SAN ANTONIO - Six conferences, area meets for individual sports, and a transparent process for realignment could be in store, UIL officials said Monday at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention.

Those three items could be on a survey for high school superintendents in September, said Dr. Charles Breithaup, executive director of the University Interscholastic League, during a news conference in the Crockett Room of the Grand Hyatt.

The proposals must be approved by superintendents. If approved, the items will be presented before the UIL Executive Council on Oct. 19.

It is also possible that four teams in each classification would make the playoffs.

“There’s a great deal of interest in six conferences,” Breithaupt said. “This is the 60th year of five conferences — it started in 1950. We believe, with 1,400 high schools that participate in basketball, we need to look at new models. I think the conference 5A schools are a little bit weary of us forcing all those schools into conference 5A. The 5A max number is 245. It is important to us to give them some relief, particularly when you have a nine- or 10-team district. When you have a nineor 10-team district you have some scheduling issues. In some sports, like soccer, you can’t get a full roundrobin schedule in. Those kind of things need to be addressed.”

Breithaupt noted there are two major factors in realignment — travel and equity. The state’s population continues to gravitate toward the Interstate-35 corridor from the Metroplex to Laredo; and around Houston, said Breithaupt. Thus, the state’s sparsely populated regions will have to travel.

He said there would likely be 200-225 teams in each conference. Also, there’s a possibility of raising the six-man number of schools from 130 to 150.

Area meets could become a standard in track, tennis, golf and cross country. After district, some leagues, such as 1 and 2, will meet in an area meet and it will save some travel to regionals. Four students would advance from the area meets to regionals.

Class 1A has track area meets and it allows more students to participate in postseason activities, Breithaupt said.

He said the UIL would look at this proposal to eliminate some of the costs.

Another issue is “complete transparency” in realignment and reclassification.

“We have done a great job of keeping realignment and reclassification a secret and that was for a purpose, so no coach gets an advantage on scheduling,” Breithaupt said. “But what happens to us when we leave someone out? You never know until you release the realignment. We had one that happened to us out of 1,400 this year. That’s not bad business, but it is if you are that one school, because it really fouls up the alignment to that district and the one next to it.

“So we are thinking of putting all of our numbers up as they are submitted and have a date and a period of time to allow schools to validate their numbers. It makes a lot of sense for us to be more transparent about the activities that you want to be involved in. If I forget to check the box for wrestling, then someone in our school district is able to go online and say ‘hey you forgot to check this.’“

He said maybe a 10-day to two-week period would be allowed for the school district to check their numbers. He said it may create more interest in the process.

Also, the UIL will examine how the one-site state championship experience has worked, said Cliff Odenwald, director of athletics. After this years games will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, all three major areas of the state would have played host to the title games. The Alamodome in San Antonio and Reliant Stadium in Houston have previously served as hosts.

It will be a weekend full of football in the Metroplex this year.

Actually, on Friday, Dec. 10 (7:30 p.m.), the Class 3A Division I title game will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. The next weekend, Cowboys Stadium will host Class 3A Division II (4 p.m.) and Class 4A Division II (8 p.m.) on Friday, Dec. 17. The next day, Cowboys Stadium will host three games — Class 4A Division I (noon), Class 5A Division II (4 p.m.) and Class 5A Division I (8 p.m.).

Just south of Arlington, Vernon Newsom Stadium in Mansfield will be the site of four games — Class 1A Division II on Dec. 17 (7:30 p.m.) and Class 1A Division I (noon), Class 2A Division II (4 p.m.) and Class 2A Division I (8 p.m.) on Dec. 18.

Breithaupt said the UIL will continue to look at predetermined state football championships. He noted the University of Texas is interested in hosting as well.

Odenwald said it could be a factor if a stadium has natural grass and the ability to host so many games in a weekend. Reliant Stadium has natural grass.

Also, they will look at climate controlled stadiums.