High school football schedules are sometimes more random chance than intelligent design

Pflugerville coach Charles Taylor couldn’t get anyone to agree to play him.

Having just found out his district consisted of seven teams in early February 2022, Taylor and the Panthers were left scrambling to find opponents to start the season.

But few area Class 5A teams would dance.

“It can be frustrating,” Taylor said. “You want something to be a good matchup, but we kept getting no's.”

The 2023 high school football season kicks off on Thursday, and teams throughout Central Texas will embark on schedules of varying degrees of difficulty and travel.

How those schedules come together, however, is more random chance than specific design.

From drawing numbers out of a hat to determine the order of district play, to handshake agreements made months prior for a non-district contest, to a stock market-like frenzy for non-district opponents if the UIL surprises on district alignment, the making of a modern-day high school football schedule can have little rhyme or reason.

Round Rock and Vandegrift could play each other week 3 or week 10. Some team in District 25-6A may have to play Westlake, Lake Travis and Dripping Springs in consecutive weeks. Some teams will play four non-district games while others will only play two.

One thing is for sure — and that’s outside of a few rivalry games such as Anderson-McCallum and Cedar Park-Vandegrift — there are few constants from cycle to cycle.

The known

Once district assignments are released from UIL, coaches get together to determine the district slate and whether there will be a predetermined bye week.

Each school gets a number, then the UIL has a template for each sized district that determines which numbers play when and fills out the schedule.

“Most of the time it’s a blind draw, and most of the time it’s drawing a number out of a hat,” Lake Travis coach Hank Carter said. “It’s completely random. A lot of people don’t know that. There are some things where everyone in the district can move things around, but it’s pretty rare where it doesn’t go by what the draw says.”

Central Texas’ premier game over the last decade between Lake Travis and Westlake is up to a lottery-like scenario.

The Cavs and Chaps have played as late as week 10 before, which probably is what fans prefer because of the district race, but for this cycle they meet in Week 5. Though with Westlake having a bye the previous week, it will only be the Chaps’ fourth game of the year.

“That’s just the way it is — we have no control over the scheduling of district opponents,” said Westlake coach Tony Salazar, who noted he doesn’t mind the Lake Travis game being early. “Most coaches will tell you that playing good teams early in the season is better than playing them late. … Early in the season, it’s more about the players, whereas later in the season is a lot of coaching, schematics and how they’ve built the program.”

Carter also noted he doesn’t mind the game being in September, as there’s no advantage for either team whenever the game is.

“To me, they’re playing us the same week we’re playing them. It’s all relative, and we’re all in the same boat,” he said. “We played each other the last game a couple times. I think the fans love that, but I don’t think the coaches did. It’s such a physical game right before the playoffs, and you don’t want your guys beat up.”

The sort of known

Prior to when UIL has its biennial redistricting — the next one is in February — coaches try to make informal agreements for non-district games.

Carter and Taylor both said they try to get a consensus on at least three games, but nothing is concrete until you know what district — and almost as important, its size — you’re in.

“You’ll make some side deals,” Carter said. “But if we’re in a nine-team district, we have to drop somebody. The larger the district, it gives you less to have to worry about.”

That means some agreements a coach had in place will be irrelevant.

“The past two years we had a deal where we were going to play Anderson Week 3,” Taylor said. “Then, they got put in a nine-team district. So I had to hunt for another opponent that week, and then it was slim pickings. The first two weeks are usually OK, but then you’re at the mercy of UIL.”

Other times a perfect arrangement arises.

Vandegrift and Dripping Springs set up what is the best non-district game between area teams in Central Texas when Vipers coach Drew Sanders and Tigers boss Galen Zimmerman agreed to play Week 1.

“We used to play a few years ago, and I reached out and they were just coming off a lot of success in Class 5A and about to jump to 6A,” Sanders said. “We didn’t know if we’d be in the same district, and we had moved Cedar Park to Week 2. To coach Zimmerman’s credit, he was open to it. He said he wanted to start getting ready for good competition … then they come to our house and beat us.”

Though Vandegrift eventually had the last laugh when it beat Dripping Springs in the playoffs, Sanders said it’s a great game for both programs to have in the regular season prior to the gantlets they’ll face in their respective districts.

“You think about what type of quarterback play they always have; they have a great offensive line, and then on defense they have big strong kids,” Sanders said. “They’re very similar to us. And this is kind of how you grow. (Non-district) games are really for us to experiment who we are and challenge ourselves before the games really matter.”

Difficulties

With success comes challenges in scheduling non-district contests.

Taylor has experienced it both during his time leading Pflugerville and McCallum and as an assistant at Stony Point.

“People tend to look at how you did the last two years, instead of looking at how you’ll be the next two years,” he said. “You have to start early to try and keep after it.”

Carter and Salazar encounter a whole different level of issues.

With their perennial success and being two of the state’s powers, few schools in Central Texas will even consider playing them. Lake Travis currently plays Arlington Martin and Cibolo Steele while Westlake faces Ridge Point, which is south of Houston, and Converse Judson.

“We’d prefer to stay in Central Texas,” Salazar said. “I’ve asked everybody around Central Texas, but everybody has said no. So, that’s what we’re left with.”

The travel is not ideal for the subvarsity teams, either.

Both Westlake and Lake Travis have four sub-varsity squads, and though their fans want to constantly play schools from Dallas and Houston, it adds a layer of complexity as non-varsity games aren’t guaranteed.

“I can’t afford to omit 80% of our players just to get a big game in Dallas,” Salazar said. “We’ve got to get games that are best for our program. The outside world doesn’t think about sub-varsity competition. It’s a lot of travel, or you meet them halfway. We’ve played Houston schools in Brenham multiple times where we literally rented out a city park for an afternoon.”

Still, if no one will play them in the future, Carter and Salazar may have to get creative.

“You have to find a solution, and sometimes that’s playing schools from out of state,” Salazar said. “But we’ll always have a 10-game schedule, even if that means playing the top-four teams in the state.”

Finalization

For Taylor, he eventually found opponents, even if maybe they weren’t the ideal ones.

He worked out a schedule that has two 6A teams in McNeil and Stony Point, one of the larger Class 5A Division I schools in the state in Leander and a school of similar size in Bastrop.

Pflugerville is dramatically smaller than both McNeil and Stony Point, but Taylor said it came down to finalizing reasonable games with reasonable travel.

And, ultimately, that’s what it’s about.

“It gets tough when you’re trying to fill four games, and the later it gets the harder it gets,” he said. “It got to a point where I looked on the scheduling board and there was nothing left but big 6A schools. I worked at Stony Point years ago, and it’s a big 6A and we’re 5A Division II, but I’d rather go with someone in the area.”

Central Texas' best non-district games

1. Vandegrift at Dripping Springs

2. Liberty Hill at Georgetown

3. Weiss at Round Rock

4. Anderson at McCallum

5. Manor at LBJ

6. Cedar Ridge at Cedar Park

7. Rouse at Liberty Hill

8. McNeil at Pflugerville

9. Vista Ridge at Bowie

10. Hays at Akins

The area's toughest non-district slates

Cedar Park: The Timberwolves don’t shy away from anyone. They play strong 6A schools Cedar Ridge, Vandegrift and Round Rock in what is the toughest non-district schedule in Central Texas.

Liberty Hill: The Panthers face Hutto, Georgetown, Rouse and San Antonio Wagner in what will be a highly entertaining first four games.

Lake Travis: Though it’s only two games, Arlington Martin and Cibolo Steele are both favored to win their respective 6A districts. These are two of the better non-district games in the state.

Rouse: Like Liberty Hill, the Raiders have four grueling contests. They take on Anderson, Glenn and the Panthers after opening against a strong Lake Belton squad.

Brutal overall schedules

Anderson: The Trojans play Lake Travis, Dripping Springs, Bowie and Westlake in district play, and have Rouse (No. 10 in our area poll) and a strong McCallum team in non-district. It’s a grind every week for Anderson.

Vista Ridge: Aside from Vandegrift, Round Rock and Cedar Ridge on the district slate, the Rangers face Bowie, Georgetown and a good Schertz Clemens team in non-district.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: A lot can go into the making of a high school football schedule