A significant postseason overhaul is coming for high school team sports in Texas.
With the 2024-25 athletic season on the horizon, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) has announced a major change. On June 11, the UIL approved a proposal to adopt the same playoff format used in football, splitting the playoffs for volleyball, softball, baseball, soccer and basketball into two divisions for each classification.
The new format will impact volleyball, softball, and baseball in classes 2A-6A, soccer in classes 4A-6A, and basketball in classes 1A-6A. This adjustment will create two state championship brackets per classification and give teams more opportunities to compete for a state title.
“I believe this is a positive change. This approval will base the playoff games on enrollment which will lead to more evenly matched games,” said former Madison head girls basketball coach Brittney Hoover. “This increases the chances of schools like Madison and other schools in HISD making it to the state semi-finals and obtaining the state championship trophy.”
“It should be exciting. This split allows for a more level playing field with similar-sized schools playing each other,” said Elkins girls soccer head coach Todd Holmes. “At Elkins, it would be great to only compete against the smaller 6A schools in the playoffs vs. having to compete with the larger 6A schools, which have more kids playing club soccer.”
Football has used this split-division format for many years. During the 2023 football season, North Shore faced Duncanville for the 6A Division I State Title, while Summer Creek faced DeSoto for the Division II State Title. With the new format extending to more sports, the top four teams from each Class 6A district will advance to the playoffs and then split into divisions based on enrollment numbers. The two largest qualifying schools will compete in Division I, and the smaller schools will compete in Division II.
“I believe the split divisions make a bigger difference in football, where you have 11 different players on offense, defense and special teams. In basketball we only have five players on the court at a time and a total of 12 on a team,” said Nimitz head basketball coach Kenneth Coleman.
Details on how this change will affect state and regional tournaments have not been announced.
Regional semifinals and finals for basketball, soccer and volleyball have traditionally been held on consecutive days at a single location. However, the new format may require this scheduling adjustment. Baseball and softball already hold their regional semifinal and final rounds in separate weeks due to their best-of-three series format.
The new playoff structure will likely alter the UIL state tournaments, as well. Currently, state semifinals and championship games for basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball and soccer are held during the same week, often on consecutive days. Doubling the number of state championships in these sports will probably necessitate separate scheduling for these events.
“I’m in the middle. I like that there will be more champions. But I’ll miss the regional tournament format. The state tournament format is also probably gone,” said Elkins head basketball coach Albert Thomas.
While most coaches support the change, noting it will provide smaller schools with more opportunities to compete against others with similar enrollment numbers, questions remain about the impact on transfers and whether having two division champions will diminish the respect compared to having one true champion.
“I am for splitting the classes,” said Furr head basketball coach Rodney Lewis. “It gives smaller schools a better opportunity to win a state title. I don’t think there will ever be one true champion because sometimes the best team does not make it to the championship. This split should motivate kids to work harder because it gives them more of an opportunity to win state, but it will probably increase transferring. If kids don’t want to work hard and compete with bigger powerhouses they may go to a smaller school to get a better chance to win state.
“With more schools in the UIL, it makes sense to split the divisions,” said coach Stephen Woods, former Hightower basketball head coach. “However, it would be interesting to see the champion of each class division play each other for a true champion.”
