Alice High School is falling to 4A after all, based on the University Interscholastic League’s revised cutoff numbers for the 2020 realignment, which were announced Tuesday morning.
The UIL moved up the bottom cutoff for Class 5A, dropping Alice to 4A. According to the UIL, the revised numbers for 5A are now 1,230 to 2,219. Alice’s enrollment is 1,226.5, which includes full-time students and students who are partially enrolled.
The UIL’s district realignments will be announced on the morning of Feb. 3.
Alice athletic director and head football coach Kyle Atwood welcomes the change, but added that there isn’t much change in the level of competition Alice will face in football.
“The numbers don’t matter whether it’s 4A or 5A,” Atwood said. “We might have less travel in 4A than in 5A, but we’re going to compete either way. In football, if you look at the area 4A teams, you have Rockport-Fulton, which we played this year. They went three rounds into the playoffs. There’s Beeville, which was 11-0, and now Calallen which lost in the 5A regional championship. We're going to face some solid teams either way.”
Atwood said the move to 4A could benefit the Alice program as a whole since the program will go from being one of the smallest schools in 5A to one of the largest in 4A.
“There are still some good schools who our other sports will be competing against, but I think being one of the bigger schools in 4A can benefit us in some of our other sports,” he said.
When the UIL announced its preliminary cutoff numbers for each classification in November, 5A Calallen and Tuloso-Midway fell into 4A. This time around, Alice and Corpus Christi Miller fell into the 4A classification.
REVISED UIL CONFERENCE NUMBERS
(* Previous numbers in parentheses)
Class 6A — 2,220 and above
Class 5A — 1,230 to 2,219 (1,210 to 2,219)*
Class 4A — 515 to 1,229 (515 to 1,209)*
Class 3A — 230 to 514
Class 2A — 105 to 229
Class A — 104.9 and below
CLASS A TO 5A FOOTBALL DIVISION CUTOFF NUMBERS
Class 5A
Division I — 1,922 to 2,219 (1,900 to 2,219)*
Division II — 1,230 to 1,921 (1,210 to 1,899)*
Class 4A
Division I — 880 to 2,229 (865 to 1,209)*
Division II — 515 to 879 (515 to 864)*
Class 3A
Division I — 350 to 514
Division II — 230 to 349
Class 2A
Division I — 165.5 to 229
Division II — 105 to 165.4
Class A
Division I — 59.5 to 104.9
Division II — 59.5 and below