UIL Rejects/Takes No Action on Proposed 1A 11man Bracket

[Leman Saunders]

In a topic discussed on this messageboard in the past, a group from 1A sized schools and coaches that play 11man football made a presentations to the UIL proposing that there be a separate 1A 11man football playoff bracket much in the same way the UIL does with baseball.

In the latest UIl press release listed in the "Denied, Rejected, or Took No Action on the Following Proposals" section is item J. 1A 11-man football playoff bracket

From talking with one of the main proponents of this 1A 11man proposal, this is not the end of it. They will now likely regroup and come up with another proposal for the UIL and that one will possible be a push to bring back 8-man football, a move that could possible completely redraw the landscape of 6man football. In fact, some of these schools have been playing 8-man JV games this season including Springlake-Earth, Ralls, and Munday.

Also with in the UIL press release was an item on a proposed amendment by an Ad-hoc committee which is as follows:

A. Brief Explanation of Proposed Amendment
This amendment to Reclassification and Realignment Policies for the 2020 – 2022 alignment period would implement the changes recommended by the Ad Hoc Committee on Reclassification, established by the Legislative Council.

B. Factual and Policy Justifications
The Ad Hoc Committee on Reclassification suggested these changes to Reclassification and Realignment Policies during their meeting. The changes deal with the counting of students for schools participating in Conference A (six-man) football, classification of charter schools and non-disciplinary alternative schools, and the appeals process for district assignments.

C. Proposed Amendment
Reclassification and Realignment Policies for the 2020 – 2022 alignment period would be amended as attached effective August 1, 2019, pending approval by the Commissioner of Education.

D. Potential Fiscal Impact of the Proposed Rule to Member Schools The changes as proposed should have no fiscal impact on member schools.

E. Legislative Council Consideration; Effective Date
The Standing Committee on Policy moves that the Legislative Council pass this amendment to be effective
August 1, 2019, if approved by the Commissioner of Education.

Second by Kevin Noack. Motion Passed.

Here is a link to the entire press release
http://www.uiltexas.org/files/media/201 ... esults.pdf

 

[Leman Saunders]

Here is a copy of the Proposal that was made to the UIL for those that are interested in seeing it:

Proposal for Class A 11-man football playoff bracket

Consideration: Implementation of a playoff bracket for Class A football similar to the format utilized for Class A baseball. Class A schools would continue to participate in current Class AA Division II football districts but would have a new Class A 11-man football playoff bracket. Thus affording Class A schools the opportunity to compete against each other in an equitable playoff bracket.

Rationale:

School districts with declining enrollment below the Class A classification cutoff have two options for football: Play six-man football or opt to play up against much larger school districts. Many Class A schools have the number of student-athletes, and the desire and community support to play 11-man football, but ultimately succumb to significant competitive imbalances of playing much larger schools.

Opting to Play-up:

Competitive disadvantage in enrollment and resources.

1. Enrollment Disparity: With each realignment, enrollment disparities increase. For example, most Class A schools opting to play up have a declining enrollment (floor) while the cut-off number (ceiling) for the largest schools in Class AA escalates. The bottom number gets lower, while the top number gets higher, thus increasing enrollment disparities with each new realignment. For example, during the last UIL realignment our district dropped to Class A with an High School enrollment of 98 students and the cut for Class AA division II was 157. This UIL realignment, we have a high school enrollment of 81 and the cut off for Class AA division II is 161,4. We are competing against schools double our size.

2. Resources and Staffing: Enrollment is a key driver in school funding. Consequently, most Class A school districts opting to play up also have fewer resources and significantly smaller coaching staffs than their larger Class AA counterparts. Eventually, the competitive imbalances in student-athletes, resources, and staffing force most schools in Class A to drop.

Six-man football considerations:

Six-man football is an exceptional, highly respected game, but is a completely different game than 11-man football. The rules, strategies, techniques, size of the playing field, types of players are all much different than 11-man. Competing in six-man football is unique, and making the transition from 11-man to 6-man is nothing like dropping from a larger 11-man classification to a smaller one.

A. Coaching Staff- Most 11-man football staffs have NO experience with six-man football. Consequently, a district will either have to replace an entire coaching staff and start over, or attempt to train current staff to coach six-man football. A school district may lose entire coaching staffs over this decision.

We believe this proposal should be adopted for the following reasons:

A. The current structure of Class A football options can create significant issues for students, parents, community members, coaches and administrators. Increasing competitive imbalances and disadvantages makes it impossible for most Class A to continue to play 11-man football.

B: The 2017 revised Class A baseball format, affording Class A school a separate playoff bracket, was highly successful in comparison to the previous playoff format. The UIL has prudently created Class A divisions for Baseball, Softball, and Volleyball to reduce competitive imbalances and potentially harmful disparities, and to encourage more student to participant in UIL sanctioned activities.

C: This proposal will have no impact on schools opting to play six-man football. The proposal would only afford Class A schools the opportunity to play 11-man football against other Class A schools in an equitable playoff system.

In closing, the purpose of this proposal is about choice, equity and fairness for Class A schools who desire to continue playing 11-man football. In our great state of Texas, we believe that each classification should be able to play 11-man football if they so choose. We hope that you will agree that Class A should have its own place in 11-man football.

 

[Leman Saunders]

As to the proposed enrollment changes that passed, it can be seen on page 32.
Change is as follows in bold all caps

3. Conference A shall consist of all schools with an enrollment of 104.9 or
lower.
a. Schools with 104.9 or fewer students may choose to participate in
Conference A (six-man) football, or to play in Conference 2A
(eleven-man football) but remain in Conference A for other
applicable activities.
b. Schools xwho want to participatex PARTICIPATING in Conference A
football xmay submit enrollment figures with any of the following
combinations of gradesx: MUST SUBMIT ENROLLMENTS FOR
GRADES 9-12. IF THIS ENROLLMENT FIGURE IS OVER 104.9,
SCHOOLS CURRENTLY PARTICIPATING IN CONFERENCE A
FOOTBALL CAN CONTINUE TO PARTICIPATE IN
CONFERENCE A FOOTBALL IF, USING ONE OF THE
CALCULATION METHODS BELOW, AN ENROLLMENT OF LESS
THAN 105 IS ACHIEVED. ALTERNATIVE CALCULATION
METHODS ARE:
xi. Grades 9-12x - GRADES 8-11
ii. Grades 7-10
iii. Grades 9-10 doubled.
THESE SCHOOLS WOULD BE 2A IN ALL OTHER ACTIVITIES
BASED ON THEIR 9-12 ENROLLMENT.

 

[Leman Saunders]

I am curious how many the new enrollment rule effects?

Update: The UIL took no action on the 11man 1A playoff bracket, the people pushing for this will be conducting a survey and then reporting back to the UIL is my understanding

 

[Area 51]

Leman,
Could this lead to, class 2A having 3 divisions if this proposal was to go through in the future ?
making sure I understand this correctly.

Thanks

 

[TexasFootballer]

UIL shouldn’t have to create another division, there are too many already! These schools have an option to play 11-man in D2 or Sixman. If they can’t field a team in 11-man then go 6man. If you don’t want to play Sixman, just drop Football! Rant over!!!

 

[Area 51]

UIL shouldn’t have to create another division, there are too many already! These schools have an option to play 11-man in D2 or Sixman. If they can’t field a team in 11-man then go 6man. If you don’t want to play Sixman, just drop Football! Rant over!!!

That's spot on

 

[swires]

Agree totally with Footballer and Area 51!!!!! I personally dont think they should have the option. In my opinion, if they choose to play up, they should play up in all other sports! They should either be in or out!!!

 

[Area 51]

Swires, I was thinking if this box gets opened. where does it end? I understand rules and at times there is a case to be made to revise them, but a line has to be drawn somewhere or you have chaos. Back in 1970 a small South Texas school (Agua Dulce) I went to had one of those phenomenal teams. Beat by Poth the previous 2 years, Agua Dulce dropped to class B in 1970. Class B back in the day was allowed to play 2 playoff games. The administration thought that the 1970 team had a shot to play for the state championship and petitioned the UIL to play up (Class A) the request was denied. So another plea was made to allow class B to play for a state championship, that was shot down also. I say all that to say this,
sometimes things don't go the way we want and we have to put our big boy pants on and deal with it. We have choices to make and must live with the consequences. Choose 1A (sixman) or 2A (11 man) and everything that comes along with it. I hope they choose the 1A 6 man route its an awesome game and the small 6 man communities are filled with great folks. That's something to hang your hat on, right there.