UIL Legislative Council Meeting Results

Date: Oct 18, 2004
Category: Legislative Council

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AUSTIN, TX - The issue of adding one additional team to the playoffs in Conferences 1A, 4A, and 5A will be decided by superintendents across the state this spring after the Legislative Council of the University Interscholastic League voted to place those items on a referendum ballot to be sent out in January.

The referendum ballot, the results of which are binding, will ask superintendents in Conferences 4A and 5A whether or not they favor adding an additional team to the current playoff structure in all team sports. Currently, three teams from each district qualify for post-district play. Conference 1A superintendents will be asked to decide whether or not to add a third team to their playoff structure in all team sports. The results of the fall superintendent survey indicated Conference 1A superintendents were in favor of adding a third team by a small margin (148-135 in favor). If either item concerning adding a team to the playoffs should pass on the referendum ballot, it would not take effect until August 1, 2006. Complete results of the survey may be found online at the UIL website at http://www.uil.utexas.edu.

The following items will also be placed on the referendum ballot for superintendents statewide to decide:

• Adding mixed doubles to spring tennis;
• Eliminating the Texas Cup in Conference 1A basketball;
• Extending the ending date of summer conditioning programs one additional week, from the third Thursday in July to the fourth Thursday in July;
• Increasing the amount of the major award schools can give from $60 to $70;
• Allowing a school to give a student both the major award and the $10 minor award for the same activity in the same school year.

In addition to placing several items on the referendum ballot, the Legislative Council voted to pass the following items:

• Prohibiting unattached participants to compete in school-sponsored contests, meets, and tournaments;
• Allowing individual competition in Art Contest and Music Memory Contest, which currently allow only team competition;
• Creating a pilot theatrical design contest beginning in 2005-06;
• Altering the limitation on when a school could scrimmage when Conference 4A and 5A schools that participate in spring training have a zero week game;

The Legislative Council also authorized the UIL staff to study a playoff structure for team tennis as in other team sports, allowing school districts to add additional travel time between classes when the athletic class is offered at another campus in the school district, and practice limitations for UIL athletic activities that conduct practice outside the school year.

-- END --