If you follow high school sports around this area, you have probably noticed that it seems like every year, we play against Westlake or Lake Travis in a big-time playoff matchup. It usually works out that way due to how the playoff brackets are determined, where neighboring districts face off in round one. This past year, we faced off against Westlake in both basketball and football in the first round of playoffs, and both games came down to the final play of the game. Going back to the 2023 season, the football team faced off against Lake Travis in the first round of playoffs, and that game also came down to the final play. What’s unfortunate is that it is usually pretty obvious that both schools have what it takes to make a deep playoff run, but one has to go home so early, a problem that doesn’t always present itself in other parts of the state. Just look at football last year for example, when the Vipers and Westlake both played for a state championship in the AT&T Stadium. Can you imagine how different things would have been if they had played each other in the first round of playoffs like they did this year, and one of the two juggernauts had been knocked out early? 

This year, Westlake’s team featured Division l level talent, with players such as quarterback Rees Wise signing to play football for Ole Miss next fall, and they were quickly eliminated from the playoffs. When Vandegrift got knocked out by Lake Travis in 2023, they had high-level talent now playing major snaps in college, such as Deuce Adams who just transferred to Wisconsin, Blake Frazier who is a starting offensive lineman at Michigan, and perhaps the best of the bunch, Drew Mestemaker, who is now at Oklahoma State and rumored to be making a whopping $7 million over the next two years through NIL. Lake Travis has had no shortage of major talent as well, including  defensive lineman Gus Cordova, who was a key contributor when they knocked us out of the playoffs a couple of years back. They have also produced NFL starting quarterbacks such as Baker Mayfield, who won the Heisman Trophy while at Oklahoma. In basketball, all three schools have had major talent on the court as of late. The Vipers had Greg Brown a few years ago, who got drafted into the NBA, while Westlake currently has Bo Ogden, a four-star Texas commit, and Lake Travis had Hudson Greer a couple of years ago, who is now a major contributor at Creighton. If it isn’t obvious at this point, these three schools are the best in Austin at producing collegiate level talent while always having strong seasons, and the results speak for themselves. There is no reason for these schools to have to take each other out early in the playoffs when both teams usually have the capability to make a deep playoff run.

There are a couple of different solutions to solving this problem, one of which being simply changing how the playoff bracket works. Instead of first round playoff matchups having more to do with size of the school, it should be more focused on the actual quality of the team. In each district, four teams make the playoffs, so the best team from district 25-6A, Vandegrift’s district, should play the worst team from district 26-6A, which is where Westlake and Lake Travis compete, continuing down the eight playoff teams. By doing this, these big-time playoff matchups wouldn’t take place until later on in the postseason. The more likely and better solution however, is the one that might be enacted in the next couple of years, which is these schools being in the same district. The process of athletic redistricting is taking place soon, and there is a strong chance that these teams are in the same district due to school enrollment sizes and close proximity. This would be a great result, as teams in the same district will very rarely ever see each other in playoff matchups. The teams would each play each other in the regular season in football, as well as twice in basketball, still allowing the high-profile matchups to take place, but without the looming threat of an early exit.

As stated earlier, it isn’t fair for these high stakes matchups to occur early in the playoffs when all three schools usually have a high capability of going deep into the playoffs. However, there is too much talent on display at the three schools to where they should face off on the same field or court at least once a season. We should play Westlake and Lake Travis in football and basketball every year, but not in round one of the playoffs.