UIL Announces Dates For 2017 State Football Championships

The University Interscholastic League revealed its plans for the 2017 state football championships Tuesday, which will once again be hosted by the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium in Arlington between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23.

Fans who have attended the state championships before will notice a few minor changes.

The Class 2A Division I state championship has been pushed up a day and will be conducted the same day as the six-man state championships. That move allows the UIL to avoid a quadruple-header situation on the first night of the 11-man state championships and instead allows the governing body to put on four days of triple-headers.

The 2A Division I game will be played Dec. 20, a Wednesday. It has historically been played on a Thursday in the era of consolidating state championship games to one location.

As Dave Campbell's Texas Football first pointed out, pushing the 2A Division I game up a day will force state semifinalists at the level to have their games completed by Thursday, Dec. 14. There must be five full days between a UIL team's football games because the organization believes it's the amount of time that prevents fatigue injuries.

Start times at the state championships will be a bit different to prevent potentially midnight play at the stadium. Each day will begin with an 11 a.m. kickoff instead of the traditional noon kick.

The middle game among 11-man games will be played at 3 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. The night game will begin at 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.