UIL REALIGNMENT: Most Intriguing 6A Storylines to Watch
The biggest storylines for 2026 UIL Realignment at the 6A level involve Garland ISD, the 'District of Doom' getting broken up, and big questions in the RGV.
District of Doom (11-6A) Gets Broken Up: District 11-6A in its various iterations has dominated the scene at the 6A level in DFW over the past 10 years. The district is being broken up in a major way with four of the eight teams moving down to Class 5A, including 6A-Division II state champion DeSoto, along with Lancaster, Cedar Hill and Mesquite. That just leaves Duncanville, Waxahachie, Mesquite Horn and Dallas Skyline in 6A. We think Horn and Skyline are headed elsewhere and with Red Oak moving up to 6A, the Hawks will likely be in the mix. Our guess is Grand Prairie ISD and Mansfield ISD will move into this district in a new setup.
Does Houston’s District of Doom Get Changed?: Much like in DFW, there’s been one district in the Houston area at the 6A level that has dominated and it’s been the Humble ISD pairing with North Shore either in 20-6A or the last two years in 23-6A. North Shore has four state titles in the past eight years. Humble Atascocita has been a Division I power and Humble Summer Creek and Sheldon King have made appearances in the state title game recently. The eastern edges of Greater Houston have more 6A programs now with Crosby and Barbers Hill moving up to 6A. Does that mean Humble shifts back north into a new district in this alignment?
Big Questions in the RGV that Impact All of Region IV: The UIL shocked most of the state with the last realignment when they gave the Rio Grande Valley two districts despite only having 11 schools at the 6A level. This resulted in six-team and five-team districts and made for some real scheduling challenges. After Snapshot Day, we thought the Valley would only have 10 6A schools, but later we learned Edinburg CISD decided to opt up Edinburg and Edinburg Vela to 6A. So that begs the question if the UIL will give the Valley two six-team districts or do they shift the four Laredo United ISD 6A programs into the Valley? If the four Laredo schools shift into the Valley that makes things fairly clean for Austin and San Antonio in Region IV, but if Laredo moves north into San Antonio that will really crowd things in the rest of Region IV and could shift some northern Austin programs possibly into Region II.
This article is available to our Digital Subscribers.
Click "Subscribe Now" to see a list of subscription offers.
Already a Subscriber? Sign In to access this content.
We've been the Bible of Texas football fans for over 60 years. By joining the DCTX Family you'll gain access to all of our exclusive content and have our magazines mailed to you!