By the Numbers: A Closer Look at State Championship Week

There may not be a region in Texas more proud of its local high school football teams than East Texas.

When one or more teams reaches the state championship game from this side of the Lone Star State, you'll always find droves of fans making the long trip to support East Texas' own -- even if they're not from the competing school.

As we go into Friday's Class 3A Division I state championship game between Carthage and Kilgore at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, we thought it would be appropriate to take a closer look at these two teams' history in the state championship round, but also examine how East Texas teams fare in the big game, as well.

By The Numbers: The State Championship

1

The number of times since 2000 no team from East Texas (the ETSN.fm coverage area) has returned home with a state championship, and it happened last year. Gilmer, Daingerfield and Tenaha all were on the losing end of their 2012 state championship games.

1

The number of years East Texas will go winless since, thanks to the Carthage-Kilgore matchup this week.

2

Times before this year we've had an all-East Texas state championship game since 2000. Henderson beat favored Chapel Hill, 28-21, in the 2010 Class 3A Division I state championship game, the first title game held at then-Cowboys Stadium. The last all-East Texas matchup was Gilmer's thrilling 49-47 win over comeback-minded Jasper in the 2004 3A Division II title game.

3

The number of state titles won in a row by both Carthage and Daingerfield from 2008 to 2010, giving East Texas two legitimate dynasties in high school football.

3

Counting this week where only one East Texas team will win a title, the number of times since 2000 only one East Texas team has won a state championship. At least two ETSN.fm-area teams have won titles nine of the past 14 years.

4

State titles won by ETSN.fm-area schools in 2009. Cayuga, Daingerfield, Carthage and Gilmer all returned home with trophies, giving East Texas its most dominant presence since 2004.

4

Combined number of state championships won by East Texas 4A and 5A teams since 2000. Each classification has two wins: Tyler Lee (2004) and Lufkin (2001) in 5A and Texas High (2002) and Sulphur Springs (2008) in 4A.

5

Consecutive state championships won by Austin Lake Travis from 2007 to 2011, including consecutive wins over Longview -- 48-23 in 2008 and 24-17 in the 2009 4A Division I title games.

6

Times Southlake Carroll has played in the Class 5A state championship game since 2000. The Dragons are 5-1 over that time, their only loss at the hands of Katy, 16-15, in 2003.

7

The number of East Texas teams that played in state championship games in 2004. Three came home with rings: Tyler Lee, Gilmer and Kilgore, while Troup, Newton, Jasper and Marshall lost in the final game.

7

The combined number of state championship appearances shared between Carthage and Kilgore. Carthage has reached the title game five times in school history and Kilgore has two. Carthage is 3-1 going into Friday's game, while Kilgore won in its only championship game, 33-27, over Dallas Lincoln in overtime on a returned block field goal for the game-winning touchdown.

8

The Texas record for the most state championships by a school, held by both Celina and Southlake Carroll. Abilene, Katy, Plano and Brownwood each have won seven.

27

The total number of state championships won by ETSN.fm-area teams since 2000, which was the last year before 2012 that East Texas has gone winless the last week of the season.

42.7

Miles that separate Carthage and Kilgore, just a short drive longer than the 25.6 that separate Chapel Hill and Henderson, going back to their championship matchup.

.614

Winning percentage of East Texas teams playing for the state championship since 2000. ETSN.fm-area schools are 27-17 over the last 13 years going into Friday's Carthage-Kilgore game, which means we can already count the record as 28-18.

49,953

Thirty-six years later, this is still the record for the most fans to ever attend a Texas high school state championship game for Port Neches-Groves and Plano at Texas Stadium in 1977. The closest since was indeed close -- 48,379 people saw Allen and Houston Lamar at Cowboys Stadium in 2012 in the 5A Division I title game. For comparison, the attendance at this year's Class 8A state championship in Florida (the state's highest classification) was 9,979.

The 50,000 mark could be in jeopardy this week for the 5A Division I championship game between Allen and Pearland at 4 p.m. Saturday at AT&T Stadium. Allen is a monster school a short drive from Arlington and Pearland travels well, having been involved in two games with at least 40,000 fans in 2010 alone.