BandNerd07

And another thing, I know Westwood beat Bowie at SA, but Bowie's placement at GN was higher than Westwood at SA. So basically if a band decided to extend their season, they have a chance to beat a band they didn't at the previous contest.

Okay, sorry I forgot to elaborate on this earlier. The correct placement during GNats were finals, or semi-finals for the bands that didn't make finals. This rule also applies for BOA SA. For the BOA contests it's really easy because since they use the same exact judging method, I just gathered results from both and ranked them from highest to lowest. For UIL State, it's more challenging because their ranking system is entirely different from BOA. In this case, i just automatically put bands that only attended UIL above a band that attended either BOA contest. I know it's not a perfect system, but this is just how I did it. Going into this, I knew there would be some disagrees but at the end of the day, I just went with what I went with.

So I have been noticing that Dave Campbell's Texas Football updates their weekly rankings for the top 25 football teams in 6A, so I've decided to do one for marching band. I took results from BOA Grand Nationals, BOA San Antonio, and UIL State into consideration when making this. I also have next to each band what their final contest was this season, and I do plan to do this as the season goes on next year. So anyways, here's the final top 25 from this year: Vandegrift (BOA San Antonio) Marcus (BOA San Antonio) Hebron (BOA Grand Nationals) Vista Ridge (BOA San Antonio) The Woodlands (BOA Grand Nationals) Ronald Reagan (BOA San Antonio) Flower Mound (UIL State) Pearland (BOA Grand Nationals) L.D. Bell (BOA San Antonio) Bridgeland (BOA San Antonio) Coppell (UIL State) Cy-Fair (UIL State) Waxahachie (UIL State) Round Rock (BOA Grand Nationals) Keller (BOA Grand Nationals) James Bowie (BOA Grand Nationals) Prosper (UIL State) Westlake (BOA San Antonio) Cedar Ridge (BOA San Antonio) Claudia Taylor Johnson (BOA Grand Nationals) Dripping Springs (BOA Grand Nationals) Seven Lakes (UIL State) Dickinson (UIL State) North Shore (UIL State) Timber Creek (BOA San Antonio) So there you have it. Congratulations to all of these bands for finishing in the top 25. Hope to see how this list could change in 2024 with a few newbies to 6A!

Real quick, I just wanted to say great job to everyone who performed in finals last night. While I am a little disappointed in the three TX bands that barely missed finals, I am happy for everyone for their accomplishments this season. 2023 was really just that year for marching band IMO. I wanna see Carolina Crown and McAdams HS in GNats next year.

Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out because I know South Garland is opted up to 6A in football but is still 5A for band.

Yeah, I do like your idea. Actually, the 2A-4A Area contests are like that. You have Area A (West TX), Area B (North TX), Area C (East TX), Area D (Central TX), and Area E (South TX). I think there's a real possibility that the UIL will go with this model for 5A/6A but we'll just have to wait and see. Anyways, focusing on the DFW area, if they decide to not go with this and continue to do the 9 Area system, this is how it could work: Regions 5/30 become Area A East and the existing Area A becomes Area A West. There would be 17 bands at most so 7 bands would advance to finals and 3 advance to state. Regions 2, 24, and 25 become Area B. There would be 21 bands at most so 10 bands would advance to finals and 4 advance to state. Regions 3, 20, 21, and 31 become Area C. There would be 29 bands at most so 10 bands would advance to finals and 5 advance to state. So in result, you would have 12 bands in the DFW area advance to state. This is pretty much the same number of bands that currently advance, but we would more likely actually see 12 bands this way, with more areas. What do y'all think of this?

https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2023/10/25/2023-uil-snapshot-day-enrollment-figures?ref=article_preview_img The list of schools and their enrollment numbers can be found here. Although nothing is confirmed yet (until the UIL releases the conference cutoffs likely in early December), we do have a basic understanding on which schools will rise to 6A or drop to 5A.

So I know we sent 7 bands to state year, but I'm afraid that might be a one time thing, mainly because a lot of bands here are being dropped down to 5A like Paschal, Chisholm Trail, DeSoto, and Highland Park, with not really a lot of replacements. I know we have Lancaster and Bryan Adams, but I doubt that they would qualify. Me might possibly also get Aledo and Granbury but it honestly just depends on the conference cutoffs (likely will be released in the first week of December). I don't know what the future holds for Area B but we might be back to only sending 5-6 bands to state. It just seems like the only way to certify 7 bands is to rezone another region to Area B.

Alright, so Dave Campbell's Texas Football posted the enrollment numbers some schools turned into the UIL for snapshot day. And it looks like Forney, Northwest and Princeton are pretty much guaranteed to move up to 6A and it looks like McKinney North is on the fence, it just depends on what the UIL decides to make the conference cutoffs. How do yall think they will do? Also it looks like GISD is opting South Garland up to 6A again, as well as Lakeview and Naaman. What will happen to LC and NF? I believe SG participates in the 5A area contest despite being a 6A school, but maybe that's because it was just opted up. So will LC and NF also compete for 5A at the area contests as well?

But overall, one thing I have gotten out of tonight, is that BISD is really becoming a dominating school district for marching band, with all 3 qualify for state (when or has that ever happened before?) I'm really wishing Birdville and Richland well at the 5A SMBC and Haltom at the 6A SMBC!

All I can say is WOW! My predictions for this comp and the official results are completely off. If finals surprised you, just wait until you see the prelims results. I kinda feel bad for Timberview as I thought they had a pretty good season as I was counting on them making finals as I don't think they ever had at an area contest. All I can say is where the heck did Arlington Heights come from! From 3rd to last (last year) to 3rd out of finals is a HUGE jump and I can tell that they've made a lot of progress since Birdville getting 2nd to last. Don't understand the Brewer or Granbury placement AT ALL I can tell ya that. Burleson absolutely did not deserve 20th at all unless they had an extremely bad run or something. This area has surprised me in more ways than anyone can think...

Yep, Judge 3 was the reason my band didn't reach our goal last week at the 6A Area B contest, so I can say I have experienced this myself.

Absolute cap. The results are all over the place. I really cannot wait until the contest is over to see the full recap...

Wow, Centennial getting 5th is crazy... If I had to guess Colleyville, Richland, and Azle probably also beat them in prelims. Brewer must've had a really bad run if all they got was 16th. I can definitely understand Aledo getting 1st.

When you say based on prelims placement, I'm assuming you have the full prelims scores?

Congrats to all of our finalists! I'm really surprised that Cleburne made finals here considering they got 13th at Birdville and didn't make finals there. I was really rooting for Burleson and Timberview, but unfortunately didn't make it. I guess Summit packed it in these past few weeks and snuck into finals (I wasn't expecting them to), and I'm shocked that Brewer didn't make it. But other than that, congrats to everyone that made it and here's my finals predictions: 1. Burleson Centennial 2. Aledo 3. Richland 4. Colleyville Heritage 5. Azle 6. Midlothian 7. Birdville 8. Summit 9. Grapevine 10. Cleburne

I 100% agree with you on this. If bands like Mansfield, South Grand Prairie, and North Crowley were in 5A Area F, they would probably have a real chance of making finals because I know all 3 of these bands are better that finalists such as Grapevine, Saginaw, and Summit. Again, it just comes down to the size of the bands. And it's not just 6A either, there are some 5A bands with a size of a 6A band, such as Aledo, Richland, and Azle. This "issue" applies to every are IMO.

I know area B and C are probably also affected as they're all in North Texas.

Continuing the argument, I do agree with what BandMom is saying. I feel like lower end bands definitely have an unfair disadvantage due to size. I think if the bands were grouped based on program size rather than school size I think it would look something like this: 6A - basically all area finalists plus Lake Ridge, Richardson, Boswell, Martin, Weatherford, and Cedar Hill 5A - Trinity, Legacy, HP, SGP, North Crowley, FR, Nimitz, Crowley, Arlington, CT, Irving, and Paschal 4A - Desoto and MacArthur 3A - Bowie 2A - GP

Yeah, I wonder why they didn't post the raw scores on the UIL website this year...

Yeah I know right! Out of all days, it just had to be area Saturday...

Was it just me or did this whole page crash for several hours yesterday? Anyways here is my commentary for yesterday. I'm extremely happy for Haltom and Berkner making state. Berkner I definitely had in finals, but wasn't so sure they could snag a state spot. As for Haltom, I wasn't so sure that they would even get past area prelims but to see that the qualified for state is beyond me. I was definitely shocked that Keller Central didn't make it. They are a really good band that I was really hoping to see make state. As for SLC, as much as I really like their show, I guess their show was more of a BOA show than UIL, which is why I was disappointed but understandable at the same time. Dville had an alright show, but for me, it wasn't really as memorable as last year's show. I was also excited for Pearce sneaking into finals here as well. Wow, 3 Richardson ISD bands in area finals. It really seems like RISD is trying to become a really good district for marching band, like LISD and KISD. With Richardson High just barely out, I think they will get it next year as they improved a lot this year. Lake Ridge not making finals was a shocker. I knew from the very beginning that their show wasn't as strong as it was in past years, but was definitely not expecting them to miss finals. What the heck happened to Fossil Ridge!?!?!?! They were having a pretty good season, but found out that they went from 13th last year to 23rd. James Martin placed lower than I was expecting them to. I knew they were having an issue adapting to a director change but I didn't know that would be enough to drop them to 21st. So yeah, there's my takeaways from area b this year!

Good to see both Haltom and Pearce in finals. I was shocked that Lake Ridge didn't make finals. I knew state was pretty much out of the question for LR but I wasn't expecting them to miss finals. Not surprised to not see Martin in finals. Does anyone by any chance have the prelims scores?

Mansfield's show was alright, really love the capes in their show, but I feel like Mansfield is another one of those programs that have fallen off post-Covid. Like in 2018 (the last area before covid) they got 10th and made finals. In 2021, they got 14th and in 2022, they got 19th. Hope they get their glory back sometime in the future.

Yeah, Summit is definitely not the same Summit from 2021 IMO. After the Birdville Marching Festival, I'd even say bands like Timberview and Joshua might catch up to them by area. Right now I don't even have them in finals.