SAN ANTONIO—The playoffs in basketball, football, volleyball, softball and baseball will look drastically different next season as the UIL begins crowning two state champions instead of one.

The switch to a Division I and Division II postseason format for each classification will particularly impact the state semifinals. The UIL said Sunday that there will no longer be a traditional state tournament, with the semifinals and championship games played at the same venue, at least for the upcoming school year.

Instead, sites for semifinal games will be negotiated among schools as in previous rounds of the playoffs, with most remaining at a neutral location. The single-site championship format will now be used only for state championship games.

“We’ll look at how this year goes, gather feedback and then chart a roadmap for the future,” UIL athletic director Ray Zepeda said.

This change will make the state semifinals in baseball and softball a best-of-three series instead of a best-of-one series.

“I think when we talked about this with our baseball and softball coaches, it was very popular,” Zepeda said.

It would also be difficult to expand the state championship game in those two sports to a best-of-3 series.

“Just do the math. There’s going to be 11 champions in each of those sports,” UIL assistant superintendent Jamey Harrison said. “If you do that three-game series, that’s a schedule of 33 baseball games or 33 softball games. It’s out there, where you can’t control the weather and you can’t control the end of the game — whether it’s seven innings or 47 innings. It’s a challenge.”

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