The UIL's executive director Charles Barthouser recently said that the much-rumored sixth classification for high school sports is “more likely now than ever."
↵This has been in the works for more than 10 years, but hasn't happened. Instead, the UIL expanded the playoffs, adding "big school" and "little school" brackets and allowing four teams from each district to go to the playoffs from each of the bigger classifications. That eased much of the troubles in football.
↵However, I'm not sure any of that gets rolled back with this new classification. Instead, we'd have more and more teams in the playoffs each year. There may be an extra round added, pushing the end of the season back a bit and giving more opportunity for player injuries, but also extending a few high school careers by a game.
↵The other unique situation is that it would split Houston up again. Right now, many of the area schools are already at the highest classification level. Basically, most of the schools in and around Houston or its suburbs are all 5A, which means they regularly play each other and are on a somewhat even footing. It's not a given, though, that all the schools would make the jump to 6A.
↵The article above says most of the Katy schools should go up a class, but will all the schools? How will that affect the competition at the lower levels? Does a team like Brenham, currently in 4A, move up a level? Or will it just stratify 5A so teams like Conroe or Kingwood could once again be dominant? Lots to think about here. I'll be interested to see how this progresses in the next year.
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