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UIL made a major change to championship formats for basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball and baseball at the UIL Legislative Council meeting Tuesday in Round Rock.

The UIL voted to approve the motion to split each classification into two divisions for the playoffs, identical to the Class 6A football model, for Class 4A-6A soccer, Class 2A-6A volleyball, softball and baseball, and Class 1A-6A basketball.

This will go into effect Aug. 1, 2024.

The top four teams from each district will advance to the playoffs. The two schools with the largest enrollments as of October 2023, when enrollment figures were submitted for the 2024-26 reclassification and realignment process, will compete in the Division I bracket and the other two will compete in the Division II bracket.

Instead of six state champions in basketball, there will now be 12 state champions, just like football. In soccer, there will now be six state champions. There will now be 11 state champions in volleyball, softball and baseball.

By doing this, it also eliminates a round of the playoffs, meaning teams would need to just win four rounds to advance to the state semifinals instead of five.

Tyler Legacy and Longview will be in District 10-6A for the next two school years with Forney, North Forney, Rockwall, Rockwall-Heath and Royse City.

Longview has the smallest enrollment in the district, so it would go to Division II in any sport it reaches the playoffs. Tyler Legacy is fourth in enrollment behind Rockwall-Heath, Rockwall and Royse City and ahead of North Forney, Forney and Longview, so it would depend who the four playoff teams are which division Legacy would go to in each sport.

For non-football sports, Tyler High will be in District 10-5A with Whitehouse, Marshall, Hallsville, Jacksonville, Lufkin, Mount Pleasant, Nacogdoches and Texas High. The order of enrollment for that district is Lufkin, Tyler, Texas High, Nacogdoches, Mount Pleasant, Marshall, Hallsville, Whitehouse and Jacksonville. That means Lufkin and Tyler would always go to Division I when they make the playoffs, and Whitehouse and Jacksonville would always go to Division II when they make the playoffs in non-football sports. Texas High, Nacogdoches, Mount Pleasant, Marshall and Hallsville would be eligible to go either way depending on the four postseason qualifiers in each sport.

The standing committee on athletics authorized the staff to study with a survey a proposal to add a shot clock for basketball.

The standing committee on athletics authorized the staff to monitor proposals on regarding the TABC summer showcase pilot program and to add lacrosse as a sanctioned activity.

The standing committee on athletics denied, rejected or took no action on proposals to place mileage limitations on football first round playoff games; allow part time employees to be a head coach of a team sport; require facilities of a certain size for football playoff games; allow college students to volunteer coach; change the rule regarding track and field uniform regulations for males; change the run rule in softball; mandate statistics reporting through universal application; add a mercy rule for soccer; alter junior high cross country meet times; add ice hockey as a sanctioned activity; add disc golf as a sanctioned activity; boys volleyball as a sanctioned activity; add archery as a sanctioned activity; add 3A and below soccer as a competition; and add girls flag football as a sanctioned activity.

The standing committee on policy authorized the staff to study a proposal to remove Charter and STEM schools from traditional classification system.

The standing committee on policy denied, rejected or took no action on proposals to change the Sept. 1 age of eligibility; extend the over age waiver; end live broadcasting of games on Friday night; add a UIL mascot competition; add ballet folklorico as UIL sanctioned event; add STEP as a UIL sanctioned event; and pilot the Texas Dance Educators Association (TDEA) Assessment Model.

Also announced at the meeting was that UIL executive director Charles Breithaupt will retire after the 2024-25 school year.