The 2024 Texas high school football season is in the books, and we're already excited about the 2025 season. It's a long wait until August, but if we know anything about football in Texas, there's plenty to talk about.

That includes the annual Dave Campbell's Texas Football Six-Year Program Rankings, which were just released. For the seventh straight year, we're taking a crack at measuring the relative strength of the 1,200+ UIL Texas high school football programs.

What are they? Here's an excerpt from the intro to the rankings:

With data help from Jerry Forrest at PigskinPrep.com, Dave Campbell's Texas Football is proud to unveil the 2025 edition of its Texas High School Football 6-Year Program Rankings, a look at the relative strength of each UIL Texas high school football program. The goal of the project is to rank the relative strength of every program in Texas over the course of the last six seasons.

Why six seasons? A six-year sample provides a steady measure of a program as opposed to an individual squad — six years represents one-and-a-half graduation cycles, mitigating the impact of a single transcendent class of athletes. In short: good programs have great teams one or two years, but great programs have great teams spread across a larger swath of time, like six years.

The rankings are based on a formula that takes into account the following five criteria:

• Games Won — The raw number of games a team won relative to the maximum number possible (96 for 11-man teams, 90 for 6-man teams); so, of the maximum number of games a team could have won, how many did it win?
• Winning Percentage — Of the games a team played, how many did it win?
• 10-Win Seasons — Of the six seasons, how many did a team win 10 games?
• State Championships — How many state titles did a team win?
• State Championship Game Appearances — How many state championship games did a team play?

The criteria are set against a 100-point scale, wherein a perfect six-year run — 96-0 (or 90-0 for a six-man team) with six state championships — would result in a score of 100, and a perfectly miserable six-year run — 0-96 (or 0-90 for a six-man team) — would result in a score of zero.

This year's set of rankings reflect the 2019 through 2024 seasons; last year's rankings reflected the 2018 through 2023 seasons. Please note: a team must have played in six varsity seasons to be eligible for these rankings. As a result, teams like Richmond Randle, San Antonio Davenport and Canyon West Plains — all of which would've ranked in the top 250 if they were eligible — will not appear in these rankings.

View the complete rankings — ALL 1,216 teams — RIGHT HERE!

After diving into the data, here are a few key takeaways from our seventh annual Six-Year Program Rankings.

A New King of Texas High School Football

For the first time since we launched the program rankings, there's a new No. 1 in the state of Texas — the Gunter Tigers ascend to the top spot in the state, dethroning longtime ruler Aledo by virtue of going 88-6 with four state titles and five title game appearances over the last six seasons. Carthage also leapfrogs Aledo at No. 2, while the Bearcats tumble (by their standards) to No. 3. There are also two new entries into the Top 10 with the arrival of No. 9 South Oak Cliff (up from No. 12) and No. 10 Shiner (up from No. 13), replacing Refugio (now No. 12) and Hawley (now No. 14).

Win A State Championship? Jump In The Rankings.

It should come as no surprise that the teams that won state titles in 2024 are on the rise in our program rankings. 6A Division I state champion North Crowley leapt a remarkable 213 spots to No. 116 (the largest leap of any state champ), and 6A Division II champ Austin Vandegrift cracked the Top 15 for the first time, up 14 spots. Smithson Valley's long-awaited 5A Division I title vaulted them 83 spots up to No. 42, while 5A DII champion RIchmond Randle...well, we'll get to the Lions in a moment. Celina took home the 4A Division I title and a spot in the Top 50 of our rankings, up 87 spots to No. 46, while Carthage's fourth 4A DII title in six seasons nudged them up to No. 2. Columbus' first title in program history gave the 3A DI champs a 33-spot boost up to No. 23, and Gunter — as discussed previously — is our new No. 1 program in Texas. Ganado brought home its first state championship and rose to No. 73 as a result, a 208-spot jump for the 2A DI champs, while Muenster made the Top 50 at No. 49 with a 42-spot leap. Gordon's second-straight 1A title has them on the edge of the Top 10 at No. 11 (up 34 spots), while Jayton's long-awaited 1A DII championship was the missing piece to jump them 36 spots up to No. 27.

Someone's Missing...

You may have noticed that there are some notable absences from the program rankings, including one reigning state champion. Remember: you have to be around for six varsity seasons before you are eligible for the Program Rankings. That means some really good programs are ineligible for the rankings — the top 10 best ineligible programs would be, in order: Richmond Randle, San Antonio Davenport, Canyon West Plains, Alvin Iowa Colony, San Antonio Pieper, Frisco Emerson, Frisco Panther Creek, Prosper Walnut Grove, Katy Jordan and Lake Belton.

Going Up...

Which teams made the biggest leap by kicking the 2018 season to the curb and replacing it with the 2024 season? The fastest risers in this year's rankings: No. 526 Palestine Westwood (up 459 spots), No. 721 Saginaw (up 444 spots), No. 421 Grand Saline (up 421 spots), No. 592 Overton (up 419 spots) and No. 198 Whiteface (up 415 spots).

....Going Down

It's not all good news for everyone. The fastest fallers in this year's rankings: No. 838 Beaumont West Brook (down 462 spots), No. 633 Mission Veterans Memorial (down 305 spots), No. 1,007 Mansfield Lake Ridge (down 305 spots), No. 676 Celeste (down 303 spots) and No. 753 San Antonio O'Connor (down 299 spots).

Other Noteworthy Tidbits

The highest-ranked team in Class 6A is No. 4 Austin Westlake (it was Galena Park North Shore last year); in Class 5A, it's No. 3 Aledo (same as last year); in Class 4A, it's No. 2 Carthage (same as last year); in Class 3A, it's No. 1 Gunter (same as last year); in Class 2A, it's No. 8 Mart (same as last year); and in Class 1A, it's No. 11 Gordon (last year, it was Richland Springs).

The highest-ranked teams with the exact same résumé: Nos. 56 Liberty Hill and Falls City — both are 64-20 in the last six seasons with four 10-win seasons and a state title game appearance.

The highest-ranked team without a state championship in the last six years: No. 18 Southlake Carroll.
The highest-ranked team without a title game appearance in the last six years: No. 38 Jonesboro.
The highest-ranked team without a 10-win season in the last six years: No. 294 Blanket.

Make sure you check out the complete Six-Year Program Rankings right now!