quote:

---

SAN ANTONIO — There is growing support to create a Class 6A that would send even more Texas high school football teams to the playoffs, the head of the University Interscholastic League says.

UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt said “it’s more likely now than ever” that about 1,200 high schools would be realigned into six classes of roughly equal size in a shake-up geared at putting more teams in the postseason. Under the plan, four schools from every district of every size would make the playoffs.

Breithaupt’s comments came as the Texas High School Coaches Association Coaching School got under way.

Currently, only the two largest classifications — 5A and 4A — advance four teams from each district. Critics say it has created watered-down system where schools that finish 2-8 can sometimes advance in weak districts.

Breithaupt said schools have consistently indicated on surveys that more playoff teams are better.

He wondered if the preference was a product of the everyone-gets-a-trophy mentality that has become common in youth sports leagues.

“You look at the generation we’re raising up ... you say those kids are used to getting more,” Breithaupt said. “They’re used to being in the playoffs. They’re used to an extra game and a trophy and being crowned. So maybe it’s just us fitting in with societal needs.”

Schools will be surveyed about the proposed expansion in October. If there is wide support, the plan could be approved as early as January.

Football realignment is always a hot-button issue in Texas. Until 1989, only one state champion was crowned for each classification. The next year saw Class 5A split its playoffs into Division I and Division II championships, a system that has trickled down to lower classifications.

One issue is the growing disparity of enrollments between schools in Class 5A. Some have called for the UIL to create a “superconference” of the 100 or so biggest schools, but Breithaupt said the talk now has shifted to making the classifications more balanced.

Cooper coach Mike Spradlin, who is on the THSCA board of directors, said he is in favor of examining the issue.

“Whether that involves a 6A or whatever, I think it’s time to look at it,” Spradlin said. “I think it will need to be looked at from the standpoint of do we add a conference, do we need to keep doing two divisions and things like that.

“I don’t think our system now is broke by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it’s time to see if there’s a better way to skin the cat. Particularly in 5A, the enrollment numbers are so skewed now with all the bigger schools. I’m glad they’re going to take a look at it.”

Currently, 54 schools have enrollments of more than 3,000, including seven with more than 4,000 students. Plano East has the state’s largest enrollment at 6,171. The UIL limits Class 5A to 245 schools with the current cutoff at 2,065 students. This year, 10 schools with smaller enrollments were placed in Class 5A at the request of their school districts, and more than half the 5A schools are under 2,500.

Abilene High and Cooper were placed in District 3-5A with schools from Midland, Odessa and San Angelo in February, reuniting a league known as the Little Southwest Conference. The Eagles spent the previous two years in a district with Fort Worth-area schools, while Cooper competed in District 4-4A, which stretched from San Angelo to Hereford.

Based on enrollment figures used for the current alignment, Abilene High ranks 182nd in Class 5A with 2,283 students and Cooper is 217th with 2,139.5. Among other 3-5A schools, Odessa High (3,827) ranks 12th, Odessa Permian (3,260) is 32nd, Midland Lee (2,907) is 71st and Midland High (2,871) is 75th. San Angelo Central, which competes in 3-5A in all sports except football, is tied for 98th at 2,750.

Abilene High coach Steve Warren said the topic has been a regular at coaching school for years.

“The general chatter that there’s always been about it is happening again,” he said, adding that the reaction among coaches seems split. “I think it’s probably 50-50.

“Those of us who are out where we are ... it’ll put Spradlin and I in a little bit of a bind because the schools in our district, I’m assuming, would be large enough to go 6A. Who we would play, I have no idea? I don’t know what direction they would send us.”

Breithaupt said making six classifications of about 200-210 schools would be easy. Giving an example, Breithaupt said the current six-man Class 1A Division II would become Class 1A, the current 1A Division I would become 2A, 2A would become 3A, and so on.

Spradlin said that could make his job a bit easier.

“It might take us off the bubble a little bit,” he said. “We’ve been on that line since I’ve been at Cooper. We were the smallest 5A the first couple of years I was here and we were one of the bigger 4As the last couple of years.

“It’d be nice to have a little better feel going into realignment for where you might be, Somebody’s got on the bubble, but I’m kind of tired of being one of those. It’d be nice going into realignment knowing who I’m going to play and what my district has a chance to be.”

Breithaupt didn’t want to predict whether the plan — one of several ideas on the table — will pass, but said it was generating a lot of attention.

“I think there is a lot of interest from our schools of having six complete conferences and having four teams in the playoffs in everything,” Breithaupt said. “At this time, it’s the thing I’m hearing more from our schools.”

---

quote:

---

“You look at the generation we’re raising up ... you say those kids are used to getting more,” Breithaupt said. “They’re used to being in the playoffs. They’re used to an extra game and a trophy and being crowned. So maybe it’s just us fitting in with societal needs.”

---