The Five Losers of 2026-28 UIL Realignment
The losers of 2026-28 UIL Realignment include the Fort Bend Dulles Vikings, Iowa Park Hawks, Hardin Hornets and Axtell Longhorns.
For the first time in a long time, there is no Houston ISD district in the state’s largest classification. That opened up a district in Region III. The North Austin schools in Leander ISD were the choice to move from Region IV to the Houston-heavy Region III.
That means Austin Vandegrift, Cedar Park, Cedar Park Vista Ridge, Georgetown East View, Hutto, Leander, and Leander Rouse will have to travel to Houston for bi-district games if they do not clinch one of the top two seeds. It also means that Austin Vandegrift would potentially have an early-round playoff rematch with Sheldon C.E. King, the team it met in last year’s state semifinal.
Fort Bend Dulles is dropping from 6A to 5A DI after a 0-10 season, but the Vikings’ district draw might’ve gotten tougher.
Fort Bend Dulles has back-to-back state championship game participant Richmond Randle, an Iowa Colony team that’s only four losses in the last two years were to that Richmond Randle squad, an Angleton team that was 9-0 before losing their starting quarterback last year, and a Katy Freeman team that TXHSFB insiders have said could compete right away as a new school.
Iowa Park went 3-7 last season, then got bumped up from 3A DI to 4A DII, and now has landed in a district with Brock, which hasn’t finished a season with less than 10 wins since 2013. The draw doesn’t get much easier after the Eagles, however. Graham (9-4) has reached at least the second round of the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, while Mineral Wells has a storied tradition.
Hardin’s 12-1 record last season was the best season in program history, and a drop down from 3A DI to 3A DII only added to the buzz around the Hornets. But Chad Taylor’s ball club dropped into a district with Newton (14-2), who has not lost a district game since 2011 and made the state championship last year. Woodville, which made the state championship two years ago and has a future Division I quarterback in Luke Babin, is also in the district.
For the last two years, Region II in Class 2A DI was one of the most unpredictable regions in all of TXHSFB. With reigning state champion Hamilton off to 3A DII, the Axtell Longhorns felt like they could be the new preseason favorite.
But after realignment, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Editor-In-Chief Greg Tepper posited that it could be the strongest region in 2A DI. The region now has Mason (10-4), Muenster (two-time defending state champion), Hawley (last year’s 8-4 mark was the first non-ten-win season since 2017), Cisco (12-2), and De Leon (9-4).
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