FIRST in Texas Partners with UIL (University Interscholastic League)

[jessjank.]

The University Interscholastic League (UIL) has selected FIRST as one of two robotics partners to pilot a robotics program during the 2015-2016 school year. This is exciting news for students across Texas.

We now have the opportunity to bring FIRST robotics to millions of students across the state of Texas and celebrate robotics the same way we celebrate sports, music and other competitive extra-curricular activities.

You can watch a video of the announcement from FIRST in Texas Chair Ray Almgren.

A few important things to note:

• UIL has elected to pilot FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition, along with BEST Robotics.
• FIRST & BEST will operate independently of each other.
• The UIL pilot does not in ANY way change or impact the regular FIRST season. All Texas teams will be able to participate in FIRST programs and competitions the same way they have in the past.
• The robotics pilot for FIRST will include one state championship event on July 28th-30th, 2016 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX. It will occur in conjunction with the Texas Robot Roundup; Criteria for participation in the UIL championship component of the event will be announced in the spring of 2016.

For more information and a detailed FAQ, please visit the UIL Robotics website.

Look for an opportunity to learn more in your area this spring:

• 3/9-3/12: FIRST Alamo Regional: Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center, San Antonio
• 3/23-3/26: FIRST Dallas Regional: Irving Convention Center
• 3/31-4/3: FIRST Hub City Regional: United Markets Arena, Lubbock
• 4/6-4/9: FIRST Lone Star Regional: George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston

For more information from FIRST in Texas, you can visit the FIRST in Texas UIL page or contact FIRST in Texas.

[Jon Stratis]

This is awesome news, Jess! Welcome to the club! I know MN's partnership with the Minnesota State High School League (equivalent to the UIL, I think) has done a lot for our program over the past 4 years, and I look forward to seeing how this helps you guys grow!

[AllenGregoryIV]

This great news still sad we won't be able to play with the other teams since half our students are from a non-UIL school.

Jess is this going to interfer with Roundup?

Edit:
Oh, I think I see what they are doing. This is sort of weird. So it's going to be part of Roundup as like a side award?

Texas Robot Roundup is an open entry event for FRC and FTC teams with a defined number of entry slots available. Criteria for participation in the UIL championship component of the event will be announced in the spring of 2016.

[Andrew Schuetze]

Announcement indicates that it in no way changes a thing about how FIRST or BEST operate in Texas. It mostly adds the UIL designation to the "sport for the mind" and another compelling reason for schools in Texas to do robotics.

Also note that the FIRST partnership will include both FTC and FRC!

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV

This great news still sad we won't be able to play with the other teams since half our students are from a non-UIL school.

Jess is this going to interfer with Roundup?

Edit:
Oh, I think I see what they are doing. This is sort of weird. So it's going to be part of Roundup as like a side award?

Hi Allen,

I updated my post to reflect the information you cited. All the details are still being ironed out, but non-UIL teams will be able to participate at TRR as they always have. UIL will recognize UIL eligible teams in some yet to be determined way. Stay tuned for more details this spring!

[first3234]

Is this kinda a prelude to districts for Texas because it seems like it the reason I bring it up is because there was talk about Texas moving to districts sometime in the future

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by first3234

Is this kinda a prelude to districts for Texas because it seems like it the reason I bring it up is because there was talk about Texas moving to districts sometime in the future

The partnership with UIL is separate from the district model. However, we are still working on implementing the district model in Texas in the near future.

[ebarker]

There are two things I quite don't understand.

1) What does UIL bring to table ?

edit: After watching Ray's video the answer seems to be a) it partly solves a funding issues for schools

2) Why doesn't UIL acknowledge the existing system instead of creating a parallel system ???

edit: and b) it creates a state championship because Texas isn't a District yet.

am I missing any other key points ?

[jessjank.]

Originally Posted by ebarker

There are two things I quite don't understand.

1) What does UIL bring to table ?

edit: After watching Ray's video the answer seems to be a) it partly solves a funding issues for schools

2) Why doesn't UIL acknowledge the existing system instead of creating a parallel system ???

edit: and b) it creates a state championship because Texas isn't a District yet.

am I missing any other key points ?

Hi Ed,

1) The UIL is a huge thing in Texas. It "legitimizes" extra-curricular school activities. It's not just a funding thing. School administrators are more inclined to provide a variety of types of support for existing teams and to start new teams because it is now a UIL activity.

2) It is not creating a separate system. It is joining on with one that already exists. No changes are made to FIRST as it exists; the UIL simply recognizes it as an official activity and joins in to provide further recognition of eligible schools. (As I noted above: The UIL pilot does not in ANY way change or impact the regular FIRST season. All Texas teams will be able to participate in FIRST programs and competitions the same way they have in the past.) You can compare what's happening with Texas with what already occurred in Minnesota, Arizona, and Connecticut; I welcome folks from those areas to chime in with how it has impacted their state, schools, teams, etc.

Also, consider reading more about the UIL here: http://www.uiltexas.org/about

[Red2486]

Originally Posted by jessjank.

Hi Ed,

1) The UIL is a huge thing in Texas. It "legitimizes" extra-curricular school activities. It's not just a funding thing. School administrators are more inclined to provide a variety of types of support for existing teams and to start new teams because it is now a UIL activity.

2) It is not creating a separate system. It is joining on with one that already exists. No changes are made to FIRST as it exists; the UIL simply recognizes it as an official activity and joins in to provide further recognition of eligible schools. (As I noted above: The UIL pilot does not in ANY way change or impact the regular FIRST season. All Texas teams will be able to participate in FIRST programs and competitions the same way they have in the past.) You can compare what's happening with Texas with what already occurred in Minnesota, Arizona, and Connecticut; I welcome folks from those areas to chime in with how it has impacted their state, schools, teams, etc.

Also, consider reading more about the UIL here: http://www.uiltexas.org/about

I attended our AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) State Championship last year and it was great. You can view the guide to the event from last year here: http://aiaonline.org/files/14680/aia...de-2014-15.pdf .

We did not have to pay entry fee, the event was at a great venue, and the top 30 teams in the state were invited to compete. I believe the scoring system is similar to districts, and it is included in the guide above. It was a lot more low key than official regionals (visitors weren't technically aloud in the pit and spirit from teams was pretty lacking), but still a great opportunity to include a new community in FIRST.

On whether non UIL students will be able to compete: I'm not saying that Texas will turn out just like Arizona, but the team I mentor is a public charter school that previously had no affiliation with the AIA, and we had no issues whatsoever, so hopefully this will not be a problem for you.

edit: sorry, I didn't realize they had already posted the information barring non UIL teams

[Abhishek R]

From the FAQs on the UIL page, it says "Participation in the UIL Robotics State Championships is open to teams composed of students from UIL member schools."

How does this affect teams with students both in a UIL member school but also has students from outside the school (i.e homeschool and the like)? Will they be able to participate with the team in future UIL robotics activities?

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by jessjank.

Hi Ed,

1) The UIL is a huge thing in Texas. It "legitimizes" extra-curricular school activities. It's not just a funding thing. School administrators are more inclined to provide a variety of types of support for existing teams and to start new teams because it is now a UIL activity.

2) It is not creating a separate system. It is joining on with one that already exists. No changes are made to FIRST as it exists; the UIL simply recognizes it as an official activity and joins in to provide further recognition of eligible schools. (As I noted above: The UIL pilot does not in ANY way change or impact the regular FIRST season. All Texas teams will be able to participate in FIRST programs and competitions the same way they have in the past.) You can compare what's happening with Texas with what already occurred in Minnesota, Arizona, and Connecticut; I welcome folks from those areas to chime in with how it has impacted their state, schools, teams, etc.

Also, consider reading more about the UIL here: http://www.uiltexas.org/about

10-4 on item(1)

My concern about (2) is the the 'state championship'. Right now Texas is multiple regionals without a state champ. Under UIL you will have a state champ, but not inside the sanctioned FIRST system. Going to a Texas district can resolve this if the systems are converged. Without the convergence,when Texas goes district then you have two champs, one FIRST sanctioned, one not, which would be confusing as say two (dare I say it) two world championships. eh ? Hopefully when Texas goes district it would have only one state champion and it would be sanctioned by FIRST.

A reason I'm pressing on this is because of this chart.
http://kellrobotics.org/files/model/...ry_for_web.pdf

We use this chart to describe a lot of points about Informal Learning. Using FIRST as an example, then FIRST is a sanctioning body similar to the NCAA, and the districts are similar to the NCAA divisions.


Another question that someone will ask is "how does this differ from at CTSO in conveying legitimacy?". I know some supers look to the CTSO endorsements.

[AllenGregoryIV]

The issue is that UIL is still a separate organization and not affiliated with all Texas High Schools (private and charter schools are rarely UIL schools).

After looking at this throughout the day I'm actually very pleased with the route UIL has chosen to go. To sum up my view of it, they have chosen to not actually "do" anything. They won't be hosting any of their own events or excluding any of the non-UIL teams from participating in events (a large fare for a lot of teams). They also won't be forcing joint teams to split up, most UIL activities has to be sponsored by a single school where we have a lot of FRC teams that are from a combination of schools. Giving their approval to Robotics is a good step forward and will allow the competitions to be legitimized in the eyes of some people who don't really understand our sport yet.

I'm not worried if UIL continues to crown a champion even after we move to districts. They can use the district point system and which ever UIL qualifying team earns the most points during the season can be the "UIL Robotics FRC Division Champion", that is perfectly fine with me. (This would mean we could have 3 Texas FRC State Champions, that win the District Championship, and a 4th separate UIL State Champion.)

If they start excluding teams form events I'll have a problem with it but as it stands I'm pretty happy. Just hoping they realize that they shouldn't pick just two robotics competitions and open it up to all of them VEX, BotBall, MATE, etc. Different events/competitions are better suited for different schools/teachers/students and as long as we are inspiring STEM I don't see the need for anyone to choose sides.

[Jon Stratis]

Texas is following pretty much the same path as Minnesota and Arizona - a separate "offseason" state championship with invites based on rankings. Connecticut is a little different - being smaller, everyone gets in. The ranking system Minnesota and Arizona use is a slightly modified district ranking system - modified to account for most teams attending just one event, and to help encourage more participation in the Chairman's award (which, by the way, has done great things for us!). I'm the one who ran the official numbers for both MN and Arizona last year, and have already talked with Texas at champs last year about bringing them in as well. It's a nice automated system I created, fully tested and verified, which is a whole lot better than the manual calculations we did a few years ago.

As for the potential for two championships down the road... I would trust that the planning committee and UIL are thinking about it in the back of their minds - I know we are in MN. No idea yet exactly how things will shake out, but I do know that the State trophies here are a big thing for teams - in many cases bigger than regional or champs awards. The state trophies are exactly the same as the ones other sports get, which helps teams to increase recognition and understanding within their school. After all, it's just one more sport at that point, not some goofy robotics thing that has awards you don't recognize or know what they mean. I know, it's a little odd thinking about it that way, but you have to shift your view to that of an outsider passing the trophy case in the hall that knows nothing of FIRST. To them, our trophies don't mean much.

[electroken]

Connecticut isn't quite there yet. Sure, we've had a State Championship event for 3 years now, and I've even heard them declare FIRST Robotics to be a sport at those events. However, it's my understanding that the sports governing bodies within the state have not done so (unless very recently).

Within our school system we are considered a club, more like the marching band than a sports team.