The University Interscholastic League or UIL is an organization which creates rules for and sometimes administers almost all athletic and academic contests in the American state of Texas. Activities range from football to marching band competitions. The UIL does not administer Academic Decathlon competitions however. The UIL was originally created by the University of Texas at Austin to provide a rule-making body for athletic events. It has since grown to many times its original size and vision, and now strives to create rules for fair play in all interschool contests. Its mission, according to the UIL, is to foster good sportsmanship and character building among competitors.

Groupings

The UIL separates the state in regions (sometimes called districts) for various contests. Each type of contest will have different regions and competitors. The regions are mostly decided behind closed doors by the UIL and are an attempt to keep schools within a certain distance of their home town when attending competitions. However, the system has evolved in such a way that regional competitions are often the first step towards further progression; hence, if a school wins their regional marching band competition, they may advance to the state level, for instance.

Schools are further broken down with a letter classification to separate them from other schools of varying sizes. The purpose is ensure that schools compete only with others with similar size talent pools and resources. The classifications are A, AA, AAA, AAAA, and AAAAA. They are popularly known as, respectively, 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, and 5A. The largest schools are classified as 5A, and the smallest are known as 1A.

External links

• Official website