At its legislative council meeting Monday, the University Interscholastic League announced that Class 2A superintendents voted to divide the classification into two divisions starting with the 2010-12 realignment that will be released in February.
Superintendents passed the measure 121-75.
The plan approved for Class 2A is similar to one approved previously by Class A superintendents. The UIL will divide 2A into two divisions with 16 districts. Division I will consist of the larger schools in the classification. Division II will contain the other half with smaller enrollments. The two top teams in each district will advance to the playoffs.
The new system replaces the current one where three teams from each of the 32 districts advance to the playoffs. The largest advancing school goes to the Division I playoffs. The other two schools head for the Division II bracket.
Boyd, Alvord, Paradise and Chico are currently Class 2A schools. The schools turned in enrollments Oct. 20 for the next realignment. With an enrollment of 185, which was below the 2008 cutoff of 200 for Class 2A, Chico is expected to drop to Class A to compete in Division I.
Superintendents at Boyd, Alvord and Paradise said they voted for the measure.
"I consulted with my athletic director, J.G. Cartwright, and he was for it," said Boyd ISD Superintendent Greg Stone. "We thought it would be a positive and allow smaller schools an opportunity to compete."
Paradise ISD Superintendent Monty Chapman agreed it was fair to split the divisions.
"It needed to be split because the range of school enrollments varied so much," Chapman said.
Alvord ISD Superintendent Bill Branum said he supported the change after deliberating for two or three days.
"I could see pros and cons," Branum said. "I decided to vote in favor of dividing the football classification.
"Schools would be competing for championships on equal playing fields," he added. "There's enough disparity between 200 and 425. You are at a disadvantage if you are competing against a school with 150 and 200 more kids."
Branum said he thought the split could be useful for sports besides football.
"If we had the opportunity to vote on it for sports other than football, I would have voted for it," he said.
Alvord turned in 211, which would put it at the lower end of 2A. In a draft of the proposed split released by the UIL last year, Alvord was put in Division II District 4-2A with Chico, Henrietta, Holliday, Nocona, Olney and Wichita Falls City View.
Branum said a district similar to that proposal would not have a huge impact on the AISD travel budget.
"I know we'll be in the small division, and there's enough schools around us that travel is not a major concern," he added.
The UIL's draft for Division I had Boyd and Paradise in District 5-2A with Bowie, Callisburg and Jacksboro. Boyd turned in an enrollment of 334, and Paradise had 306.
Paradise Athletic Director Danny Neighbors expects that his team will be one of the smaller schools in Division I when the next realignment is released.
"Every coach is going to look at it in a biased manner," Neighbors said. "You'd rather be one of the larger schools in a division than one of the smallest. But this is probably the most fair way of doing it."
Cartwright has led Boyd teams to the playoffs in both Division I and II playoffs. Boyd won a Division I state title in 2004 and fell in the Division I state title game in 1999 to Mart.
"I think it's fair and equalizes things," Cartwright said. "When you look at the numbers people turned in, there's not a lot of Class 2A Division I teams in our area, so it will increase the travel some."
Cartwright does favor knowing what teams will be in Division I and II before the season.
The UIL also announced that superintendents favored holding the Class A-4A at predetermined sites and to allow seventh and eighth graders to participate in summer strength and conditioning programs under supervision of their coaches.
