UIL Spirit State Championship 2027: UIL Spirit Rules, UIL Cheer Rules, Fees and Deadlines.
Texas high school cheer has its own state championship, and this season it moved earlier and got longer. Registration closes October 23, two weeks sooner than last year, the event now runs four days in Fort Worth, and a new rule puts the physical in front of every practice and tryout. Here is what a Texas coach has to do, pay and plan for, by date.
Written for Texas head cheer coaches and athletic coordinators. Every date and fee comes from UIL's 2026-27 spirit documents. The 2027 rules and score sheets are not posted yet, so the format and scoring below come from the 2026 editions and are labeled that way.
UIL spirit state in seven lines
- January 13 to 16, 2027, Fort Worth Convention Center
- Registration closes October 23, payment due November 6
- Team Form due December 18 or the team cannot compete
- Entry $275 (1A) to $625 (6A and Coed)
- 12 to 30 athletes by conference, mascots not counted
- Band Chant, Crowd Leading, Fight Song
- Physical on file before any practice or tryout
Keep your roster, physicals, practice plans and every deadline on one season calendar your whole staff can see.
The short answer
The 2027 UIL Spirit State Championships run January 13 to 16, 2027 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. Any Texas high school spirit squad enters by registering with Varsity between September 9 and October 23, 2026 and paying $275 to $625 by November 6. Teams compete by conference, 1A to 6A with Division I and II splits by enrollment, plus a Coed division for squads with three or more male cheerleaders, in three Game Day categories: Band Chant, Crowd Leading and Fight Song. Safety follows the NFHS spirit rules, and every coach, assistants included, must finish CPR and AED, a cheer safety course, concussion education and the UIL portal training before the first practice.
UIL spirit state 2027 dates and deadlines
UIL's own coach memo warns that the timelines changed from past years, and they did: every deadline moved forward. A coach working from last season's calendar will miss registration and the Team Form by about two weeks each.
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| Date | What happens | Last season |
|---|---|---|
| Before the first practice or day of school | Every coach finishes CPR and AED, a cheer safety course, concussion education and the UIL portal training. Physicals on file for every athlete. | Physical before practice is new for 2026-27 |
| September 9, 2026 | Registration opens in the new MyVarsity portal. Hotel booking through Team Travel Source opens the same day (optional). | Varsity used a different system |
| October 23, 2026 | Registration closes. Division I and II splits are set after this, by enrollment. | November 7 |
| November 6, 2026 | Payment due to Varsity Spirit. After this date the fee is kept if the team cancels. | November 21 |
| December 4, 2026 | First performance order posted on the UIL site; Team Form link goes to coaches. Only paid teams appear. | Not stated in the 2026 packet |
| December 18, 2026 | Team Form due. A team without one cannot compete, and late forms miss the printed program. | January 2 |
| January 13 to 16, 2027 | State Championships, Fort Worth Convention Center, streamed on the NFHS Network. | January 15 to 17, three days |
Register with an estimated headcount; exact names come later through the roster, and every person on the registration receives a digital waiver to complete. Register in your own conference unless you are Coed, which does not register by conference, and have your school's 2026-28 realignment enrollment number ready, because that is what places you in Division I or II.
UIL spirit divisions, team size and entry fees
One team per school, one division per team. A squad with two or fewer male cheerleaders competes in its conference; three or more makes it Coed. Only male cheerleaders count for that test, not male flag runners or mascots. The last column is our arithmetic: the fee divided by a full roster.
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| Division | Entry fee | Max athletes | Alternates | Fee per athlete at max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A (single division) | $275 | 12 | 2 | $22.92 |
| 2A DI and DII | $350 | 16 | 2 | $21.88 |
| 3A DI and DII | $425 | 20 | 4 | $21.25 |
| 4A DI and DII | $500 | 24 | 4 | $20.83 |
| 5A DI and DII | $575 | 30 | 6 | $19.17 |
| 6A DI and DII | $625 | 30 | 6 | $20.83 |
| Coed (3 or more male cheerleaders) | $625 | 30 | 6 | $20.83 |
Who counts toward the maximum
Every spirit leading participant on the floor: cheerleaders, dancers and flag runners. Up to two registered mascots do not count, though UIL notes they may affect scoring.
What the fee covered in 2026
Competing athletes and alternates up to the division maximum, plus up to four school personnel. No extra coach passes; administrators go on the Team Form for an admin pass.
What over the limit costs
Too many athletes on the floor, or a team in the wrong conference or division, is a disqualification. Extra athletes can come as spectators on a spectator wristband.
What are the three UIL spirit categories?
UIL state is a Game Day competition, not an all star style routine. Teams perform Band Chant, Crowd Leading and Fight Song, and UIL's 2026-27 memo tells coaches that routines should not look overly choreographed or use unnatural, aggressive crowd leading. Tumbling and advanced stunts are not heavily weighted. If your squad also competes Game Day at other events, the Game Day cheer format will be familiar. The details below are from the 2026 Rules and Regulations (revised October 7, 2025), because UIL lists the 2027 edition as to be announced.
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| Element | Time | Rules that shape it (2026 edition) |
|---|---|---|
| Band Chant (qualifying) | 1:00 | Marching band music or drum cadence. No stunts or tumbling; jumps and kicks allowed. Timing starts at the first beat or organized movement. |
| Crowd Leading (qualifying) | 1:00 | Starts on a buzzer within 10 seconds of Band Chant ending. Stunts and standing tumbling allowed within the event limits. |
| Fight Song (qualifying) | 1:00 | The school fight song to recorded band music. Up to three consecutive eight counts of stunts, tumbling or jumps, which may be repeated once exactly as first performed. |
| State Championship Round | 3:00 total | One continuous routine: Band Chant, then Crowd Leading opening with a response to a football offense or defense situation called by the announcer, then Fight Song. No substitutions. |
Tumbling
No running tumbling. Standing tumbling one skill at a time, and a back tuck is the most advanced skill allowed.
Stunts and tosses
No basket, sponge or elevator tosses; coed and quick tosses were allowed in Crowd Leading. No inversions, no twisting release dismounts, and single leg extended stunts limited to liberties and liberty hitches.
Props
Signs, poms, flags, rally towels and megaphones only. No electric props, no presetting, no flags on poles for top persons. Banging a prop on the floor off the mat is a 3 point procedural deduction under the 2026-27 memo.
Music licensing
Streaming audio from YouTube or a music subscription does not qualify. Bring printed proof of licensing to check-in, or count the routine verbally or use an approved counts track. No proof and no fallback is a disqualification.
Floor, uniform, band
About 54 by 42 feet, nine strips. Traditional game day uniform under NFHS rules. No live band or drum line. A coach stays at the music table and presses play.
Spotters and subs
The event supplies spotters on the performance floor; schools may add spotters in warm-up only. Substitutions are allowed between qualifying elements, never in the finals.
Music licensing trips up more Texas teams than any skill rule, because a fight song ripped from a stream feels like school property and is not. The cheerleading music page covers licensed cheer music, who sells it and what it costs.
How is UIL spirit scored?
Several panel judges score each element, a head judge scores and leads, a safety judge tracks safety, time and boundary calls, and a quality judge oversees the panel. All decisions are final and there is no protest process. Point values below are from the 2026 score sheets; the totals are our arithmetic, not a figure UIL prints.
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| Sheet | Points per judge | What is scored |
|---|---|---|
| Qualifying: Band Chant | 50 | Game day material 5, crowd effectiveness 10, crowd leading tools 10, motion technique 10, visual appeal 10, synchronization 5 |
| Qualifying: Crowd Leading | 90 | Game day material, crowd effectiveness, crowd leading tools, crowd appeal, motion technique, proper use of skills, execution of skills, synchronization, overall impression, 10 each |
| Qualifying: Fight Song | 70 | Game day material, crowd effectiveness, crowd leading tools, motion technique, proper use of skills, execution of skills 10 each; visual appeal 5, synchronization 5 |
| Finals: Band Chant and Fight Song | 50 | Band Chant 20 (visual appeal, crowd effectiveness, tools, motion technique, 5 each); Fight Song 30 (six items, 5 each, including execution of incorporated skills) |
| Finals: Crowd Leading | 50 | Game day situation 5, game day material 10, crowd effectiveness and appeal 10, motion technique 10, proper use of skills 5, execution of skills 5, tools 5 |
Crowd Leading decides more than it looks
Crowd Leading is 90 of the 210 qualifying points per judge, 43 percent of the round, on a one minute element. It is also the second tiebreaker: qualifying scores do not carry into the finals, but a tie in the finals goes first to the qualifying total and then to the qualifying Crowd Leading score. If practice time is short, this is where it pays.
Deductions (2026 edition)
- NFHS safety violation: 5 points each
- Procedural violation, such as a fourth eight count in Fight Song or a stunt in Band Chant: 3 points each
- Qualifying overtime (1:00 plus 3 seconds): 3, 5 or 7 points by 5 second band
- Finals overtime (3:00 plus 5 seconds): 3, 5 or 7 points by 5 second band
- Excessive celebration or organized entrance or exit: 1 point
- Both feet out of bounds: 0.5 point
Only head coaches who are school employees receive score sheets, about 45 minutes after a qualifying performance and after awards for the finals. Awards go to the top three in each division, with a Best of Category plaque for the top qualifying score in each of the three elements. For how other score sheets weight the same skills, see our cheerleading score sheet breakdown.
Who can compete at UIL spirit state
Spirit sits under Subchapter E of the UIL Constitution and Contest Rules. A cheerleader must be a full-time student at the school and meet the Section 400 eligibility rules, so No Pass No Play applies. Three rules that trip up coaches coming from football do not apply to cheer: the parent residency rule, the previous athletic participation form and the athletic transfer rule.
High school only
Grades 9 to 12. Junior high and 8th grade athletes cannot compete at State, even if they cheer with the high school squad.
Local tryouts
UIL sets no tryout rules. The district decides, and an academically ineligible student may try out for next year at district discretion.
Local roster choice
Which varsity or sub-varsity members go to State is a school decision, as long as they represent the school on the sidelines.
Practice limits
Eight hours outside the school day during the school week plus the athletic period; no limit on weekends, holidays or summer.
Since tryouts are entirely local, the scoring model is yours to defend. Our cheer tryout packet guide shows the weights real school programs publish, and running cheerleading tryouts covers the week itself.
What training does a UIL cheer coach need?
UIL's 2026-27 memo is explicit that these apply to every junior high and high school cheer coach, assistants included, and must be done before the first day of practice or school, whichever comes first. UIL does not require coaches to be full-time school employees; the district decides.
CPR and AED
Current CPR and AED certification under the Texas Education Code requirements UIL cites.
Cheer specific safety course
Not run by UIL. Any provider works; UIL names NFHS, Varsity Spirit and USA Cheer as examples, and coaches education at a Varsity camp counts. Proof goes to the district.
Concussion education
Two hours every two years, available in the UIL portal.
UIL portal training, every year
Safety Training for Extracurricular Activities plus the Spirit module, under Section 1503. The school keeps completion on file.
Physical before practice (new)
Effective August 1, 2026: medical history and preparticipation physical on file before any cheer practice or tryout. Physical in the first and third years of high school, history form every year.
Parent forms
Concussion acknowledgement and sudden cardiac arrest awareness forms signed and on file before practices or contests.
The physical rule is the one that changes spring tryouts. Before this season a Texas school could hold a tryout clinic and chase physicals afterward; now a candidate without the form on file cannot step onto the tryout floor. The cheerleading coach certification page compares the safety courses Texas coaches can use, and the NFHS cheerleading rules page lists this season's NFHS changes, which UIL adopts, including the single twist in extended to extended releases and the new two catcher rule.
Six places the UIL spirit documents disagree
We read the 2026-27 manual, the coach memo, the registration memos, the Constitution, the rule changes and the UIL-TEA Side-by-Side together. Most of it agrees. Where it does not, here is what each says and what we would plan around. When it matters, email UIL's spirit office before you commit.
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| Topic | One document says | Another says | Plan around |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contests per school week | 2026-27 manual and the Side-by-Side heading: two | Side-by-Side narrative and the 2026 overview: one | Two is the current manual. Confirm with your district before booking a second weeknight game. |
| Physical requirement start | Game Day FAQ page: starting spring 2026 | Rule change: effective August 1, 2026 | Treat it as in force now. It is, either way. |
| Rule changes page | Online manual page: still shows 2025-26 NFHS changes | PDF manual: the 2026-27 NFHS changes | The PDF manual. |
| Registration opening time | Pre-registration memo: 10:00 am | Registration memo: 9:00 am | Moot now that it is open; register well before October 23. |
| Is cheer under UIL rules? | Side-by-Side: cheer and drill do not come under UIL rules | Constitution Subchapter E: spirit is a UIL activity with eligibility rules | The Constitution, which UIL says prevails over the manual. |
| 3A team maximum | 2026 overview table: 30 | Rules, fee page and registration memo: 20 | 20. |
One more gap worth knowing: the PDF manual lists "is a home school student" among the eligibility bullets with no explanation, and no spirit document spells out whether a homeschooled student may compete at State. If that applies to an athlete of yours, get the answer from UIL in writing. Georgia coaches face a similar tangle; our GHSA cheer rules page maps the six places Georgia's documents disagree.
How a Texas program keeps all of this straight
Nothing here is hard on its own. What catches programs is that it runs on six clocks at once and lands on different people: physicals on the athletic trainer, training on every assistant, the Team Form on the head coach, payment on the bookkeeper, eligibility checks every grading period. Four records cover nearly all of it.
1. A roster with the paperwork attached
Physical, medical history, concussion and cardiac forms marked per athlete, so nobody walks into a tryout or practice without them. The August 1 rule makes this a gate, not a file.
2. A season calendar with the UIL dates in it
October 23, November 6, December 4, December 18 and January 13, next to the football and basketball schedule the squad already cheers, visible to every coach.
3. Staff requirements with expiry dates
CPR and AED, the safety course, concussion education every two years and the annual portal modules each run on their own clock. One list per coach, assistants included.
4. Practice plans built for the score sheet
With Crowd Leading worth 43 percent of qualifying and no running tumbling allowed, practice time belongs on crowd leading tools, motion technique and a clean Fight Song. Timed plans keep eight hour weeks honest.
That is the work Cheerleaders does for a school program. The roster keeps each athlete's forms and contacts on one record, the practice planner turns an eight hour week into timed blocks, and digital tryout score sheets with skill tracking give you a spring tryout record your athletic coordinator can pull. A single varsity squad runs on the Team plan at $29 a month; a program with varsity, JV and freshman squads uses the Program plan at $79 a month for up to five teams and three coach seats. See pricing or the cheerleading app for school teams.
When is the UIL Spirit State Championship 2027?
The 2027 UIL Spirit State Championships run January 13 to 16, 2027 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. It is the first year of a four day format; the 2026 event ran three days. 1A competes on January 13, 2A and 3A on January 13 and 14, 4A on January 14, 5A and 6A on January 15 and 16, and Coed on January 16.
How do you qualify for UIL spirit state?
There is no qualifying event. Registering through the Varsity MyVarsity portal between September 9 and October 23, 2026 and paying by November 6 is what enters a team. UIL states that the Varsity acceptance form is irrelevant to State. At the event, the highest cumulative Qualifying Round scores in each division advance to the State Championship Round.
How much does it cost to enter UIL spirit state?
The team entry fee is $275 for 1A, $350 for 2A, $425 for 3A, $500 for 4A, $575 for 5A, and $625 for 6A and Coed. Last season the fee covered competing athletes, alternates up to the division maximum and up to four school personnel. After the November 6, 2026 payment deadline, UIL keeps the fee if a team cancels.
How many cheerleaders can be on a UIL spirit team?
The maximum is 12 for 1A, 16 for 2A, 20 for 3A, 24 for 4A, and 30 for 5A, 6A and Coed. Alternates are capped at 2, 4 or 6 by conference. Dancers and flag runners count toward the maximum. Up to two registered mascots do not count. Going over the maximum is a disqualification, not a deduction.
What are the three UIL spirit categories?
UIL spirit teams compete in Band Chant, Crowd Leading and Fight Song. In the 2026 Qualifying Round each was a one minute element, performed in one trip to the floor and scored separately. The finals combined all three into one three minute routine that starts the Crowd Leading portion with a football offense or defense situation called by the announcer.
How is UIL spirit scored?
On the 2026 score sheets each judge scored Band Chant out of 50, Crowd Leading out of 90 and Fight Song out of 70 in the Qualifying Round, and the finals out of 100 across two sheets. Deductions were 5 points per safety violation, 3 per procedural violation and 3, 5 or 7 for going over time. UIL has not yet posted the 2027 score sheets.
Can you tumble at UIL spirit state?
Only standing tumbling, one skill at a time, with a back tuck as the most advanced skill allowed under the 2026 rules. Running tumbling, inversions, basket tosses and twisting release dismounts from stunts were not allowed. In the Fight Song, stunts, tumbling and jumps were limited to three consecutive eight counts, and Band Chant allowed no stunts or tumbling at all.
Does UIL follow NFHS cheer rules?
Yes. The UIL Constitution requires spirit performances to follow the safety standards in the NFHS spirit rules book, and the 2026-27 coach memo says cheer teams should follow NFHS rules. The State Championship then adds its own limits on top, such as no running tumbling, no inversions and no basket tosses in the Game Day format.
What training does a UIL cheer coach need?
Every Texas junior high and high school cheer coach, assistants included, must finish CPR and AED certification, a cheer specific safety course from a provider such as NFHS, Varsity or USA Cheer, two hours of concussion education every two years, and the UIL portal safety training with the spirit module, all before the first practice or first day of school.
Do cheerleaders need a physical in Texas?
Yes. A UIL rule change effective August 1, 2026 requires every cheer and spirit participant to have the medical history and preparticipation physical form on file before any cheer practice or tryout. The physical is due on entering the first and third years of high school, and the medical history form every year, signed by the student and a parent.
Keep building the season
NFHS cheerleading rules 2026-27
The national safety rules UIL adopts, with this season's rule changes.
GHSA cheer rules
How Georgia runs its high school competition and Game Day seasons.
Game Day cheer
The sideline format UIL state is built on: band chant, crowd leading, fight song.
Cheerleading stunts by level
Stunt names and progressions, useful when the event caps what you can build.
Cheer practice schedule
Days and hours a week by program type, including football season squads.
Cheer coach binder vs app
What a paper binder costs next to a cheer team app, and where paper breaks.
Game day, every day
Run a Texas season from one roster
Physicals and forms per athlete, every UIL deadline on the season calendar, timed practice plans and digital tryout score sheets for spring.
Takes 30 seconds. No credit card needed.