UIL RULES CHANGES (maybe): The Heavily Anticipated Sequel

The stars at night... are changing the rules.

Back in December, the UIL Marching Band Rules Advisory Committee met to propose rule changes that would be voted on in the Spring 2023 meeting. A few days ago, UIL held the aforementioned Spring meeting and discussed where each of the proposals would go from here, and on May 13th, UIL made the meeting notes public. These meeting documents go under the radar as they are not released with an announcement, so unless you’re really looking for it, then it can be easy to miss. However, with these meetings being so key to the future of the activity in Texas, we find it to be essential information for any self-proclaimed band nerd whether you’re from Texas or not. We went over each of the rules in an earlier article, so if you’re looking for a breakdown on exactly what the representatives were discussing, you can read that article here.

On eight of the seventeen proposals, the committee decided upon “No Action”, which means that none of those proposals will receive further consideration in this cycle of rule changes. These eight proposals were:

1. Proposal to change the clock structure to 4 minutes/9 minutes/2 minutes. 

3. Proposal for bands to be permitted to pre-stage during the three minutes prior to their field entry. 

7. Proposal to prohibit duplication of any judges from state prelims to state finals in the 5-judge system. 

8. Proposal to amend the penalty for exceeding the 8-minute clock at the region contest from lowered one rating to written reprimand. 

10. Proposal to utilize the 7-judge system at 5A/6A area contests. 

13. Proposal to advance all bands at an area contest with ordinal ties for the final advancement placement to the state contest. 

14. Proposal to allow a non-student to operate the sound board during the 8-minute clock. 

15. Proposal to move the percussion judge to the press box OR eliminate “effective use of electronics (when present)” and “coordination of all performing elements” from the adjudication criteria. 

16. Proposal for the area/state judge training to be done by a UIL official or someone with no affiliation to a competing program. 

There are quite a few proposals in this group that are quite shocking to see die, but the one we’d like to highlight most is number 8. Proposal 8 addresses a rule that most members of the community view to be over-punishing as it prevents the band from advancing to the next level of competition for a relatively minor mistake. Timing penalties in other circuits tend to be gradually accrued (i.e. 0.1 points per 3 seconds exceeding the time limit in BOA) that can be negligible in minor instances, but punishing in extreme scenarios. This contrasts UIL’s incredibly black and white enforcement of the rule as the punishment for going one second over eight minutes is the same as a five minutes over.

The next recommendation type is “Implemented”, which means that the proposals will advance to the approval process. Historically, proposals that reach this point almost always get approved, so while they are not officially in the rulebook yet, it’s fairly safe to assume that they will be. The following three proposals were implemented (with timeframe of implementation and other notes):

4. Proposal for Competition Suite to be used at region contests. (Fall 2023)

9. Proposal to allow amplification of ensembles of any size using open microphones. (Fall 2024 at the earliest)

12. Proposal to eliminate or expand the 10-hour limit on visual fundamentals prior to August 1. (Summer 2024 implementation at the earliest, increase limit to 15 hours)

Proposal 9 being implemented might be the biggest surprise of this entire meeting, especially off the heels of the divisive guidelines on amplification and electronics released by Music for All. Historically, the community perception has been that BOA was the circuit more known for its liberal implementation and restriction of electronics compared to UIL, so to see that dynamic switch entirely within the timespan of a single week left many uncertain with the direction the activity is headed. 

The next group of recommendations are listed as “Study”, which means that the committee decided that before coming to a decision on implementation or not, they would need to do more surveys and analyze the results. These four proposals are as follows (with notes and timeframe):

5. Proposal to hold top half/bottom half pre-draw for area finals (surveying area participant bands at the end of the 2023 season).

6. Proposal to draw for and schedule state prelims based on area results (surveying state participant bands at the end of the 2023 season).

11. Proposal to reconfigure the 5-judge system resulting in a woodwind, brass, percussion, visual ensemble, and visual individual Judge (surveying area participant bands at the end of the 2023 season).

17. Proposal to modify the point structure on the brass, woodwind, and percussion judge sheets in the 7-judge system (surveying state participant 7-judge system bands (4A/5A/6A) at the end of the 2023 season).

One of the biggest criticisms of UIL’s system is the judging, especially for the traditional 5-judge panel system used for Area contests at all levels as well as 1A-3A State. With a lack of specialized judges and very generalized sheets, the ordinals output can be incomprehensible and inconsistent regardless of the star power of the judging panel in question. Proposal 11 addresses this and would essentially create a “diet” version of the newer 7-judge panel system utilized at 4A-6A State. Theoretically, this change if it were to go through would create more consistency and easier to comprehend results. 

The final two proposals will be “Monitored”, meaning that there will be no action taken at the moment, but they will be kept in the back of their minds, so to speak. Those two proposals are:

2. Proposal for front ensembles to be permitted to pre-stage during the prior band’s setup. 

15. Proposal to move the percussion judge to the press box OR eliminate “effective use of electronics (when present)” and “coordination of all performing elements” from the adjudication criteria. 

Proposal 15 was another one of our hot button highlights from our previous article, especially given such a strong “OR” statement between options that most of your percussionist friends would have an extremely strong preference towards. Many percussionists argue that their craft can only be adequately judged from a short distance to the point where many of them were upset by Drum Corps International’s decision to restrict judges from advancing past the front sideline. Knowing this, moving a percussion judge to the box is an act drummers would find as nothing less than heretical. On the other side of the “OR” is an equally valid concern, as with how the sheets are currently structured, use of electronics is judged by the percussion judge, and electronics are virtually impossible to be effectively evaluated from the field due to the staging of the speakers and balance of sound that goes into sound design. 

The last part of the meeting before announcements and closing was “New Business”, in which two things were discussed. The first of these topics is actually a proposal from a previous rule change cycle which is currently being monitored: “creating a Division 1 and Division 2 state contest process”. This old proposal would separate bands into two divisions within each class, similar to what UIL does for many of their other sports and activities including football. The other topic discussed was creating caption awards like we see at most other marching band circuits including BOA. No specific details were given in the meeting notes as to which captions and at what contests these awards would be given out to. 

That covers everything you need to know about the May 10th UIL Marching Band Rules Advisory Committee Spring 2023 Meeting. For any more updates regarding rule changes and other happenings for UIL or other circuits, we will have you covered.

Aaron Blackley is one of the original contributors for General Effect Media. He has a vast knowledge and passion for the marching arts and has worked alongside the likes of HornRank as a ranker and moderator as well as the TxBands.com liveblog team since summer 2021. Aaron currently works front of house at Interstellar BBQ. He can be found on Twitter as @GEMAaronB.