Football and basketball teams at the Pasadena ISD's five high schools have been assigned to a newly classified District 22-6A along with four other schools: Pearland, Alvin, Manvel and Pearland Dawson.
The construction of a nine-school District 22 came as a surprise. Pearland, Alvin and Manvel join the five Pasadena ISD schools as holdovers from the currently District 22-5A configuration.
Joining that group of eight will be Dawson, which moves from the 4A ranks all the way up to 6A.
Pearland, Manvel and Dawson have all gone deep into the state football playoffs in recent years. Pearland reached the Class 5A Division 1 championship game last year.
The new district alignments were announced by the University Interscholastic League Monday morning.
District 22-6A will one of the largest districts in the 6A division. Only six other districts have as many as nine teams. Two districts have 10 teams each.
The new alignment will be in effect for the 2014-15 and 1015-2016 school years.
UIL competitions other than football and basketball will use the new school alignments but will retain a Class 5A designation.