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I'm just hoping area J gets broken up for the ISDs like Wylie, McKinney etc. its just so stacked and needs to be broken up...

Guard rule is a no brainer, colorguard should have more impact across the board and having their own judge is very appropriate for the state contest. For rule 1 (not CG) I dont think its necessarily a setup for D2 contests rather its so bands success are reliant on completely different programs being successful at region. I dont think it should pass for 2A-4A, but 5A-6A it feels like a no brainer considering it only adds 1-2 slots each Rule 2 just needs a little more definition (what declares a round up? 21 to 5 slots or use a top half system where you need 23-24 to have 5 slots? Where is the line) but otherwise this should absolutely pass in some form at the very least for 4A-6A due to declining enrollment being combined with way more dense, competitive areas. Rule 3 and 5 just depend on how fast UIL wants to make these sort of changes (rule 3 needs an announcement 1 year+ in advance for scheduling and rule 5 needs enough judges to not spread the state thin) Rule 4 should exist for UIL because it has a fundamentally different scoring system than BOA. BOA is much more “bubble” based where point differences in a sub caption is much more deliberate (a 28 in GE is COMPLETELY different to a 34 in GE) and compared only to bands relative to each other which UIL uses ordinals, and makes scoring COMPLETELY comparison based. At 2022 state almost everyone down to 20 were within 30-70 points out of 1000 to each other and in the same 2-3 sub-boxes, which means schools like Dawson, if using the BOA system, were darn close to Hebron in about every regard (This got fixed with stricter criteria post 2021-2022) (everyone is relative to 1st place rather than the bubble in BOA along with point differences having significantly more meaning). Movement to the top from the bottom is much harder when the bottom is all clustered together and does create bias since theyre all compared to each other resulting in lower ordinal scores compared to the top half, which for smaller areas only emphasizes a divide which could be nonexistent. I along with others argue that UIL should just be random performance time in general for finals rather than the 4-5 rhetoric, since schools like Vandegrift and Hebron could perform 1st and make state regardless, which would also make it easier for judges to properly compare and score relative to the top since the finalists will play right next to bands competing to merely qualify.

Not too familiar with too many Austin/San Antonio/RGV guards, so I apologize for my lack of coverage on them In terms of Houston for the Valentine's Day weekend: This competition will be held at Goose Creek Memorial HS and will be the debut show for some guards 2025 AA State Champion Deer Park HS will debut here, excited to see if they can achieve more than what they did last year, and it's likely they'll be promoted to A or National A if the odds are in their favor. It's their first season as a split team since 2024, so their JV team also has a good chance of being promoted too depending on how well they do. This is Nimitz's 2nd show in AA and after receiving 2nd this past weekend I'm positive they'll medal again plus have a chance of being promoted. GCM, the host, will have their first show in AA here, not too sure as to how they will score this comp! This will be Randle's first show in National A, only competing against fellow district school Fulshear. This may give them an opportunity to come on top, or it may be a slow start. With how quick they've been promoted, I believe it will be the former But, any predictions I've made so far have been near entirely incorrect so I don't consider myself a determining figure in these results. Only two teams in Novice, and I can sense South Houston taking first again. They've been having a wonderful and successful season. I've yet to see Anahuac live but for their first competition and season in TCGC getting 4th in their class is awesome!!

TCG(ene)C some might say 😂

Hopefully not that LISD will be moved into Area E/F/I 😕seems ridiculous for all reasons

LD bell vs Keller now... and a mix of birdville high school. who will take first place birdville or keller or LD bell?

The LISD bands switching to a Houston football region separated from the Austin groups is….interesting. Wonder what that means for areas.

interesting foot ball had some weird changes. We saw vandergrift change regions. Hoping its not the same for band....

yay! AT long last.

New additions: Newman Smith L.D. Bell Mansfield Southlake Carroll This now makes for a very interesting contest now.

With the absolutely absurd growth of the Melissa contest, I'm not sure what the future holds for WMI. And we just found out that BOA Bedford got moved up a week, so that complicates things even more than it already was. They need to get on the new area sheets or they won't have many bands competing here. Wasn't too long ago when Flower Mound was here... just shows how much can change in just a couple of years.

Yes, but they'll have to go against Region 2 as well as Region 25 groups in the AREA round.

This is a thing on HornRank, and I thought it would be cool to have a dedicated topic on these forums for Texas-specific staff changes. Here's what we know so far for 2026: Who is currently searching for new head directors? - - - - Cedar Park Medina Valley Creek View (new school) Tomball West (new school) Tivy Bremond Hillsboro Elkhart Coupland (new school; their district will finally serve grades 9-12) Lorena Little Cypress-Mauriceville Ranger Gunter Palestine Westwood Mineola has already promoted assistant director Donald Myers to the head director role.

UIL Marching Areas will be determined in March. There is some movement in between regions, but the big one is: Forney ISD from Region 3 to Region 20. It wouldn't change anything marching band related, especially if Area C stays together. But this is huge for the All-State process, as their students would now be auditioning for state in Area D rather than Area C.

C1 - Placing high in your area would now actually have some value. It would also help with areas not getting screwed with performance times just because their contest was postponed due to weather (i.e. Sachse in 2024). D1 - This would open the door for Division II contests, like it is for football. However, I highly doubt this would pass, as I feel it would oversaturate the state marching contest as a whole. D2 - Basically, if your area has 16 bands, you now get 4 to state; if there are 21 bands, you now get 5 to state; and vice versa. This would seem to account for declining enrollment across the state. D3 - This completely changes the game regarding how summer band is approached. More and more districts in Texas are starting to begin school on the second week of August, and under the current August 1 rule, it cuts a significant amount of drill time from most programs. We would see Texas bands score higher at BOA contests in general, simply because of more reps, and having more of a chance at knocking off one of the Indiana bands at Grand Nats more often. D4 - Too many people feel like the top half/bottom half draw cements a program's fate. This doesn't really seem to be a problem in BOA; we see changes between prelims and finals all the time. D5 - Having a chief judge could help with the bias of a top half/bottom half draw a little bit. D9 - If you know, you know. lol

If it is held at McLane Stadium, most likely going to be October 24th, as Baylor has a home game on the 17th.

Now that TXbands is fixed (hooray!) we can finally discuss the rule changes that UIL proposed in their fall meeting agenda. The most interesting ones to me are the guard judge at the 5A/6A SMBC and rules 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9 (9 for a completely different reason than the others). This could change the near future structure of UIL marching and have major implications for future changes moving forward, but what do yall think?

ITS FIXED YAY

I believe Gene Tomas's junior high feeder program also won their first ever event with a high score. Speaking of Gene, Moe and Gene Johnson absolutely dominated the National A class at the first TCGC event in Austin -- with a new director at the helm, too. Can't wait to see how they do in WGI!

any up dates on this comp? Im interested to go watch if the line up is good.

Several more Texas groups have been added to the confirmed list so far!

Guess I’ll start it off… Thomas Randle HS getting 92 points their first comp, and then skyrocketing from Scholastic Regional A to National A as of yesterday after making WGI finals! Same story with Galena Park! This is a wonderful achievement especially with a program like Randle who’s been only doing TCGC for 4 years, so congrats for both programs!!! Gene Tomas HS making 1st place yesterday at their first winter competition of their program’s history and especially in a class as competitive as AA! What a wonderful way to start off their season

Final Scores Scholastic Regional A 1. 73.180 - Clear Lake HS, TX 2. 71.140 - Tompkins HS, TX 3. 68.920 - Sonia Sotomayor HS JV, TX Scholastic A 1. 78.140 - Friendswood HS, TX 2. 77.080 - The Woodlands HS, TX 3. 76.600 - Jersey Village HS, TX 4. 74.170 - College Park HS, TX 5. 72.620 - Jordan HS, TX 6. 71.710 - Tomball Memorial HS, TX 7. 71.280 - Katy HS Varsity, TX 8. 70.890 - Oak Ridge HS, TX 9. 69.000 - George Ranch HS, TX 10. 68.780 - Dripping Springs HS Varsity, TX 10. 67.290 - Galena Park HS, TX 11. 67.120 - Foster HS, TX 13. 65.730 - Cypress Woods HS, TX 14. 65.300 - Thomas Randle HS, TX 15. 64.420 - Clements HS, TX 16. 64.030 - Pearland HS, TX Independent A 1. 69.650 - Seven Lakes, TX 2. 64.570 - Redemption Guard, TX Scholastic Open 1. 72.000 - Pearland HS, TX 2. 70.700 - Cy-Fair HS, TX 3. 69.600 - Bridgeland HS, TX 4. 66.700 - Clear Brook HS, TX 5. 65.100 - Sonia Sotomayor HS, TX 6. 64.500 - Dawson HS, TX Independent Open 1. 74.100 - Undaunted, TX 2. 71.000 - Industry Independent, TX

Final Scores Scholastic Regional A 1. 74.000 - Sanger HS, TX 2. 69.340 - Lone Star HS, TX 3. 68.700 - Hebron HS JV, TX 4. 64.760 - Plano East HS JV, TX Scholastic A 1. 80.160 - Wylie HS, TX 2. 78.730 - Rock Hill HS, TX 3. 77.910 - Azle HS, TX 4. 76.420 - Walnut Grove HS, TX 5. 75.750 - McKinney HS, TX 6. 75.160 - Hebron HS, TX 7. 73.810 - Aledo HS, TX 8. 72.440 - Independence HS, TX 9. 72.300 - McKinney North HS, TX 10. 71.770 - Prosper HS, TX 11. 70.250 - Coppell HS A, TX 12. 68.800 - Celina HS, TX 13. 68.000 - Odessa HS, TX 14. 67.260 - Waxahachie HS, TX 15. 67.200 - The Colony HS, TX Independent A 1. 68.230 - DTX Independent, TX Scholastic Open 1. 77.100 - Marcus HS, TX 2. 72.400 - Melissa HS, TX 3. 67.500 - Southlake Carroll HS, TX 4. 67.400 - Timber Creek HS, TX 5. 64.600 - Emerson HS, TX 6. 61.600 - Coppell HS, TX Independent Open 1. 81.300 - ORIGINS Open, TX 2. 78.500 - NOVA Independent Winterguard, TX Scholastic World 1. 74.200 - Little Elm HS, TX 2. 70.600 - Flower Mound HS, TX Independent World 1. 77.400 - ORIGINS, TX

Between the time posting broke on this website and it coming back, Melissa came up with a SECOND contest, and SOLD IT OUT already. Lineup: Bells HS Blue Ridge HS Bonham HS Brock HS Canton HS Caddo Mills HS China Spring HS Cooper HS Collinsville HS Commerce HS Farmersville HS Ferris HS Grand Saline HS Howe HS Honey Grove HS Kaufman HS Kennedale HS Krum HS North Lamar HS Paris HS Pine Tree HS Pleasant Grove HS Pottsboro HS Rains HS Rivercrest HS Sunnyvale HS Sulphur Springs HS Van Alstyne HS Valley View HS Wills Point HS Wolfe City HS This features last year's 2A State Champion Rivercrest, 2A State Finalist Cooper, 3A State Finalist Howe, 4A State Finalists Sulphur Springs, China Spring, North Lamar, 4A State Participants Krum, Pine Tree, Valley View, Canton, and 5A State Participant Kaufman (now 4A as well) For what the original contest has in a stacked lineup, this is a similarly stacked lineup of small school programs.