The UIL biennial realignment was revealed Thursday morning and the Brownwood Lions football program received a surprise.

While the Lions did remain in Region I of Class 4A Division I, as anticipated, Brownwood was placed in an entirely new district. For the 2024 and 2025 football campaigns, the Lions will reside in District 4-4A Division I along with Burnet, Lampasas, Marble Falls and rival Stephenville.

“The UIL usually throw a wrench into what everyone expects,” said Lions seventh-year head coach Sammy Burnett. “We lost both of our scrimmages and picked up two district games. I thought it turned it out good for us. It should be a good district, good travel for us. Now we’re just trying to secure the rest of the schedule.”

Many prognosticators expected the Lions to remain with the fellow holdovers from District 2-4A Division I – Andrews, Big Spring and San Angelo Lake View – with a fifth team added to replace Lubbock Estacado, which dropped to 4A Division II.

Instead, Andrews, Big Spring and San Angelo Lake View stuck together and were joined by Pecos in the four-team District 3 – the only four-team 4A Division I district in the state. That district will be paired with Brownwood’s in the first-round of the playoffs.

The rest of Region I features Clint, Clint Mountain View, El Paso Austin, El Paso Bowie, El Paso Irvin, El Paso Riverside, El Paso Ysleta, Fabens and San Elizario in the nine-team District 1 and Canyon, Canyon Randall, Canyon West Plains, Dumas, Hereford and Pampa in the six-team District 2.

Since moving to Region I two years ago, the Lions have tallied 22 victories and played in seven postseason games.

The Lions faced three of the four teams in their new district this past season, defeating Burnet 24-10 and Marble Falls 63-7, while falling to Stephenville 27-17. Brownwood last faced Lampasas in the 2021 season opener, a 58-55 win at Gordon Wood Stadium on a last-second field goal.

Brownwood is coming off a 12-2 campaign and a trip to the Class 4A Division I Region I final, while Stephenville was 11-3 a year ago, Lampasas posted a 9-3 record, Burnet finished at 8-4, and Marble Falls struggled to a 1-9 mark.

“Stephenville is Stephenville and I think Burnet and Lampasas are also going to be good football teams,” Burnett said. “I think it’s a tougher district than we were in for sure.”

With Brownwood and Stephenville in the same district, the Lions needed to find a Week 6 pre-district opponent as that was part of the tentative non-district scheduling. At 3 p.m. Thursday, Burnett announced that Class 4A Division II Ingleside, a member of District 15, had filled that vacancy and the game will be played in San Antonio

Abilene Wylie, Wall, Glen Rose, and Waco La Vega will remain as the first four opponents of the season, while Burnett stated that Graham has been replaced by China Spring as the fifth game of the year.

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2024 BROWNWOOD LIONS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Week 1 – Abilene Wylie at Brownwood

Week 2 – Brownwood at Wall

Week 3 – Glen Rose at Brownwood

Week 4 – La Vega at Brownwood

Week 5 – Brownwood at China Spring

Week 6 – Brownwood vs. Ingleside (at San Antonio – location TBD)

Week 7 – Brownwood at Lampasas *

Week 8 – BYE

Week 9 – Burnet at Brownwood *

Week 10 – Brownwood at Stephenville *

Week 11 – Marble Falls at Brownwood *

* District 4-4A Division I Game