2026-2028 TAPPS Alignment

[walksports]

This was released today by the organization at around 3:30 p.m.

SIX MAN FOOTBALL DIVISION I
District 1
Abilene Christian School
Covenant Classical-Fort Worth
Lakehill Prep School-Dallas
Temple Christian School-Fort Worth
Trinity School-Midland
District 2
Coram Deo Academy-Plano
Heritage Christian Academy-Rockwall
Lucas Christian Academy
Vanguard College Preparatory-Waco
District 3
Lutheran High School-San Antonio
St. Augustine-Laredo
The Christian School at Castle Hills-San Antonio
Faith Academy of Marble Falls
Round Rock Christian Academy
Texas School for the Deaf-Austin
Veritas Academy-Austin
District 4
First Baptist Christian Academy-Pasadena
Logos Preparatory Academy-Sugar Land
The Emery/Weiner School-Houston
Westbury Christian School-Houston
Independent
Immanuel Christian School-El Paso

SIX MAN FOOTBALL DIVISION II
District 1
Denton Calvary Academy
Fellowship Academy-Kennedale
Harvest Christian Academy-Keller
Holy Cross Catholic High School-Midland
Nazarene Christian Academy-Crowley
Weatherford Christian School
District 2
Garland Christian Academy
Lone Star High School North-Gainesville
Ovilla Christian-Red Oak
Prestonwood Christian Academy North-Prosper
The Highlands School-Irving
Wylie Preparatory HS
District 3
Bracken Christian School-Bulverde
Concordia High School-Pflugerville
Giddings State School / Lone Star High School Southeast*
San Marcos Academy
St. Joseph Catholic School-Bryan
Valor Preparatory Academy-Waco
District 4
Alpha Omega Academy-Huntsville
Baytown Christian Academy
Brazosport Christian School-Lake Jackson
Legacy Christian Academy-Beaumont

SIX MAN FOOTBALL DIVISION III
District 1
Christ the King Diocesan High School-Lubbock
Kingdom Preparatory Academy-Lubbock
San Jacinto Christian Academy-Amarillo
Wichita Christian School-Wichita Falls
District 2
Azle Christian School
Fairhill-Dallas
Texoma Christian School-Sherman
Victory Christian Academy - Decatur
District 3
Christian Heritage Classical School-Longview
Greenville Christian School
Poetry Community Christian School-Terrell
Providence Academy-Rockwall
Trinity School of Texas-Longview
District 4
Annapolis Christian Academy-Corpus Christi
Heritage School-Fredericksburg
Hill Country Christian School-San Marcos
Living Rock Academy-Bulverde
Our Lady of the Hills-Kerrville
District 5
Austin Classical School
Allen Academy-Bryan
Holy Trinity Catholic High School-Temple
Summit Christian Academy-Cedar Park
District 6
Covenant Preparatory-Kingwood
Divine Savior Academy-Missouri City
Faith Academy Bellville
Founders Christian School-Spring
Grace Christian Academy-Houston
Second Bapt UM-Houston
Second Baptist School - UM Cypress
Second Baptist School - UM-North Houston

 

[walksports]

TAPPS posted its final alignment today and the only change is that Midland Holy Cross Catholic will move from TAPPS Division II to Division III and be in District 1.

 

[walksports]

Additionally, Houston Westbury Christian School will move to 11-man and Conroe Covenant Christian will return from 11-man to six-man in Westbury Christian's place in Division I, District 4.

 

[coachbronk]

Every TAPPS football coach needs flood TAPPS tomorrow about this new calendar they released. It’s utterly ridiculous!!!

 

[walksports]

Every TAPPS football coach needs flood TAPPS tomorrow about this new calendar they released. It’s utterly ridiculous!!!

It looks like they're basically taking a round out of the playoffs.

(Can't imagine my first round data from last week sold them on the idea!)

 

[walksports]

If you still have four divisions for 11-man and three divisions for 6-man and you're only allowing two days for championships, are they going to two sites for football? One location, like Midway, for 11-man, let's say, over two days, and Waco ISD, for example, for 6-man, on one day?

 

[Coachporter]

Not only removing a week of playoffs but moving the TAPPS season 1 week earlier which unless UIL follows suit limits TAPPs schools to playing each other or only have a 9 game season. Out east it’s not as big an issue I suppose but out west that’s a major problem.

 

[walksports]

Not only removing a week of playoffs but moving the TAPPS season 1 week earlier which unless UIL follows suit limits TAPPs schools to playing each other or only have a 9 game season. Out east it’s not as big an issue I suppose but out west that’s a major problem.

I don't believe that the UIL has posted anything related to 2026-2027. I looked, but couldn't find anything. I can't imagine that the organization is operating completely in a vacuum on that, but then again, you would think if public school coaches are starting to put together schedules for 2026 and 2027 and this affected them playing their traditional private school opponents (out west, like you said) that we'd have heard that chatter by now.

 

[Coachporter]

In D3 there are 6 districts about 30 teams if we are cutting around and cutting the field how does that work. Your 6 district champs plus 2 what determines the other 2 spots. Does this eliminate hosting a 1st round playoff game? Everything neutral location? I don’t see who this serves.

 

[walksports]

What was mentioned in the video regarding the calendar is that schedules were being compressed in all sports - without cutting the total number of games (in sports other than football) - to reduce the burden of overlaps, both athletically and for fine arts.

 

[CoachAnderson]

It really hurts football, but protects all other sports in my opinion. Basketball season doesn’t really change it actually starts sooner and can run longer for most schools without football in the way.

 

[Coachporter]

Basketball basically wasn’t touched

 

[coachbronk]

From my understanding, this change was driven hard by basketball ADs and coaches, not all of them, but some influential ones.

 

[walksports]

Haven't talked to Dan or Dave about it yet to get their thoughts, but I have no problem with wiping that one round out of football. Sure, you have a lower seed winning a game here and there but in both 11- and 6-man, those games are mostly forgone conclusions.

SIX-MAN FOOTBALL | TAPPS 11-Man Week 12
20 games. Average margin of victory: 37.8
Road teams? 3-14. (Three neutral site games.)
Games determined by mercy rule? 12 out of 20.
Road wins recorded by Carrollton Prince of Peace (3 at a 2 seed), Logos Prep (3 at a 2 seed) and Fredericksburg Heritage (2 at a 1 seed).

FOOTBALL | TAPPS 11-Man Week 12
17 games. Average margin of victory: 30.3
Road teams? 2-13. (Two neutral site games.)
Road wins recorded by Frisco Legacy Christian Academy (5 at a 4 seed) and Fort Worth Christian School (3 at a 2 seed).

Lot of expense for a lot of schools for travel that doesn't change things all that much.

 

[coachbronk]

Then make every playoff game a neutral site to cut the travel down. I don’t like taking out a round of playoff games because it means you’re taking fewer teams from the districts.

 

[walksports]

If you make it all neutral site (I personally don't care one way or another), the district champs cry "we get no reward for winning our district".
Somebody is always going to complain about something.
I personally support the move. For the longest time, at least 30 years (remember David Barron riffing on the organization for a 0-10 Dallas FBA making the playoffs), private schools have been the party of let's let everybody in. And then the UIL followed.
Times have changed. And for some schools that lose in the round that is getting cut, they need to move on to other sports.

 

[Coachporter]

Well the way it looks right now it’ll pretty much be just district champs in D3. We have 6 districts. Theres going to be a lot of 2 seeds left out of the dance. That doesn’t seem right. The next question is how the other spots get filled. If we are having to make 9 game seasons a reality then that lost game could be an issue if they go to a wildcard system to fill the other spots. Out here in Lubbock the schools in our level that are private are already in our district. So now you are looking at home schools etc which are few and far between.

 

[walksports]

Some of Section 141 of the By-Laws, Playoff Format, will have to be amended to facilitate some of the changes (specifically where it states if there are 5 teams in a district, 3 go to the playoffs).

If the wildcard system is used, it is just going to encourage better scheduling - and winning.

 

[Coach_Powell]

I agree. The way it’s shaping up doesn’t seem right at all. With only district champions getting in, a lot of strong two-seeds are going to be sitting at home, and that’s tough to justify. We have an eight-team district, so that makes it even more concerning.

 

[dfphotos4]

Ending football before thanksgiving is a bit weird. That district with all of the second baptist schools has eight teams while the other districts have four or five schools. Not sure how that plays out but it doesn't look good. I've never been a fan of wild card points.

Bryan mentioned availability and it seems, unless I'm missing something, it will be harder to secure a location and/or officials if there are more UIL games going on. I remember when they had three locations for just football so I understand wanting to consolidate, however they will have to have at least two locations if they're only doing two days for football championships. Maybe six man could be played at Paul Tyson? They only have bleachers on one side, but thats a nice little field for six man football and its part of Waco ISD already. Maybe thats the play.