By GvilleTX Newsroom
KXII has published a Muenster Hornets football preview as UIL records show the Cooke County program moving into Conference 2A Division I for 2026-28, a change that places the two-time defending 2A Division II state champion in a district with some larger enrollment peers. The season starts close to home, with Muenster ISD listing the varsity opener at Lindsay for 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.
The UIL move changes the field around a program coming off consecutive 2A Division II titles. UIL football archives list Muenster as the 2025-26 champion after a 28-0 win over Shiner and the 2024-25 champion after a 36-29 win over Shiner. The same archive lists another Muenster 2A Division II championship in 2017-18, when the Hornets beat Tenaha 27-20.
The divisional placement came down to a small enrollment margin. UIL's 2026-28 rank order lists Muenster ISD at 180 students in Conference 2A, while the new football cutoffs put Division I just below that mark. In the last realignment cycle, UIL's posted 2A Division II range reached higher, meaning a school listed at 180 would have fallen on the Division II side under the old thresholds.
The 2026-28 alignment places Muenster in 2A Division I District 6 with Alvord, Chico, Nocona, Olney and Tioga, according to UIL's official district list. The rank order shows Nocona, Alvord and Tioga with larger 2A enrollments than Muenster, while Chico is listed one student above the Hornets. Nearby Lindsay, Muenster's opening opponent, is in 2A Division II District 9 rather than Muenster's new Division I district, according to UIL's Division II alignment.
For local fans, the immediate change is the list of district opponents and the upper-half enrollment bracket Muenster now occupies within 2A football. UIL's cutoff document lists 205 2A football schools statewide for the new cycle, divided almost evenly between Division I and Division II.
KXII's preview put regional attention on the Hornets at the start of that change. The station's article, credited to KXII Staff and titled "Muenster Hornets Preview," was a first-party sports preview of Muenster as the program enters the season with the division move already on the books.
After the Lindsay opener, Muenster ISD's calendar lists Holliday at Muenster on Sept. 4 and a road game at Windthorst on Sept. 11. Nationally, the National Federation of State High School Associations reported that high school sports participation reached a record in 2024-25 and that 11-player football remained the largest boys high school sport, with more than 1 million participants.
_Editor's note: Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law._
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