher seed, you’ve earned the right to host,” Cummings said. “The argument there is, ‘Well, you’ve got some communities that don’t have good fields, or they don’t have good seating.’ Well, then your team should’ve ranked higher in the district standings.”

In 2024, District 6-2A DI runner-up Wolfe City was upset by 3–7 Coleman in a game played at the neutral site “The Wild” in Godley. The field is located 128.4 miles from Wolfe City and 151.9 miles from Coleman. Wolfe City head coach Brad Smithey said his school's grass field could be unplayable due to weather. He instead advocated for the higher seed to choose the location, whether that be their home field or a neutral site that’s closer to the district champion.

“If we’ve had two or three bad rainy games, our field may not be in the best playable condition,” Smithey said. “Even though we’d have home field advantage, it may not be the best for our kids to play on. But (I would like) the opportunity to pick - and, maybe not necessarily middle-ground, but somewhere that’s closer to where we could have all of our fans.”