Tioga listed among Division III qualifiers for state 7-on-7 tournament in College Station

The Tioga Bulldogs are listed among the 2026 Division III qualifiers for the Texas State Seven-on-Seven Tournament, a competition scheduled for June 25 and 26 at the Veterans Park and Athletic Complex in College Station, according to records kept by Dave Campbell's Texas Football. The listing marks Tioga's fourth appearance in the tournament's Division III field.

Those same all-time Division III records credit the Bulldogs with state berths in 2023, 2024 and 2025, which would put the 2026 listing in a fourth consecutive year and a fourth state appearance overall. The all-time roster records a program for each year it reached the state field.

The Texas State 7on7 Organization, which runs the tournament, says on its website that it is a private group with no affiliation with the University Interscholastic League or the Texas High School Coaches Association. Teams reach the state field, the organization says, by advancing through what it calls State Qualifying Tournaments rather than a UIL- or THSCA-affiliated event. Those qualifiers fill the brackets that meet at the state event in College Station.

The organization created Division III in 2018, according to its published history, setting up the class for Class 3A Division II schools and programs smaller than that. Tioga competes in that smaller-school grouping. Tioga's first listed state appearance came five years later, in 2023, and the records show the Bulldogs on the Division III list in each season since.

Tioga is not the only area program on this year's qualifier lists. Dave Campbell's Texas Football also lists the nearby North Texas programs Van Alstyne and Pilot Point as 2026 state qualifiers, though each is entered in Division II rather than the Division III bracket in which Tioga competes. The Division II and Division III tournaments share the June 25-26 dates at the Veterans Park and Athletic Complex.

Among Division III programs from the region, Gunter has more listed appearances than Tioga. The same all-time records credit Gunter, another nearby program, with state berths in 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, which is six listed seasons in the division to Tioga's three entering this year.

For readers in Gainesville and elsewhere in Cooke County, the Bulldogs are a neighboring-county team rather than a hometown one. The City of Tioga describes itself as sitting in the southwest corner of Grayson County, which places the town outside Cooke County.

The records used for this report did not list Tioga's pool, its opponents or a game-by-game schedule beyond the two tournament dates.