North Crowley’s Kiante Ingram (23) keeps the ball away from Aledo’s Cole Cox (16) and Cooper Hull (25) during the first half of a high school football game at Crowley ISD Stadium in Fort Worth, Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.
Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News
Many Dallas-area football teams play tough non-district schedules with hopes of breeding success in district play and beyond. Here are some of the teams that might be the most battle-tested when the games start to really count.
Allen
The five-time state champion and 2025 6A Division I state semifinalist opened the 2026 season against the team that eliminated it from last year’s playoffs: Duncanville.
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Allen beat Duncanville, which was previously ranked 10th in the nation, 26-7 in Week 1. With Duncanville taken care of, the historic program has more challenges ahead before District 6-6A play begins in Week 4. Allen plays DeSoto, the 6A Division II state champion in 2025, on Friday. The program closes non-district play with a clash against Southlake Carroll, ranked sixth among the state’s 6A teams.
Last season, Allen went 8–0 in district play and advanced to the fifth round of the playoffs after playing Midland Lee and Cedar Hill during its nondistrict slate. The program hasn’t won a state title since 2017. Allen has upped the difficulty of its schedule in 2026, which could help the program get over that hump.
DeSoto
The state’s top-ranked 5A Division I team played arguably the toughest opponent anyone in Texas will meet all season when it clashed with Florida’s St. Thomas Aquinas in Week 1.
Last year’s 6A Division II state champion fell 38-14 to the powerhouse prep school that has won 17 state titles and produced more than 30 NFL draft picks since 2001. After last week’s win, St. Thomas Aquinas became MaxPreps’ top-ranked team in the nation.
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DeSoto returns to Texas for Week 2, but it doesn’t get any easier. On Friday, the four-time state champion will meet Allen, which ranks fifth among the state’s 6A teams and beat DeSoto’s rival, Duncanville, 26-7 in Week 1. Then in Week 3, DeSoto plays state-ranked Duncanville.
The Week 3 matchup will have less stakes than those in the recent past, as DeSoto and Duncanville no longer compete in the same district. DeSoto moved down to Class 5A Division I after the UIL’s latest biennial realignment, leaving District 11-6A. Now, the program competes in District 8-5AI, which includes Cedar Hill and Lancaster.
The Region II bracket of the 5A Division I playoffs might be the most competitive in the state with DeSoto, six-time state champion Highland Park and 2025 5A Division I state runner-up Frisco Lone Star being among the teams expected to appear.
North Crowley
While North Crowley’s Week 1 shutout of 6A newcomer Aledo wasn’t exactly competitive, the program still had the guts to schedule a 12-time state champion.
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And the gauntlet continues under new coach DeMarcus Harris, with North Crowley playing eight-time state champion Southlake Carroll in Week 2 and state-ranked Humble Summer Creek in Week 3.
That schedule should help North Crowley prepare for its first year in District 11-6A, the “District of Doom.” While four-time state champion DeSoto left the district after realignment, three-time state champion Duncanville and state No. 1 Waxahachie remain.
“I feel like a pressure cooker makes the best food,” Harris said after beating Aledo. “I want to put our kids in a pressure cooker, get our guys ready to make a playoff run.”
Southlake Carroll
The eight-time state champion survived a Week 1 scare in a 34-33 win over Jenks, an 18-time Oklahoma state champion.
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Carroll visits state No. 4 North Crowley in Week 2 and five-time state champion Allen the following week. The 2025 6A Division II state semifinalist has handily won District 4-6A, which includes mostly Keller ISD and Northwest ISD schools, most of the last several years.
This early slate of games could preview what Carroll will see in the playoffs.
South Oak Cliff
SOC, which competes in a district with mostly other Dallas ISD programs, has famously played some of the hardest non-district schedules in Texas.
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Last season, when SOC won the 5A Division II state title, the three-time state champion met Galena Park North Shore, Duncanville and Longview in non-district play. North Shore and Duncanville ended up playing for the 6A Division I state championship, which the former won. Longview, the historic East Texas program that plays in 6A, has been a perennial state power.
In Week 1 of the 2026 season, SOC fell 21-14 to Richmond Randle in a rematch of last year’s 5A Division II state title game. Next up for SOC is a battle against defending 6A Division I state champion North Shore in Week 3. SOC beat North Shore 41-31 to open the 2025 season.