UIL REALIGNMENT: Most Intriguing 5A DII Storylines to Watch

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An East Texas Split? With just six teams at the 5A-Division II level, there are questions as to what will happen in East Texas. Jacksonville’s move down to Class 4A opens up the possibility of a split with East Texas. That split is likely a north/south split with the schools along I-30 (Mt Pleasant and Texas High) going into a district on the NE fringes of DFW with Greenville, Nevada Community, Lovejoy, Denison, Anna, etc. While the schools along I-20 and points south (Whitehouse, Hallsville, Marshall, Nacogdoches) get paired with schools on the SE fringes of DFW (Terrell, Corsicana, Ennis).

Golden Triangle Return to Region III: One of the most surprising moves in the last realignment was the UIL putting Port Neches-Groves, Nederland, Dayton and several Houston area schools in District 8-5A Division II, which is Region II. I don’t believe we’ll see any non-DFW districts in Region II in this alignment, but if it does happen I’d look more to Central Texas and the Houston/Golden Triangle schools move back to their traditional home in Region III.

Questions In the Brazos Valley: Bryan Rudder and Brenham are in the unenviable position of not really having a good read on where they’ll land. You could potentially also place Huntsville in this camp as well. The closest regional move would be keeping them in Region III with schools in the north Houston suburbs, but that creates a domino effect that could cause for long travel in other areas, specifically the Golden Triangle. There’s a scenario where Rudder and Brenham go north into Central Texas like they did this past alignment. Will they be Region II or Region III though? There’s even a scenario where Rudder and Brenham slide south and west toward Austin where even a move to Region IV is in play.