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It also is something to be said that if a band people predicted to be in or safely in doesn’t make it, it doesn’t mean they’re in a “down year” but that competition simply stepped up on the day! This contest is gonna be really interesting!

Not tooting my own horn here I promise, but I BEEN SAYIN!!!😂

They are definitely a contender for finals for sure! I don’t wanna make a ranked prediction before the rosters are finalized, waiting until then, but I would venture to have them solidly in finals, they’re a big band with a big and great sound, I believe they pull of this upcoming show with flying colors, and with this being a mid-season contest, I’m sure they’ll have plenty of show on the field!

Aside from a few notable big hitters, the lineup for this contest is just as deep as DFW is going to be so you would be missing out not going to either one, which is great! We have GN finalists, SR finalists, Regional and UIL Area/State finalists out the wazoo in this competition, it is plenty deep!

Pennington is a great place to watch bands, so close to the field, you can get either view, from down in field level to the higher profile views you might want, with the Austin show being so early, you definitely have to deal with the heat more than you do up here, but even now lately for the Bedford show, the competitions have been clear, sunny, hot days where you’re still baking out there. You definitely need to bring hats, sunscreen, umbrellas for these shows! I really do hope that the competitions this year can be blessed with some cloud cover(no rain though🙏) to where the fans are most comfortable and where the students can put on their best show, if it’s hot for us in the stands, the students are BAKING out there!😰

Definitely do your hometown contest, especially with it being a brand new event! I always really enjoy going to this one, being my local big event with many great bands to enjoy! I hope the event in Memphis fills out!!

I’d say Hendrickson and SLC were far from locks to make finals last year, but they still put it on their schedule and made their most of their seasons, Grand Nats finals obviously being a tremendous goal/motivator/etc. Not every band has the same goals of course, but I think if one band staff feels they’re ready to put on a fantastic performance, whether it’s “finals-worthy” or not, they should absolutely go and give their students that opportunity. If Coppell decided to go this year like Pearland now choosing to go, it’d be the same comment with them. Pearland are definitely a finals contender here if they maintain their solid string of results that they have over the past several years, same with Coppell. It’ll be interesting to see where they land!

Yeah, I would say the same considering they are at this point a consistent BOASA finalist, state finalist. I don’t see why they couldn’t also make finals this year, even with the stacked line-up. The school and the program know best of course, we all wish them luck when they do finally make the trip!

In any case, there could still be some of the 6A/5A groups, the “upper echelon” of the activity that will tough it out and go about a gauntlet of the inconvenient BOASA and State dates. The Austin and SA groups in particular will have less difficulty with this, but yeah, even some far away notable groups may take on the challenge. And yes of course, I’m all for a shake up of the make up of the groups making finals haha(love the rhyme I did there) it’s a fantastic contest to go to and will be one regardless of what might be more notable absences in the future. Band trajectories can be changed with a positive result, perhaps bands less inclined for BOA can shine and see what is needed to make this very contested finals contest, even if an unfamiliar but spectacular group are still just on the outside of it, it’ll be interesting to see for sure. Also, we may just see more out-of-state hopefuls attend with more room for the contest at large in leaner-attended years!

Area and State for all classifications are still only 10 days apart(to be more accurate it’s 9-11 days with all the contest dates, rounded to 10 haha). The window to slot in BOASA is there for the 6A groups in these odd years, but then there are conflicts still with the 3A/5A bands as they have area contests in that gap weekend in the years 2A/4A/6A will be the first of the two state contests. It’s gonna be messy many more ways than not.

I wonder if they’ll skip state as well if they make it, maybe they elect to not perform at Area, who knows really

I kinda do wish there was a bit more back-and-forth discussion about a band that was mentioned, instead of one of our commentators being much of the voice monopolizing the conversation when it came to talking about a group, not that it was intentional I’m sure, the guys are all trying not to step on each other’s toes, giving everyone their time to shine and talk with their insight, and they’re all nice individuals. I just kinda do like that nature of piggy-backing off of someone’s thoughts, adding one’s own perspective as to what someone led off with and have a more “round-table” kind of approach to discussion, not that what I’m saying wasn’t happening, I just wish there was more of it, it’s still a very interesting video to watch.

I feel the LISD medalist monopoly could definitely be broken up next year, Wakeland is a very consistent program so I don’t really see them slipping, other DFW programs could kick into another gear and all be in the conversation, we’ll just have to see!

I feel like I have to wait until late spring to really know who all is going, I don’t wanna be let down😂

Band Grand Slam or Band Slam are both cool, props to the schools that have already completed it too! Haha

You can go to pretty much any local contest here not named BOA and have a fun time listening to every band in attendance, despite the few SA finalist level bands that are sprinkled into local contests(for some contests they aren’t just sprinkled in, TMC has a top half filled with SA finalists) every band is putting out to their utmost potential, a growing number of bands that are ascending leading to an incredibly competitive atmosphere where groups simply cannot be complacent, otherwise they’ll get leapfrogged by a new school that opened up in the last 5 years, many examples of that, that we can see in the state which is crazy. The state has never been more competitive than it has been as a result of what the last 5 years have brought!

If you made finals at both and you’ve become more consistent in making it(especially when it comes to BOASA) as Pearland has become, you stand to fare pretty well at Grand Nats! You want your first trip to be as successful as possible for the students, it’s a reasonable rationale

If we have 8 or so top Texas contenders, I’d be ecstatic!!

I absolutely want this, purely for EVERYONE to be on “Legendary” difficulty setting😂

All they needed was two weeks of no competitions and more focused cleaning. Same with Prosper, congrats to all the bands that made finals, and congrats to Carmel for the win!

SLC missed finals at BOA DFW and people immediately dropped them down a few pegs as opposed to simply waiting and seeing how they could develop as the season progressed, same with Hendrickson at BOA Austin(although they didn’t miss finals there). Every Texas band that attended grand nats took the “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” philosophy to heart here this season and it paid off for all of them, I’m sure M&G weren’t too far out from finals either, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

I don’t really believe this to be the case all too much, usually if you’re able to hold your own against the giants, I believe, the judges give you credit and don’t bury you in the scores Many were predicting M&G to be a top 8 or so finalist. I would say that would be holding their own in the scores, I don’t believe they dropped to much as a result of being alongside those two groups, it could’ve boosted them as much as harmed them imo. Although my personal thoughts of M&G going into finals from what I was able to see previously were more of a “meh it’s alright” kind of feeling so it wouldn’t have been unexpected in my mind to think they could miss out

I think that’s their floor

It’s also important to remember that some groups weren’t always in the highest classification(be it 4A, 5A, or 6A currently) up until very recently. Bands like Waxahachie like you mentioned already having a long history of success at UIL, just in the 2nd highest classification. Bands like Vista, Vandy, Cedar Ridge have competed in the highest classification for not too long now and they are all either state champions or medalists now in 6A. You could insert a Rouse, Leander, Cedar Park, Wakeland and several others competing now in 5A into 6A competition and they could all contend for a finals spot at state with all the 6A groups, it’s only “a lot of turnover” simply due to the large volume of groups, and not really because bands are inconsistent or have “fallen off” as some doomers like to say sometimes😂 So many are performing at a high level, and that number hasn’t ever shrunk but has only continued to grow, which we should all see as a great thing for marching band here in the state, as well as how these schools set their students up for success in the second part of the fall and concert season in the spring, it’s very exciting!

Agreed, it’s interesting though that the cut above for the top 5 is a 9.5+/10 and then the next several bands are still at a 9.0-9.3/10 still. You can still eek out how the bands seperate themselves though regardless haha