AUSTIN — The biennial UIL reclassification and realignment for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years will be released Thursday, Feb. 2 at 9 a.m. CST. The new alignments, established by enrollment figures submitted to the UIL by its member schools in October, will serve as football and basketball districts for the next two school years.

In an effort to increase transparency, the UIL has posted the 2012 reclassification and realignment procedure memo for schools and the 2012-14 selections for reclassification and realignment on the UIL website at www.uiltexas.org/alignments.

RReclassification and realignment districts and information will be released through an electronic press release at 9 a.m. Thursday to media on the UIL press release recipient list. The information will also be available online via the UIL website at www.uiltexas.org, and at the 20 Regional Education Service Centers across the state. Additionally, complete reclassification and realignment packets will be available at the UIL office in Austin.

Gilmer Athletic Director and Head Coach Jeff Traylor will be in Kilgore Thursday at the Region 7 Education Service Center, along with many of his fellow coaches. He told The Mirror that no one outside of the UIL ever really knows in advance what the new districts will be and that he would not try to predict where the Buckeyes, currently in District 16-3A, will end up for the next two years.

Of course, with a high school enrollment of 629, it is certain that Gilmer will remain in Class 3A. The numbers for that classification will probably not change much from the 430-989 range of high school enrollment in effect now.

The other six schools in Upshur County are almost certain to remain in their same classifications as well.

According to more than one forecast, though, it is very likely that Class 2A Tatum will be moving back up to Class 3A and also possible that Class 4A Kilgore will be moving down to Class 3A. Both schools more likely than not would be in Gilmer’s district, but no one will know that for sure until tomorrow.

For the first time ever, interactive electronic maps containing conference and district alignments will be available on the UIL website. The interactive maps, which provide a visual representation of how districts are aligned geographically across the state, will be posted on Thursday, Feb. 2.

The reclassification and realignment will also be revealed on Fox Sports Southwest at 9 a.m. Thursday on a special episode of the High School Spotlight hosted by Craig Way. The show will be dedicated solely to reclassification and realignment issues, both debuting the new district alignments and discussing the realignment process with UIL Executive Director Dr. Charles Breithaupt, UIL Director of Athletics Dr. Mark Cousins, and UIL Deputy Director Dr. Jamey Harrison.

Breithaupt will introduce the new districts and provide an overview of the realignment process, while Harrison and Cousins will discuss how the UIL staff determined the new assignments.

The 60-minute show will be available on foxsportssouthwest.com and foxsportshouston.com shortly after the television broadcast.