WACO, Texas (KXXV) — The upcoming high school football season is going to look a little different due to UIL's district realignment — to get a more in depth look, 25 News spoke with Greg Tepper, the Managing Editor for Dave Campbell's Texas football.
The publication gives incredible detail into Texas high school football and they have done it for over 60 years — Tepper spoke on the impacts realignments can have on teams.
"You know, whenever UIL realignment rolls around every two years, it really is an earthquake," Tepper said.
"I would make the equivalent to imagine if the Dallas Cowboys, they announce tomorrow that they're moving to the AFC, like it would be the biggest news story in Texas — it would be one of the biggest news stories in America. That's some of the things that some of these schools are going through."
Seeing Central Texas football up close, 25 News' Shahji Adam has seen the teams that have consistently made it to the top, but for this season, there are some squads to keep an eye on.
"One of them is Crawford — I'm very bullish on Crawford," Tepper said.
"I think that they've got a few different play makers that I think could really make a run there in 2A division one."
"I'm also very interested in a team like Hewitt Midway — new coach there in Joe Gillespie coming in to take over a guy who's obviously a big name — how quickly can you get the Panthers kind of pointed in the right direction?," Tepper said.
"Temple is another team in the big school ranks that I want to see, kind of take that next step."
Every two years, the UIL goes through realignment, this year has brought a lot of changes and it already is bringing eyes to the next one.
"Here at Dave Campbell's football, we spent a lot of time thinking about realignment and trying to predict where the UIL goes," Tepper said.
"In the end, there is always one or two things that come out in February that just like we never saw coming. Certainly, that was the case this year, and I would imagine in 2026 it'll be similar."
Practices begin in August for Central Texas teams and for most, their first games are on August 30.
25 News will be sure to keep everyone in all the action for Red Zone.
