Colton’s Corner: The need for Class 7A and how it effects San Marcos

With the dust settled on UIL Realignment and schools knowing where they will be over the next two years, a question on everyone’s minds has been when the UIL will finally introduce a Class 7A.

Class 7A has been a major discussion over the past few years as Texas school districts continue to add more high schools while said high schools continue to get bigger and bigger.

The largest high school in Texas is Allen High School in the Dallas- Worth Metroplex with an enrollment of 6,947 students while the smallest high school is Valentine High School, located in the Big Bend area, with an enrollment of six students.

Allen and Valentine do not play in the same classification, obviously, with Allen in the Class 6A and Valentine in Class 1A. However, the disparity enrollments within classification, mainly through 6A-4A, is becoming more and more noticeable.

While Allen is more of an outlier than a standard, there is a noticeable gap between the higher enrollments and lower enrollments in Class 6A.

Of the 247 high schools in Class 6A with enrollments over 2,275, 107 schools have enrollments over 2,900.

In the case of San Marcos, who has an enrollment of 2,505, the Rattlers have to compete with schools that have hundreds, if not a thousand more students, which can disrupt the balance of competition.

In their own district, San Marcos is the smallest school in District 29 with East Central being the biggest at 3,542, a 1,037 difference.

The balance of bigger enrollments compared to smaller enrollments is tough as well in Class 5A, where the difference between the biggest high school, McKinney North, and the smallest high school, Houston Austin, is 953 students.

In Class 4A, the difference between the biggest high school, El Paso Yselta, and the smallest high school, Cleveland Tarkington is 759 students.

The need for Class 7A would help balance out some of the competition disparities we do see in the UIL and not force high schools to play against other schools with much bigger enrollments.

Considering how the UIL hasn’t added a new classification since transitioning to the current classification model in 1951, it’s a matter of sooner rather than later that we do see the introduction of a Class 7A as we continue to see the growth in both the enrollments figures and the number of high schools.

But if a Class 7A was to be introduced, how would it affect San Marcos High School?

For this experiment, I looked at a model Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine put together showing what would happen with Class 7A implemented for the 20242025 realignment cycle.

In the model, Class 7A would feature 16 districts, including schools with enrollments of over 2,865 while Class 6A cutoff will be at 2,864-2,035.

Out of the teams in the real-life new district for San Marcos, which include Buda Johnson, Cibolo Steele, Converse Judson, East Central, New Braunfels Canyon and Schertz Clemens, only East Central would be elevated to Class 7A with an enrollment of 3,542.

San Marcos, with the addition of Class 7A, would remain in Class 6A but shift from District 29 into District 25.

In the hypothetical District 25, San Marcos would be joined by, Austin Westlake, Bastrop Cedar Creek, Buda Hays, Buda Johnson, Dripping Springs, Kyle Lehman and Lockhart.

When comparing District 29 to the figurative District 25, the one thing that jumps out is San Marcos travel has been cut down significantly by being in District 25.

Instead of the consistent travel down I-35 into the San Antonio area in District 29, District 25 would have San Marcos see the majority of the games be played in Hays County.

In fact, the longest road trip the Rattlers would have to take would be Cedar Creek, which is approximately 53 minutes away without using tolls.

Another factor is that San Marcos would be the third largest high school in District 25 behind Austin Westlake and Buda Johnson compared to the second smallest in the District 29 ahead of New Braunfels Canyon.

The third and perhaps most exciting factor of being in the potential District 25 is reuniting San Marcos with old rivals Hays and Lockhart along with establishing new rivalries with Lehman, Johnson and Dripping Springs.

The need for Class 7A is a must for the UIL and the benefits of having the bigger classification could do wonders for San Marcos.

Not only would being in a hypothetical Class 6A District 25 mean that San Marcos is playing with district members more in their own weight class but also playing with more schools in their own county for the first time since 2020-2021 and the first time multiple Hays County schools are in the same district.

While Class 7A will still take time to organize, but given the growth, the classification will be here faster than you will know. There is just no other way around it.

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc